# Chicherin — The Bolshevik Myth character guide

> Chicherin in The Bolshevik Myth by Alexander Berkman.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** VI Chicherin

**First appearance:** 0007-vi-chicherin-and-karakhan

## Snapshot

The sleepless People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, wrapped in a shawl, personally carrying every dispatch to the radio room at three in the morning.

## Who they are

He turns night into day in a cold office, shawl slipping onto his papers, snapping at a clerk over a confused draft and then snatching it away to retype himself. He asks the narrator how soon revolution might come to America, and calls him pessimistic for doubting it. His feverish, threadbare devotion to recognition and lifting the blockade embodies the besieged state's strange blend of exhaustion and zeal.

## Relationships

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_professional_

Chicherin interacts frequently with the narrator as a Soviet diplomat, engaging in formal political exchanges.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_professional_

Chicherin interacts frequently with the narrator as a Soviet diplomat, engaging in formal political exchanges.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_professional_

Chicherin interacts frequently with the narrator as a Soviet diplomat, engaging in formal political exchanges.

## In the story

### [VI: Chicherin and Karakhan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters/vi-chicherin-and-karakhan)

People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, works late into the night, optimistic about revolution in England and America, personally handles documents, dismisses narrator's pessimism.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters/i)

Sent a message to Berkman informing him of the arrival of American deportees.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters/ii)

Chicherin is referenced as the recipient of urgent telegrams and the source of instructions regarding the disposition of war prisoners and American deportees.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters/iv)

Chicherin orders the narrator to wait at the border for American emigrants, but the narrator decides to ignore his directives.

### [XVII: The First of May](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters/xvii-the-first-of-may)

Chicherin is mentioned as having finally admitted an American correspondent into Russia.

### [XXIX: Kiev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/chapters/xxix-kiev)

Mentioned for protesting alleged Polish vandalism of Kiev's cathedrals, which the narrator finds baseless.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/chicherin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters