Character guide

Yasha Buk

major

Also known as Yasha, Buk, Yakov Buk, Yakov

In Siberian exile, Yasha drifts between card tables and sudden homecomings, by turns tender and terrifying. His jealousy of the political exiles who visit Maria curdles into violence, and his broken promises—sworn on his knees, broken within hours—define the marriage's exhausting rhythm. His volatility forces Maria to rely on her own savings and strength, setting the emotional stakes for everything she later becomes.

Maria Bochkareva

major

Also known as Maria Leontievna, Maria Leontievna Bochkareva, Yashka, Bochkareva, plain Yashka, Yashka Bochkareva, Madame Bochkareva, Commander Bochkareva

Maria narrates her own transformation from a battered wife in Amga to a decorated soldier who refuses to form a committee and stands alone against Kerensky's objections. Her stubbornness and physical courage make her both celebrated and suspect as revolution splits the army. Her survival of Yasha's noose and her later battles anchor the book's argument that will, not circumstance, defines her.

General Kornilov

supporting

Also known as Kornilov

Kornilov appears at a Petrograd luncheon as a man of few words and obvious resolve, his Mongol cheekbones and grey moustache marking him as a soldier of the old school. He endorses Maria's fight against the committees and invites her to his headquarters, aligning himself with the discipline she embodies. His conviction that Russia's survival depends on order places him at the center of the political storms that will engulf her.

Alexander Kerensky

supporting

Also known as Kerensky, Madame Kerensky

Kerensky meets Maria at a luncheon where he teases her refusal to form a committee, smiling even as he concedes her resolve. He plans a trip to the front and promises a solemn presentation of standards and icons to her women's battalion. His blend of charm and political calculation makes him both ally and obstacle as the revolution's demands collide with military discipline.

Ivan Ivanovitch Petrukhin

supporting

Also known as Ivan, Petrukhin

Petrukhin remains with Maria after she is nearly lynched, then leaves to join a deputation seeking her transfer to Moscow for trial rather than mob justice. He posts five trusted friends at her compartment and locks the door, promising no harm will come in his absence. His practical courage and matter-of-fact faith—he says he now believes in God after witnessing her rescue—ground the narrative's most desperate hours.

Afanasy Bochkarev

supporting

Also known as Bochkarev, Afanasy

Afanasy returns from the Russo-Turkish War with medals and literacy, courting Olga with the first shoes she has ever owned. But poverty and drink soon make him morose and violent, beating his wife and darkening the home Maria grows up in. His descent from decorated soldier to domestic tyrant shapes Maria's earliest understanding of what discipline without mercy looks like.

Mikhail Rodzianko

supporting

Also known as Rodzianko, President Rodzianko, Michael Rodzianko

President of the State Duma, the parliamentary voice of a crumbling empire, whose authority is tested as soldiers, streets, and soviets begin to outrun the old order.

Lieutenant Vasili

supporting

Also known as Vasili

An officer in Yasha's regiment whose fate at the front becomes one of the many silences the war leaves behind, haunting the narrator's resolve.

Nastasia Leontievna Fuchsman

supporting

Also known as Nastasia Leontievna, old Nastasia Leontievna

Maria Bochkareva's mother, a fisherman's daughter raised on begged bread and wolf-haunted roads, whose endurance of poverty and a brutal husband shapes her daughter's fierce will.

Stepan Vasiliev

supporting

Also known as Stepan

A soldier and comrade of Yasha who drifts toward Bolshevik convictions, embodying the political currents that will split the men Maria fights beside.

General Polovtzev

supporting

Also known as Polovtzev

Commander of the Petrograd Military District, a general whose decisions weigh the fate of the capital as revolution gathers in the streets.

Marusia

supporting

A young woman whose brief romance with Vasili ends in betrayal and whose father's whip drives her toward marriage, the army, and a life she never chose.

General Brusilov

minor

Also known as Brusilov

A high-ranking Russian general during World War I.

Daria Maximovna Vasilieva

minor

Also known as Daria Maximovna, Vasilieva

A wealthy woman who supports the Women's Battalion.

Vladimir Lenin

supporting

Also known as Lenin, Nikolai Lenin

Lenin enters Yashka's world as the revolution's most radical voice, insisting that soldiers like her are pawns of a government that must be overthrown, not merely reformed. His single-minded certainty — and his willingness to sacrifice everything for the cause — clashes with Yashka's own fierce, improvised patriotism and her hope that a free Russia can be won without tearing the country apart. He matters because he forces the book's central question: whether a peasant-turned-soldier fights for a nation or for a class.

Governor Kraft

minor

Also known as The Governor

Governor of a Siberian province, a figure from Yasha's exile.

General Verkhovsky

minor

Also known as Verkhovsky

Russian Minister of War under the Provisional Government.

Leon Trotsky

minor

Also known as Trotsky

A leading Bolshevik, encountered during the revolution.

Anna Petrovna

minor

A woman who helps Yasha during his escape from exile.

General Valuyev

minor

A Russian general encountered during the war.

Captain Dementiev

minor

An officer in the Russian army.

General Walter

minor

Also known as Walter

A Russian general of German descent.

Avdotia Ivanovna Kitova

minor

Also known as Kitova, old Kitova

An old woman who helps Yasha during his escape.

General Anosov

minor

A Russian general.

Shura

minor

A young woman in the Women's Battalion of Death.

Comrade Orlov

minor

Also known as Orlov

A Bolshevik encountered during the revolution.

General Alexeiev

minor

Also known as Alexeiev

A high-ranking Russian general.

General X

minor

An unnamed general encountered by Yasha.

Olga Frolkova

minor

Also known as Olga, little Olga, the humble Olga

A young woman in the Women's Battalion of Death.

Nadia

minor

A young woman in the Women's Battalion of Death.

Lieutenant Bobrov

minor

An officer in Yasha's regiment.

Lieutenant Filippov

minor

Also known as Even Lieutenant Filippov

An officer in the Women's Battalion of Death.

Prince Alexander Gutemurov

minor

Also known as Prince Gutemurov

A prince and officer in the Russian army.

Colonel Stubendorf

minor

Also known as Stubendorf, a Colonel named Stubendorf

A colonel of German descent in the Russian army.

Colonel Belonogov

minor

Also known as Belonogov

A colonel in the Russian army.

Emmeline Pankhurst

minor

Also known as Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, Mrs. Pankhurst

British suffragette who visits the Women's Battalion.

Leonti Semenovitch Frolkov

minor

Also known as Leonti Frolkov

Maria Bochkareva's first husband.

Peter

minor

A soldier and friend of Yasha.

Vera Michailovna

minor

A woman who helps Yasha during his escape.

Commander Grishaninov

minor

Also known as Grishaninov, Colonel Grishaninov

A commander in the Russian army.

Princess Tatuyeva

minor

Also known as Tatuyeva, Princess Tatuieva

A princess who supports the Women's Battalion.

Colonel Ivanov

minor

Also known as Lieutenant-Colonel Ivanov, Ivanov

A colonel in the Russian army.

General Vasilkovsky

minor

Also known as Vasilkovsky

A Russian general.

Elizar Nazarev

minor

Also known as Elizar

A peasant who helps Yasha during his escape.

Klipatskaya

minor

A woman in the Women's Battalion of Death.

Alexandra Leontievna Smirnova

minor

Also known as Alexandra Smirnova, Smirnova

Maria Bochkareva's sister.

Sablin

minor

A naval officer encountered during the revolution.

Leonid Grigorievitch Filippov

minor

Also known as Filippov

An officer in the Women's Battalion of Death.

Dmitri

minor

A soldier and friend of Yasha.