Yashka · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Yashka by Maria Bochkareva.
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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.