Dzhanet Fitch - Chimes of a Lost Cathedral

Marina Dmitrievna Makarova: Poet. Born 1900, daughter of a prominent Petrograd intelligentsia family. Breaks with family October 1917, joins a circle of radical poets. Marries poet Genya Kuriakin 1918. Her various aliases include Marusya, the deaf-mute, and Misha, boy hooligan and railway apprentice. Pregnant by estranged lover Kolya Shurov, she has just fled the cult of Ionia, February 1919.

Dmitry Ivanovich Makarov: Marinas father. Jurist and Kadet member of the Provisional Government. Presently in Siberia, joining forces with anti-Bolshevik groups. Named Marina a Bolshevik spy rather than risk endangering his movement.

Vera Borisovna Makarova: Marinas mother. Artistic society matron, a spiritualist seeker. Aristocrat. Currently the mystical figurehead of a cult based at her estate at Maryino.

Sergei (Seryozha) Dmitrievich Makarov: Marinas beloved, artistic younger brother. Died in the defense of the Moscow Kremlin, October 1917, as a military cadet, a post secured by his father against Marinas protests.

Vladimir (Volodya) Dmitrievich Makarov: Marinas older brother. An officer of the tsars army, now fighting with the Volunteers (Whites) under Denikin in the Don.

Avdokia Fomanovna Malykh: Elderly nanny to the Makarov children, and to Vera Borisovna before them.

Ginevra Haddon-Finch: Marinas governess. Returned to England after the October Revolution.

Basya: The Makarovs housemaid. Clever and vengeful. Becomes chairman of the apartment house committee (domkom) on Furshtatskaya Street, a position of power, from which she persecutes her former mistress.

Nikolai (Kolya) Stepanovich Shurov: Marinas first and great love. Former officer, Volodyas best friend. Speculator and adventurer. Their relationship ruptured following his infidelity with a peasant woman, Faina. Unaware Marina is pregnant.

Varvara Vladimirovna Razrushenskaya: Marinas brilliant school friend, a radical Marxist and committed Communist, later a Cheka officer. Ruined Marinas relationship with her family by revealing her to have spied on her father for the Bolsheviks. Briefly Marinas possessive lover. Marina abandons her to run away with Kolya.

Wilhelmina (Mina) Solomonovna Katzeva: Marinas childhood best friend. Chemistry student at university. Forced to leave school when her photographer father dies. Now running his studio. Briefly Kolyas lover. Hires Marina, as Misha, to be her photographers assistant. Marina abandons her for Kolya during the first anniversary of the revolution.

Both Seryozha and Marina, as well as Marinas poet circle, are close to the Katzev family.

Solomon Moiseivich Katzev: Minas father. A well-known Petrograd photographer. Championed Seryozha. Dies from the hardships following the revolution.

Sofia Yakovlevna Katzeva: Minas mother. A kind woman with a soft spot for the Makarov children.

Uncle Aaron and Aunt Fanya: Solomon Moiseivichs elderly brother and his wife. Anarchists. Formerly lived in America.

Darya (Dunya) Solomonovna Katzeva: Minas younger sister. In love with painter Sasha Orlovsky.

Shoshanna (Shusha) Solomonovna Katzeva: Minas youngest sister. A great admirer of Marinas.

Roman Osipovich Ippolit: Minas fianc. Medical student.

The Transrational Interlocutors of the Terrestrial Now, many of whom lived together in a loose collective called the Poverty Artel on Grivtsova Alley.

Gennady (Genya) Yurievich Kuriakin: Marinas lover, later husband. Futurist poet, Bolshevik. Charismatic center of the poets circle. Departs for Moscow with Zina Ostrovskaya to act in films after breakup with Marina. Creates a radical theatrical group.

Anton Mikhailovich Chernikov: Leader of the Transrational Interlocutors, editor of the journal Okno, Genyas best friend and mentor. Difficult and critical of Marina. The sole legitimate tenant of the Poverty Artel.

Zina Ostrovskaya: Radical poet. In love with Genya Kuriakin. Creates an opportunity for Genya to move with her to Moscow.

Gigo Gelashvili: Georgian poet, slightly mad.

Sasha Orlovsky: Constructivist painter. Friend of Genyas. In love with Dunya Katzeva.

Galina Krestovskaya: Actress and would-be poet. Benefactor of Anton, Okno, and the Poverty Artel. Her apartment was the gathering place for the poetry circle.

Andrei Kirillovich Krestovsky: Galinas husband. Owner of theater snack bars in Petrograd, source of the funding for the Poverty Artel. Killed during Red Terror, 1918.

Petya Simkin: Poet, university student, musician.

Oksana Linichuk: Poet, university student. Brought flowers to Marinas wedding.

Arseny Grodetsky: Poet, young disciple of Genya Kuriakins.

Baron Arkady von Princip, the Archangel: Petrograd crime boss during the revolution. Unstable and brilliant, obsessed with Marina and with Kolya, who double-crosses him in a deal involving Dmitry Makarovs counterrevolutionary conspiracy. Holds Marina captive in an apartment on Tauride Street before she escapes him during a meeting of the counterrevolutionaries.

Akim, the Kirghiz: Arkadys lieutenant. Tends Marina while she is in captivity on Tauride Street. Discovering her working as Misha, he informs her that the Archangel has become unhinged.

Gurin: Arkadys driver.

Borya, Saint Peter: The muscle in Arkadys gang.

Dmitry Makarovs colleagues, planning the uprising of the Czech Legion, 1918. Met with Von Princip in a dacha in the woods near Pulkovo, where Dmitry accused Marina of being a Bolshevik spy.

Ivan Karlinsky: SR Party, leader of the conspiracy.

Viktoria Karlinskaya: Karlinskys wife and Dmitry Makarovs mistress. Insists that Von Princip get rid of Marina, considering her a Bolshevik spy. Marina reveals Karlinskayas identity to Varvara while in Cheka custody.

Commander Fielding Brown, the Englishman: a British military attach.

Konstantin, the Odessan: a famous English spy.

Astronomers at Pulkovo Observatory, where Marina sought refuge as the deaf-mute Marusya.

Aristarkh Apollonovich Belopolsky, the First Ancient: Astronomer, director of the observatory. Discovered the nature of the rings of Saturn.

Boris Osipovich Bondarin, the Second: Astrophysicist.

Nikolai Gerasimovich Pomogayush, the Third: Chemist and astrobotanist. Marusyas mentor.

Valentin Vladimirovich Tipov, the Fourth: Astrophysicist.

Ludmila Vasilievna Bredikskaya, the Fifth: The starushka. Physicist and spectrum analyst.