Commissar is based largely on real historical events and people. Here is a handy reference to who is a real historical person and who is fictional in the novel.
![]() | THE REDS | |
Anna Sokolova | Cheka agent – fictional | |
Sergei Zaverin | Cheka agent – fictional | |
Anton Egorov | Cheka agent – fictional | |
Colonel Berzin | Cheka agent – historical | |
Yakov Yurovsky | Cheka agent – historical | |
Yakov Peters | Cheka agent – historical | |
Felix Dzerzhinsky | Director of the Cheka – historical | |
Moisei Uritsky | Director of the Petrograd Cheka- historical | |
Leon Trotsky | Red Army chief – historical | |
Vladimir Lenin | Soviet head of state – historical | |
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![]() | THE WHITES | |
Boris Savinkov | Terrorist, insurrectionist leader – historical | |
Dora Kaplan | Terrorist – historical (AKA Fanny Kaplan) | |
Natalia Goncharova | Terrorist – fictional | |
Alexander Kolchak | Imperial Navy Admiral – historical | |
Grigory Semenov | Cossack Ataman – historical | |
Victor Demidov | Imperial Army officer – fictional | |
Peter Vologodsky | Chairman of the Omsk government – historical | |
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![]() | THE ANARCHISTS | |
Nestor Makhno | Military leader of the Free Territory – historical | |
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![]() | THE AMERICANS | |
William Arden | US Army Captain – fictional | |
Raymond Robins | ARC Mission director – historical | |
Ralph Van Deman | Military Intelligence Section chief – historical | |
David Francis | US Ambassador to Russia – historical | |
Woodrow Wilson | US President – historical | |
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![]() | THE BRITISH | |
Bruce Lockhart | Special Envoy to Russia – historical | |
Francis Cromie | Naval Attaché – historical | |
Alfred Knox | British Army General – historical | |
Sidney Reilly | British SIS agent – historical | |
Mansfield Smith-Cumming | Head of the SIS – historical | |