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 | |
| ||
 | THE ANARCHISTS | |
| Nestor Makhno | Military leader of the Free Territory – historical | |
| ||
 | 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 | |
| ||
 | 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 | |
