| Serafima | Adamovna | Lyosha's grandmother. |
| Theodor W. | Adorno | German philosopher, sociologist, and communist theorist. |
| Yury | Afanasyev | Soviet and Russian politician and historian. |
| Anna | Akhmatova | Lev's mother. A Russian poet. |
| Lyudmila | Alekseeva | Russian oldest and best known activist. |
| Andrei | Amalrik | A journalist. |
| Hannah | Arendt | German-American philosopher and political theorist. |
| Marina | Arutyunyan | A psychoanalyst. |
| Sergei | Baronov | Masha's husband. |
| Yuri G. | Belorustev | The new security adviser. |
| Nikita | Belykh | Former leader of the Union of Rightist Forces party. |
| Boris | Berezovsky | Russian virtuoso pianist. |
| Lavrentiy | Beria | Georgian Soviet politician and NKVD police chief. |
| Alexander | Bikbov | A sociologist and public intellectual. |
| Roberto | Bolaño | Chilean author. |
| Napoleon | Bonaparte | French military and political leader. |
| Yelena | Bonner | Sakharov's wife. |
| Leonid | Brezhnev | General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. |
| Brian S. | Brown | Co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage. |
| Zbigniew | Brzezinski | Polish-American political scientist. |
| Nikolai | Bukharin | Soviet politician. |
| George H.W. | Bush | 41st president of the United States. |
| John | Calvin | French Protestant reformer. |
| Paul A. | Cameron | Canadian-born American cinematographer. |
| Allan C. | Carlson | American social scientist. |
| Aymeric | Chauprade | French political scientist and politician. |
| Viktor | Chernomyrdin | Russian diplomat and politician. |
| Oleg | Chirkunov | Russian politician who served as the governor of Perm Krai. |
| Anatoly | Chubais | Russian politician and economist. |
| Lydia | Chukovskaya | Russian writer and poet. |
| Bill | Clinton | 42nd President of the United States. |
| Evgenia | Debryanskaya | Russian activist. |
| Milovan | Djilas | Yugoslav politician, theorist and author. |
| Vladimir | Dobrenkov | An author. |
| Sergey | Dorenko | Russian TV and radio journalist. |
| Arthur Conan | Doyle | Scottish author and physician. |
| Boris | Dubin | Russian sociologist, and a translator for English, French, Spanish. |
| Alexander | Dugin | Russian political philosopher, analyst and strategist. |
| Isadora | Duncan | American dancer. |
| Felix | Dzerzhinsky | Founder of the first Soviet secret police organs. |
| Nicholas | Eberstadt | American economist. |
| Albert | Einstein | German-born theoretical physicist. |
| Alexander | Etkind | A historian of psychoanalysis in Russia. |
| Sheila | Fitzpatrick | Australian-American historian. |
| Anatoly | Fomenko | Russian mathematician. |
| Viktor | Frankl | Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher and author. |
| Sigmund | Freud | Austrian neurologist and the founding father of psychoanalysis. |
| Mikhail | Fridman | Russian-Israeli businessman, billionaire, and oligarch. |
| Carl Joachim | Friedrich | German-American professor and political theorist. |
| Erich | Fromm | German sociologist and psychoanalyst. |
| Mischa | Gabowitsch | A Russian born, Western-educated German sociologist. |
| Clifford | Gaddy | An economist. |
| Yuri | Gagarin | Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, first human in space. |
| Yegor | Gaidar | Soviet and Russian economist, politician, and author. |
| Alexander | Galich | A writer. |
| Alexander | Galich | Soviet musician and writer. |
| Robert | Gates | CIA director, U.S. Secretary of Defense, and university president. |
| Joachim | Gauck | German politician who served as President of Germany. |
| Richard | Gere | American actor. |
| Masha | Gessen | A Russian-American journalist. |
| John Bagot | Glubb | British military officer, scholar and author. |
| Mikhail | Gorbachev | Former President of the Soviet Union. |
| Sergei | Gordeev | A Russian billionaire businessman. |
| Timofei V. | Grachev | Captain from Head Investigative Directorate. |
| David | Grossman | An Israeli author. |
| Lev | Gudkov | Russian sociologist, and editor-in-chief of the journal. |
| Marat | Guelman | An art dealer. |
| Rene | Guénon | French metaphysician. |
| Igor | Gukovsky | A solidarity activist. |
| Lev | Gumilyov | A prolific ethnographer. |
| Nikolay | Gumilyov | Lev's father. A Russian poet. |
| Vladimir | Gusinsky | Russian media tycoon. |
| Georg Wilhelm | Hegel | German philosopher and theologian. |
| Martin | Heidegger | German philosopher. |
| Adolf | Hitler | Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany. |
| Robert | Horvath | A specialist on Russian politics. |
| Carl | Jung | Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. |
| Lazar | Kaganovich | Soviet politician and administrator. |
| Immanuel | Kant | German philosopher. |
| Radovan | Karadžić | Politician, psychiatrist and poet. |
| Anatoly | Kashpirovsky | Russian psychotherapist, hypnotist and a psychic healer. |
| Garry | Kasparov | Russian chess grandmaster. |
| Irina | Khakamada | Russian economist, political activist, journalist, publicist. |
| Mikhail | Khodorkovsky | Russian businessman, philanthropist and former oligarch. |
| Igor | Kholmanskikh | Former Russian government appointee and former factory worker. |
| Nikita | Khrushchev | First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. |
| Sergei | Kirov | Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary. |
| Dmitry | Kiselev | Russian television presenter, news executive and propagandist. |
| Anne | Koedt | American radical feminist and New York-based author. |
| Helmut | Kohl | Chancellor of West Germany and reunified Germany. |
| Fyodor | Konkov | Russian psychologist. |
| Valery | Korovin | A political scientist. |
| Nahum | Korzhavin | Russian poet. |
| Elena | Kostyuchenko | Russian journalist and gay-rights activist. |
| Stephen | Kotkin | American historian, academic. |
| Nina | Kouprianova | Russian-Canadian writer. |
| Marc | Kramer | American serial entrepreneur, business book author and jouralist. |
| Sergei | Krivov | A jailed participant in the 2012 Bolotnaya Square protest. |
| Olga | Kryshtanovskaya | Russian sociologist. |
| Vladimir | Kryuchkov | Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB. |
| Vladimir | Kryuchkov | Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB. |
| Leonid | Kuchma | Second president of Ukraine. |
| Emir | Kusturica | Serbian film director, actor and musician. |
| Veronica | Kutsyllo | The deputy editor in chief of the Kommersant Vlast magazine. |
| Alexander | Kuznetsov | Russian American actor. |
| Vladimir | Lenin | The first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia. |
| Alexei N. | Leontiev | A Soviet developmental psychologist and philosopher. |
| Yuri | Levada | Russian sociologist, political scientist. |
| Robert Jay | Lifton | American psychiatrist and author. |
| Eduard | Limonov | A Russian writer. |
| Abraham | Lincoln | 16th president of the United States. |
| Jacob D. | Lindy | A psychiatrist. |
| Juan Jose | Linz | Spanish sociologist and political scientist. |
| Mikhail | Lomonosov | Russian polymath, scientist and writer. |
| Alexander | Luria | Served as chairman of the Russian Psychoanalytic Society. |
| Martin | Luther | German priest theologian and author. |
| Yury | Luzhkov | Russian politician who served as mayor of Moscow. |
| Area | Madaras | American writer. |
| Lynda | Madaras | American writer and educator. |
| Sergei | Magnitsky | Ukrainian-born Russian tax advisor. |
| Bálint | Magyar | Hungarian politician. |
| John | Major | Former prime minister of the United Kingdom. |
| Alexei | Makarenko | An educator. |
| Vladimir | Makarov | A young civil servant. |
| Merab | Mamardashvili | A philosopher. |
| Terry | Martin | A historian. |
| Karl | Marx | German philosopher. |
| Herbert | Mascuse | German-American philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist. |
| Mervyn | Matthews | A British scholar of Soviet Society. |
| Joseph | McCarthy | Wisconsin politician. |
| Dmitry | Medvedev | Former president of the Russian Federation. |
| Alexander | Men | A Russian Orthodox priest. |
| Angela | Merkel | Chancellor of Germany. |
| Boris | Mikhailovitch | Masha's grandfather. |
| Anna | Mikhailovna | Maya's mother. |
| Vitaly | Milonov | Russian far-right politician. |
| Slobodan | Milošević | Served as the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia. |
| François | Mitterrand | 21st President of the French Republic. |
| Yelena | Mizulina | Russian politician. |
| Vyacheslav | Molotov | Soviet politician and Minister of Foreign Affairs. |
| Vladimir Kara | Murza | Russian politician and journalist. |
| Benito | Mussolini | Former Prime Minister of Italy. |
| Mie | Nakachi | A historian. |
| Alexei | Navalny | Russian politician, lawyer and anti-corruption activist. |
| Boris | Nemtsova | Zhanna's father. |
| Zhanna | Nemtsova | A Russian journalist. |
| Alexander | Nevsky | Served as Prince of Novgorod. |
| Friedrich | Nietzsche | German philosopher. |
| Maria | Nikolaevna | Third daughter of Nicholas II of Russia. |
| Igor | Nikolayev | Russian composer, singer and song-writer. |
| Valeriya | Novodvorskaya | Soviet dissident, writer and liberal politician. |
| Barack | Obama | 44th president of the United States. |
| Katya | Odintsova | A TV personality from Nizhny Novgorod. |
| Viktor | Orbán | Prime Minister of Hungary. |
| George | Orwell | English author and journalist. |
| Alfredo James | Pacino | American actor and filmmaker. |
| Ella | Paneyakh | An American-educated Russian sociologist. |
| Michelle | Parsons | American anthropologist. |
| Boris | Pasternak | Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. |
| Igor | Pastukhov | A Perm owner and politician. |
| Ivan | Pavlov | Russian physiologist. |
| Gleb | Pavlovsky | Russian political scientist. |
| Alexei | Peshkov | A Russian writer. |
| Dmitry | Peskov | Russian politician and diplomat. |
| Jean | Piaget | Swiss psychologist, biologist, logician, philosopher and academic. |
| Serhii | Plokhy | Ukrainian-American historian. |
| Mikhail | Pokrovsky | Russian Marxist historian. |
| Ilya | Ponomarev | Russian-Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur. |
| Karl | Popper | Austrian-British philosopher of science. |
| Petro | Poroshenko | Zhanna's friend. |
| Vladimir | Pozner | French-born Russian-American journalist and presenter. |
| Yevgeny | Primakov | Russian politician and diplomat. |
| Mikhail | Prokhorov | Russian billionaire entrepreneur and politician. |
| Alexander | Pushkin | Russian poet, playwright, and novelist. |
| Vladimir | Putin | Serving as President of Russia. |
| Grigori | Rasputin | Russian mystic. |
| Ronald | Reagan | 40th president of the United States. |
| Arthur | Rimbaud | French poet. |
| Carl | Rogers | American psychologist. |
| Douglas | Rogers | A journalist, travel writer, and memoirist. |
| Jacques | Rogge | International Olympic Committee President. |
| Sergei | Roldugin | Russian cellist and businessman. |
| Alexander | Rutskoy | Russian politician, Vice President of Russia. |
| Nikolai | Ryzhkov | Soviet official and Russian politician. |
| Oliver | Sacks | British neurologist and writer. |
| Andrei Dmitrivich | Sakharov | A physicist. |
| Lou Andreas | Salome | German-Russian psychoanalyst and author. |
| Georgy | Satarov | Russian mathematician, politician, political scientist. |
| Virginia | Satir | American psychotherapist & non-fiction author. |
| Carl | Schmitt | German jurist, political theorist and professor of law. |
| Ekaterina | Schulmann | Russian political scientist. |
| Victor | Serge | Russian revolutionary Marxist, novelist, poet and historian. |
| William | Shakespeare | English poet, playwright, and actor. |
| Pavel | Sheremet | Belarusian journalist. |
| Eduard | Shevardnadze | Georgian politician and diplomat. |
| Olga | Shorina | Nemtsov's assistant. |
| Colette | Shulman | New York journalist and academic. |
| Anatoly | Sobchak | Soviet and Russian politician. |
| Aleksandr | Solzhenitsyn | Russian writer and historian. |
| Pitirim | Sorokin | Russian-American sociologist and political activist. |
| George | Soros | Hungarian-born American billionaire investor and philanthropist. |
| Richard B. | Spencer | American white supremacist. |
| Sabina | Spielrein | A Russian student and lover of Carl Jung. |
| Joseph | Stalin | Former Premier of the Soviet Union. |
| Sergei | Stepashin | Russian political and public figure. |
| Robert | Steuckers | A writer. |
| Arkady | Strugatsky | One of the greatest Russian writers. |
| Boris | Strugatsky | One of the greatest Russian writers. |
| Luigi | Sturzo | An Italian priest and politicisn. |
| Nikolai | Svanidze | Russian television presenter. |
| Igor | Talkov | Soviet Russian rock singer-songwriter and film actor. |
| Pyotr IIyich | Tchaikovsky | Russian composer. |
| Margaret | Thatcher | British stateswoman and prime minister. |
| Lydia | Timashuk | Soviet Russian cardiologist. |
| Vlad | Tornovoy | A man who was killed by his friend. |
| Lars von | Trier | Danish film director and screenwriter. |
| Nikolai | Trubetzkoy | Russian linguist and historian. |
| Maximilian | Trudolyubov | A Russian journalist. |
| Donald | Trump | 45th President of the United States. |
| Sergei | Udaltsov | Russian left-wing political activist. |
| Aleksandr | Ulyanov | Russian revolutionary. The elder brother of Vladimir Lenin. |
| Andreas | Umland | Expert on Russian and Ukrainian history and politics. |
| Dmitri | Vasilyev | Soviet and Russian film director. |
| Galina | Vasilyevna | Masha's grandmother. |
| Dmitry | Velikovsky | Arutyunyan's son. |
| Maximilian | Voloshin | Russian poet. |
| Kliment | Voroshilov | Soviet general and politician, Marshal of the Soviet Union. |
| Peter | Vronsky | Canadian writer and film director. |
| Lech | Wałęsa | Statesman, pro-democracy activist, former president of Poland. |
| George | Washington | The first president of the United States. |
| Max | Weber | German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist. |
| John-Henry | Westen | A journalist and an activist. |
| Manfred | Wörner | German politician and diplomat. |
| Alexander N. | Yakovlev | Soviet and Russian politician, diplomat, and historian. |
| Gregory | Yakovlevich | Maya's father. |
| Dina | Yakovlevna | Boris' Nemtsova's mother. |
| Viktor | Yanukovych | Ukrainian politician and the 4th President of Ukraine. |
| Ilya | Yashin | Russian activist and liberal politician. |
| Boris | Yeltsin | Soviet and Russian politician, 1st President of Russia. |
| Sergei | Yesenin | Russian poet. |
| Nikolai | Yezhov | Soviet secret police official. |
| Alexei | Yurchak | Professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. |
| Viktor | Yushchenko | Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine. |
| Fareed | Zakaria | Indian-American journalist and author. |
| Andrei | Zhdanov | Soviet politician and cultural ideologist. |
| Vladimir | Zhirinovsky | Russian politician and political activist. |
| Georgy | Zhukov | Soviet career officer in the Red Army. |
| Mikhail | Zoshchenko | Russian writer and satirist. |
| Mikhail | Zygar | Russian journalist, writer and filmmaker. |
| Gennady | Zyuganov | Russian politician. |
| Aishat | | A nanny. |
| Alexander | | Masha's son. |
| Alexandra | | Nichola's II wife. |
| Alexei | | Lyosha's boyfriend. |
| Alexei Yurievich Misharin | | Lyosha's full official name. |
| Alya | | A camerawoman. |
| Anastacia | | Masha's friend. |
| Angelica | | Zhanna's new friend. |
| Anna | | Lenin's older sister. |
| Arthur | | Dugin and Evgenia's son. |
| Arthur | | Novodvorskaya's son. |
| Catherine II | | Last reigning Empress of Russia. |
| Darya | | Lyosha's friend. |
| Dmitry | | Zhanna's husband. |
| Galina | | Lyosha's mother. |
| Irina | | Boris Nemtsov's current girlfriend. |
| Ivan IV | | The grand prince of Moscow. |
| Ksenia | | Gorbachev's granddaughter. |
| Maya | | Arutyunyan's mother. |
| Mitya | | Lyosha's new acquaintance. |
| Natalia | | Masha's mother-in-law. |
| Nicholas II | | Last Emperor of Russia. |
| Oleg | | Alexei Navalny's brother. |
| Peter I | | Tsar and 1st Emperor, founder of the Russian Empire. |
| Raisa | | Zhanna's mother. |
| Seryozha | | Granddaughter of Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev. |
| Sonya | | Boris Nemtsov's daughter. |
| Stas | | Lyosha's friend. |
| Tatiana | | Masha's mother. |
| Tolya | | Masha's childhood friend. |
| Valeriy | | Darya's friend. |
| Vitalik | | Masha's friend. |
| Yefim | | Boris' Nemtsova's father. |
| Yura | | Galina's acquaintance. |
