Minor Fictional Characters in The Hot War

This article lists the various minor fictional characters who appear in The Hot War series. These characters play at best a peripheral role in the series. Most were simply mentioned once, or had a very brief, unimportant speaking role that did not impact the plot, and never appeared again. Most are identified by a name, but not all of them are. As the series is ongoing as of this writing, certain characters may suddenly gain importance.

Roman Amfiteatrov
(Bombs Away)

Roman Amfiteatrov succeeded Yuri Levitan as the chief newsreader of Radio Moscow after Levitan was killed in the American atomic bombing of Moscow in March, 1951. He was southern, which showed in his accent.

On May 1, 1951, Amfiteatrov announced that the Red Army had taken Milan, and that the army was now driving on Turin. He also reported that "fierce fighting" in West Germany had yielded further advances. He also reported vague victories in the North Atlantic. He further reported on American bombing attacks with conventional explosives on Kharkov and Rostov-on-Don. He claimed that the attack on the latter city killed several children at a child-rearing collective. After reporting on increased production output, Amfiteatrov concluded his report by quoting Stalin's promise that Communism would triumph.

Bartender in Meiningen
(BA)

An East German bartender served Soviet tank commander Konstantin Morozov in January, 1951. When Morozov asked him where he'd served during World War II in Russian, the bartender didn't understand until Morozov asked again in German. The bartender admitted he'd fought in France and the Low Countries, and then in North Africa, where he'd lost his right eye. He then showed Morozov his glass eye.

Bartender in Schmalkalden
(BA)

On February 15, 1951, Tibor Nagy had a night pass in Schmalkalden. He conversed with a bartender who'd served in World War II and lost his left leg below the knee to shell fragment near Kiev. The bartender called Nagy's Sgt. Gergely a "sock person", since he was the type of person who could "fit on either foot" easily, that is to say, his political allegiance was flexible.

Steve Bauer
(BA)

Steve Bauer was the bombardier aboard the B-29 commanded by Major Hank McCutcheon. After participating in several key missions, he was killed when their bomber was shot down over the Soviet city of Blagoveshchensk.

Howard Bauman
(BA)

Howard Bauman was a minor American film actor. Prior to the outbreak of World War III, Bauman, a leftist with communist sympathies, was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Unlike his wife, Roxane, Howard was not very confrontational on political matters.

Roxane Bauman
(BA)

Roxane Bauman was the first cousin of Ruth Finch. She'd introduced Ruth to her future husband, Aaron, in the years between World War II and World War III. She and her husband, Howard Bauman, a less-than-successful movie actor, were far left in their politics, even supporting the Soviet Union during World War III. In May, 1951, at a small gathering, Roxane asked Aaron Finch how it felt to be a hero to the "plutocrats"; Finch had, by luck, caught a Soviet flyer who dropped an atomic bomb on downtown Los Angeles on March 2, 1951. When Finch retorted that he could have easily done worse things to the flyer, and pointed out that the Baumans rather narrowly avoided dying in the bombings, Bauman again pushed back, arguing that the U.S. had used the atomic bomb first. When Finch pointed out that North Korea had invaded South Korea, Roxane responded that South Korea was a puppet regime full of former Japanese collaborators. At this point, Ruth stepped in and brought the argument to a halt.

Tom Baxter
(BA)

Tom Baxter (c. 1923-1945) was the late husband of Daisy Baxter. He was killed in March, 1945, when his tank was hit by a Panzerfaust. His widow continued to run his family's pub, the Owl and Unicorn for years after his death.

Captain Guarding Norwich
(BA)

A British Army captain assigned to guard the remains of Norwich was patrolling with a soldier names Simpkins when they caught Daisy Baxter who'd got too close to the city. When she gave the two the impression she resided nearby, the captain ordered Simpkins to take Daisy to nearby Bawdeswell.

Doyarenko
(BA)

Doyarenko was a Ukrainian colonel in the Soviet Red Air Force. He commanded a base at Provideniya in the early 1950s. In 1951, a number of planes were transferred to his command in response to rising tensions between the USSR and the United States over the course of the Korean War.

On March 2, flyers under Doyarenko's command, including Captain Boris Gribkov, launched a series of atom bombing raids on the West Coast of the United States. In response, the U.S. destroyed a number of strategic Soviet points, including Provideniya.

Anatoly Edzhubov
(BA)

Commander Anatoly Edzhubov was the skipper of the destroyer Stalin. He was responsible for picking up Captain Boris Gribkov and his bomber crew after they atom bombed the Seattle area on March 2, 1951.

Edzhubov carried Gribkov and his crew to Korf. They had originally been headed for Petropavlovsk, but that city, along with other key ports, had been destroyed by the U.S.. Edzhubov also told Gribkov that Provideniya, Gribkov's original base, had been among the cities destroyed.

Gribkov was frequently seasick on the voyage. Edzhubov gave Gribkov vodka to help; Gribkov found it helped him sleep, anyway.

Ferenc
(BA)

Ferenc was a private in Tibor Nagy's squad. He came from Szekesfehervar‎‎. When he found out that the United States had destroyed his home town with an atomic bomb on February 15, 1951, he was livid, and made several attempts to cross from Schmalkalden, East Germany in to West Germany to kill Americans. He was stopped by the men in his squad. Tibor Nagy and Isztvan Szolovits had the best luck in calming Ferenc.

Fred
(BA)

Fred was an aide to Presiden Harry Truman. After Truman's plane landed in Honolulu on December 18, 1950, Fred told Truman his car was ready. Truman sarcastically replied that he was sure that it was, then apologized, suggesting he was tired, and that maybe the weather would be nice outside and he would be, too. By the look on Fred's face, he didn't believe it.

Fursenko
(BA)

Colonel Fursenko was the air-defense commander at the Red Air Force base in Provideniya in the days leading up to World War III. When Boris Gribkov learned that the Tu-4s that had bombed Elmendorf Air Force Base had been painted to look like B-29s, he suggested to his immediate commander, Colonel Doyarenko, that the U.S could paint its B-29s to look like Tu-4s. Colonel Doyarenko replied that he would pass his concerns on to Colonel Fursenko.

Gennady Gamarnik
(BA)

Gennady Gamarnik was the engineer in Boris Gribkov's Tu-4. He checked over the bomber before the crew dropped an atomic bomb on Seattle.

Bohdan Gavrysh
(BA)

Bohdan Gavrysh was a farmer on kohlkhoz 127. In May, 1951, he participated in sowing the collective farm's fields. He used up his grain seed much too soon, but the kohlkhoz's headman, Petro Hapochka, didn't seem to care. Later, he proclaimed that Stalin would be pleased by the farm's harvest, and then further announced that without Great Stalin, the Soviet Union would collapse.

In June, 1951, the MGB collected Bohdan Gavrysh and Ihor Shevchenko for the fighting in Europe.

Hyman Ginsberg
(BA)

Sgt. Hyman Ginsberg was radioman in Major Hank McCutcheon's B-29 crew during the Korean War and the subsequent World War III. After participating in several key missions, he was killed when their bomber was shot down over the Soviet city of Blagoveshchensk.

Pavel Gryzlov
(BA)

Pavel Gryzlov (d. May, 1951) was the gunner of the T-54 commanded by Sgt. Konstantin Morozov during the first months of World War III. Like everyone else in the tank, save Morozov, Gryzlov was too young to have served in World War II.

Gryzlov was part of the Soviet invasion of West Germany, with Gryzlov's unit as part of the initial spearhead towards Fulda. The advance pushed west. In April, Morozov's tank was hit by a British or American tank. While the shell killed the tank's engine, it didn't immediately destroy the tank, allowing Morozov and his crew to escape into a Soviet fox hole. The tank was destroyed almost immediately after they'd escaped. The driver, Misha Kasyanov, was shot in the leg. They were able to carry him in as well, and he received treatment.

The crew was issued a new tank within a few week, a repaired one that had previously sustained damage from an armor piercing round. They were also given a new driver, Yevgeny Ushakov. Once the crew was squared away, they were sent to help break into Arnsberg. Their talent as a crew meant that they were frequently the tip of the spear in the Soviet drive.

Gryzlov and the crew, save Morozov, were killed in Dortmund by a bazooka.

Petro Hapochka
(BA)

Petro Hapochka (b. 1905) was the chairman of kohlkohz 127 outside of Kiev. He'd served in the Red Army during World War II, losing his left foot in 1943 to a German landmine.

In April, 1951, after World War III was only a few months old, a farmer on the kohlkoz, Ihor Shevchenko, presented a slab of pork ribs to Hapochka. He also asked Hapochka if he'd heard when Kiev, which had been destroyed by an American atomic bomb the month before, would be rebuilt. Hapochka didn't know.

Hapochka oversaw the sowing in May, 1951.

Irina Hapochkova
(BA)

Irina Hapchkova was the wife of Petro Hapochka, the headman of kohlkohz 127.

Horst
(BA)

Horst was a grocer in Fulda, West Germany. After the Soviet Union occupied Fulda early in World War III, they began supplying Horst with their unwanted foodstuffs, such as beets and sardines. He warned one of his customers, Luisa Hozzel, that the food wasn't very good. He did sell her some strawberries because she was a good customer.

Daniel Philip Jaspers
(BA)

Daniel Philip Jaspers was a refugee at Camp Nowhere. In April, 1951, he attempted to break into the vehicle and de facto home of fellow inmate, Marian Staley. When he saw Staley approaching with her young daughter Linda and their elderly neighbor Fayvl Tabakman, he charged them. Tabakaman picked up a rock and threw it, hitting Jaspers in the head. Jaspers was taken into custody, and subsequently convicted after Marian Staley testified against him.

Johnson
(BA)

Johnson was an American soldier during the Korean War before it became part of World War III. He was part of the failed evacuation to Hungnam. On November 23, when the troops were suddenly attacked by Red Chinese forces, Lt. Cade Curtis ordered Johnson and another soldier, Masters, to man an LMG and cover the retreat of the remaining troops, ordering them to hang on to the position as long as they had to. When Masters asked how long that was, Curtis answered again for as long as they had to. All three knew that meant that Johnson and Masters had to stay until the Chinese killed them.

Misha Kasyanov
(BA)

Mikhail "Misha" Kasyanov was the driver of the T-54 commanded by Sgt. Konstantin Morozov during the first months of World War III. Like everyone else in the tank, save Morozov, Kasyanov was too young to have served in World War II.

Kasyanov was part of the Soviet invasion of West Germany, with Kasyanov's unit as part of the initial spearhead towards Fulda. The advance pushed west. In April, Morozov's tank was hit by a British or American tank. While the shell killed the tank's engine, it didn't immediately destroy the tank, allowing Morozov and his crew to escape into a Soviet fox hole. The tank was destroyed almost immediately after they'd escaped. Kasyanov, was shot in the leg. They were able to carry him in as well, and he received treatment. He was replaced by Yevgeny Ushakov

Elizabeth Kasparian
(BA)

Elizabeth Kasparian and her husband Krikor were neighbors of Aaron Finch and his family. Both had survived the Armenian Massacres during World War I. In Glendale, the two sold chickens and eggs to their neighbors. After a Soviet atomic bomb destroyed downtown Los Angeles, the Kasparians found their costs for feed had gone up, and had to pass those costs onto their customers.

Krikor Kasparian
(BA)

Krikor Kasparian and his wife Elizabeth were neighbors of Aaron Finch and his family. Both had survived the Armenian Massacres during World War I. In Glendale, the two sold chickens and eggs to their neighbors. After a Soviet atomic bomb destroyed downtown Los Angeles, the Kasparians found their costs for feed had gone up, and had to pass those costs onto their customers.

Lefty
(BA)

Lefty was a GI during the Korean War before it became part of World War III. He was part of the failed evacuation to Hungnam. On November 23, he asked Lt. Cade Curtis for reassurance that they would make it to the port.

Lefty was from one of the smaller industrial cities in Ohio. Curtis could not remember which one.

Lengyel
(BA)

Lengyel was a Hungarian soldier in Isztvan Szolovits's squad. In April, 1951, their sergeant, Gergely, announced that their particular stretch of West Germany had become the slum of World War III. When Lengyel asked him what he meant, Gergely called Lengyel an idiot before informing his men that the Soviets had positioned Polish troops next to the Hungarians.

Orest Makhno
(BA)

Orest Makhno was a farmer on kolkohz 127. He was one of several people from the collective farm who went to Kiev to see the city after it was destroyed by an American atomic bomb. Unlike others who went to Kiev, Makhno did not return. While some hoped that he'd found a stash of gold and struck out on his own, he most likely ran into an MGB agent and was summarily executed.

Volodymyr Marchenko
(BA)

Volodymyr Marchenko resided on the same kolkohz (collective farm) as Ihor and Anya Shevchenko. At a feast on February 15, 1951, as World War III was about to erupt, Marchenko toasted Joseph Stalin and to victory.

Olga Marchenkova
(BA)

Olga Marchenkova was the wife of Volodymyr Marchenko. At a feast on February 15, 1951, as World War III was about to erupt, Olga turned on the radio for Radio Moscow.

Masters
(BA)

Masters was an American soldier during the Korean War before it became part of World War III. He was part of the failed evacuation to Hungnam. On November 23, when the troops were suddenly attacked by Red Chinese forces, Lt. Cade Curtis ordered Johnson and another soldier, Johnson, to man an LMG and cover the retreat of the remaining troops, ordering them to hang on to the position as long as they had to. When Masters asked how long that was, Curtis answered again for as long as they had to. All three knew that meant that Johnson and Masters had to stay until the Chinese killed them.

Mei Ling
(BA)

Mei Ling was a server at a teahouse in Harbin during World War III. Vasili Yasevich was sweet on Mei Ling for a time, and she seemed inclined to reciprocate. However, after the Chinese government began investigating Yasevich, he fled China altogether, and any chance for romance was stillborn.

Osip Milyukov
(BA)

Osip Milyukov was a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Force during World War III. He was stationed at a base outside Leningrad. In April, 1951, he assigned Boris Gribkov and his crew to drop an atomic bomb on Bordeaux, France.

Moishe
(BA)

Moishe was a Jewish resident of Everett, Washington. He was a Belarussian, and survived World War II and the Holocaust. He survived the Soviet atomic bombing of the Everett-Seattle area on March 2, 1951. He was reunited with friends Fayvl Tabakman and Yitzkhak in a refugee camp some weeks after the bombing. All three had definite opinions of Stalin. Moishe remembered that, as a young man, he'd seen Stalin in Minsk, and he was lucky that Stalin had not seen him.

Mrs. O'Byrnne
(BA)

Mrs. O'Byrnne was a housewife in Torrance, a suburb of Los Angeles that was not badly damaged by the Soviet atomic bombing of downtown L.A. on March 2, 1951. She had a young daughter, only a few months old. In April, 1951, she ordered a refrigerator via letter from Blue Front, an appliance company in Glendale.

Bernie O'Higgins
(BA)

Bernie O'Higgins was a sergeant in Lt. Cade Curtis's company. In April, 1951, in an effort to slow down an advance of T-34s, Curtis ordered O'Higgins to fire a burst of machine gun fire at the T-34s, then take the gun off its tripod, retreat from their position, and use the machine gun as a light gun. When O'Higgins protested that he would get more accuracy with the tripod, Curtis remained firm, asking O'Higgins how long he thought his position would stand up to shelling. Reluctantly, O'Higgins agreed.

Andras Orban
(BA)

Andras Orban was a soldier in Isztvan Szolovits's squad. When he saw the Jewish Szolovits eating ham, Orban threatened to tell Szolovits's rabbi on him. Szolovits retorted that the rabbi wouldn't hear Orban as Orban had his head up his own ass so far no sound would come out. When Orban seemed ready to fight Szolovits, their sergeant, Gergely intervened, thoroughly shaming Orban.

Igor Pechnikov
(BA)

Igor Pechnikov was a corporal in the Soviet Red Army during World War III. He was an RPG man. In the spring of 1951, most of his squad was killed, so he was in the process of being transferred to another unit. During his stay at the assignment depot, he shared a cigarette with Sgt. Konstantin Morozov. When he found out what Pechnikov did, Morozov suggested that they probably couldn't be friends. Morozov was called in for reassignment before he could further elaborate on his joke.

Gyula Pusztai
(BA)

Gyula Pusztai (d. 1951) was part of the same unit of the Hungarian People's Army as Tibor Nagy and Isztvan Szolovits. When they were first moved west on February 1, 1951, he asked Nagy to confirm that their sergeant, Gergely, had announced that they were on the verge of fighting the United States. When Nagy did confirm it, Pusztai announced that the Americans would slaughter them. Sgt. Gergely, instead of disciplining Pusztai, gave him cold comfort, first by reminding Pusztai the he, Gergely, had survived World War II, but then also pointing out that many of the men he'd served with had been slaughtered.

Pusztai was killed in April, 1951.

Mogamed Safarli
(BA)

Mogamed Safarli was the loader of the T-54 commanded by Sgt. Konstantin Morozov during the first months of World War III. Like everyone else in the tank, save Morozov, Safarli was too young to have served in World War II. He was a so-called "blackass" from Azerbaijan or some other such part of the Soviet Union.

Safarli was part of the Soviet invasion of West Germany, with Safarli's unit as part of the initial spearhead towards Fulda. The advance pushed west. In April, Morozov's tank was hit by a British or American tank. While the shell killed the tank's engine, it didn't immediately destroy the tank, allowing Morozov and his crew to escape into a Soviet fox hole. The tank was destroyed almost immediately after they'd escaped. The driver, Misha Kasyanov, was shot in the leg. They were able to carry him in as well, and he received treatment.

The crew was issued a new tank within a few week, a repaired one that had previously sustained damage from an armor piercing round. They were also given a new driver, Yevgeny Ushakov. Once the crew was squared away, they were sent to help break into Arnsberg. Their talent as a crew meant that they were frequently the tip of the spear in the Soviet drive.

Safarli and the crew, save Morozov, were killed in Dortmund by a bazooka.

Pyotr
(BA)

Pyotr resided on the same kolkohz (collective farm) as Ihor and Anya Shevchenko. He was a Russian, but no one held that against him. At a feast on February 15, 1951, as World War III was about to erupt, Pyotr toasted the soldier's hundred grams.

Red-Tie
(BA)

An MGB agent and his partner, Vanya, went to kohlkohz 127 in June 1951 to collect Ihor Shevchenko and Bohdan Gavrysh for the fighting in the West. As Shevchenko never learned the name of Vanya's partner, he thought of him as Red-Tie.

Del Shanahan
Lt. Colonel Del Shanahan was with United States Air Force Intelligence during World War III. Shanahan met with Aaron Finch a few days after the Soviets successfully atom bombed several U.S. cities, including Los Angeles. Shanahan clarified a few points about Finch's capture of Lt. Yuri Svechin, one of the flyers who'd bombed L.A., including how they communicated (Finch's Yiddish was close enough to German, which Svechin spoke), and that Svechin was willing to surrender when he saw Finch wasn't going to hurt him. The two discussed the fact that other Soviets who had parachuted into the L.A. area had been killed by angry mobs, and some of the international legal issues those deaths had raised. Once Shanahan was convinced Finch was merely a "chaste passerby" rather than a spy, he sent Finch home.

Simpkins
(BA)

Simpkins was a soldier in the British Army during World War III. He was a "Geordie", probably hailing from north England. He was part of the detail that cordoned off and patrolled Norwich after the Soviets dropped an atomic bomb on February 1, 1951. Towards the end of February, he and a captain caught Daisy Baxter near the edge of Norwich proper. When she gave the two with the impression she resided nearby, the captain ordered Simpkins to take Daisy to nearby Bawdeswell. During the drive, Daisy was able to get Simpkins' impression of what the center of Norwich looked like now. He said that spots of the road were fused to glass, and most of the buildings had been leveled. She told him that her husband had been killed in the last war, he shared this his own cousin had been as well. When they reached Bawdeswell, Daisy got on her bike and returned home.

Willi Stoiber
(BA)

Willi Stoiber was the Burgomeister of Fulda just prior to the outbreak of World War III. He was a fat blowhard. Fulda resident Gustav Hozzel wondered how Stoiber had gotten past the denazification process.

Yuri Svechin
(BA)

Lt. Yuri Svechin was part of one of the Soviet bomber crews that atom bombed Los Angeles on March 2, 1951. The crew parachuted after the attack. Several members went missing, others were attacked and killed by angry civilians. Svechin landed near Glendale, where he was promptly captured by appliance deliveryman Aaron Finch, and taken to the Glendale police station.

Vitya Trubetskoi
(BA)

Corporal Vitya Trubetskoi was the rear gunner in Boris Gribkov's Tu-4. He survived the water landing in the Pacific after the crew dropped an atomic bomb on Seattle. Gribkov was pleased; he was sure that Trubetskoi would drown as the plane had landed tail first.

Yevgeny Ushakov
(BA)

Yevgeny Ushakov was a Soviet T-54 driver during World War III. He was assigned to Konstantin Morozov's tank in April, 1951. He participated in the breakthrough at Arnsberg. He and the rest of the crew, save Morozov, were killed by a bazooka in Dortmund in May, 1951.

Vanya
(BA)

Vanya was one of two MGB agents who went to kohlkohz 127 in June 1951 to collect Ihor Shevchenko and Bohdan Gavrysh for the fighting in the West.

Jeff Walpole
(BA)

Jeff Walpole was a major in the U.S. Army. He was Cade Curtis's superior officer in Korea in April, 1951. He explained to Curtis that a psy-ops colonel named Linebarger, an officer with substantial clout and fluency in Chinese, created a program for American troops to broadcast via loudspeaker at the Chinese and North Korean troops across no-man's land. The program used the Chinese words for "love" and "virtue" and "humanity", which when taken together also sounded like English for "I surrender", allowing the Reds to surrender without losing face.

In May, 1951, he informed Cade Curtis and Sgt. Lou Klein that the U.S. had atom bombed Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk. Shortly after making that announcement, their position came under shelling, and Walpole was injured in the leg.

Comrade Wang
(BA)

Comrade Wang was a Chinese communist commissar from Peking. He and his wife were sent to Harbin to help rebuild it after the U.S. used an atomic bomb on the city. His wife approached Vasili Yasevich about getting her husband something to perk him up. Yasevich provided her with ma huang.

Comrade Wang's Wife
(BA)

The wife of Comrade Wang approached Vasili Yasevich about getting something to perk her husband up. Yasevich provided her with ma huang, after some harsh haggling between them. Despite her status as the wife of a communist official, she didn't demonstrate many egalitarian qualities. She did recommend Yasevich to other women she knew.

Roger Williamson
(BA)

Roger Williamson was the navigator aboard the B-29 commanded by Major Hank McCutcheon. After participating in several key missions, he was killed when their bomber was shot down over the Soviet city of Blagoveshchensk.

Yitzkhak
(BA)

Yitzkhak was a Jewish resident of Everett, Washington. He'd been born in Eastern Europe, and survived World War II and the Holocaust. He survived the Soviet atomic bombing of the Everett-Seattle area on March 2, 1951. He was reunited with friends Fayvl Tabakman and Moishe in a refugee camp some weeks after the bombing. All three had definite opinions of Stalin.