Characters / TNO Harbin Three

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Harbin Three

Amur

Official Name: All-Russian Government of Amur, All-Russian Government of the Far East (regional unification), Siberian National State (superregional unification), Russian National State (national unification)

Ruling Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya^note Russian Fascist Party

Ideology: Clerical Fascism^note National Socialism

The Amur region is controlled by the White émigré Russian Fascist Party led by the notorious Konstantin Rodzaevsky. Originally based in Harbin, Japan backed their lapdog Rodzaevsky to lead an expedition of Harbin White émigrés into Siberia. However, Rodzaevsky's expedition quicly collapsed, as his materials dried up and his White rivals under Matkovsky and Semyonov abandoned him. He has since retreated to Zeya, and waits for another opportunity to strike.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: In one event, Amur's head of government, Lev Okhotin, gets portrayed in a pitiful light when he revisits his home town in Chita. There, he finds that all of the people he once grew up with are now hiding and fleeing from him in terror of being next in Rodzaevsky's executions. As he finds himself all alone, Okhotin feels a twinge of sorrow, realizing how lonely he is, despite being the second most powerful man next to the Vozhd.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Rodzaevsky's anti-Semitic writings are publicized as the ABCs of Fascism, but they're also nicknamed "little brown books" and mass produced so that everyone is mandated to read them, similarly to the real-life Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung or Little Red Book.
• Army of Thieves and Whores: The Blackshirts are committed fascist thugs who resort to intimidation and violence when enforcing the will of Rodzaevsky, hanging any suspected dissenters and killing dozens by the day.
• Authority in Name Only: There is a Supreme Council of the Russian Fascist Party to advise Rodzaevsky and write laws, but its more of a glorified echo chamber for the Vozhd, since disagreement there is completely out of the question. In the superregional stage, he reduces them even further by taking away their power to veto his actions.
• Bait the Dog: When some factory workers are jumped by a racist mob of soldiers, a sergeant intervenes and orders the men to get back to the barracks. Just as one of the victims is about to thank him, the sergeant shoots a look of disgust at them, showing that he's no friend to them, in spite of the act.
• Balcony Speech: In preparation for Amur's expansion into the Far East, Rodzaevsky makes a dramatic speech from a balcony in Zeya, complete with a military parade.
• Blind Obedience: The RFP's voice is Rodzaevsky's voice because any opposing opinions, regardless of how valid, are immediately quashed. Even when a Grand Congress is held for the RFP, it's obvious that no one's going to dare question the Vozhd's opinion.
• Boring, but Practical: Amur has a crude trading port that can't match the impressive scale of Magadan or Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, but it has the advantage of not being frozen and unusable during the winter, still making it economically viable.
• Character Catchphrase: "God, Nation, Labor!" is the official slogan of the Russian Fascist Party and its members, representing their idealization of nationalism and clericalism.
• Child Soldier: Though the Union of Fascist Little Ones is more intended to enforce child labor, Rodzaevsky has no qualms about recruiting children from there into the army, if matters get desperate.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Tasked with hunting down enemies of the state, the Blackshirts are authorized to perform brutal interrogation methods to extract information from those unfortunate enough to fall in their hands.
• Corrupt Church: The Russian Orthodox Church is a central institution in Amur, under the supervision of Rodzaevsky and ordered to entwine fascist doctrine with Orthodox faith.
• Les Collaborateurs: The Russian Fascist Party has collaborated with the Japanese one way or another since the Reds won the Russian Civil War, with the Asano Brigade consisting of Harbin Russians commanded by Kwantung Army officers. At game start, Rodzaevsky is Japan's preferred candidate to reunite Russia and can even request a revival of the Asano brigade.
• Creator Cameo: Rodzaevsky's pet cat Mura is based on a cat of the same name◊, which serves as the development team's unofficial mascot.
• Deadly Euphemism: After one of Rodzaevsky's speeches, the common people are "politely asked" about what they thought of it. Knowing what happens if they express any grievances, everyone says they liked it.
• Enemy Civil War: Rodzaevsky's Amur doesn't get along with Matkovsky's Magadan, even though both are Russian fascists. Their schism stems from Rodzaevsky's unrestrained radicalism, to the point that he came to view the Nazis favorably, while Matkovsky recognizes the horrors that the Germans brought to Russia.
• Egopolis: In the early game, after Vozhd Konstantin Rodzaevsky asks Japan to return his home town Blagoveshchensk from Manchuria to his government (something which the Japanese are more than glad to do), he will rename Blagoveshchensk to Rodzaevsk after himself. The town's war school is even called Rodzaevsk Military Academy.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • When a member of the Sons of the Tsar (a pro-monarchist resistance movement) rats out his fellow compatriots, the RFP send them to the work camps, while they execute their informant. To them, being a traitor is condemnable, but it's even worse to be a traitor to the traitors.
  • Subverted with the megacorporations. Initially, they voice their distate with Rodzaevsky's recommendation to use forced labor, but they become more privy to the idea when they're reminded that such manpower is practically free.
• Evil Reactionary: Like in real life, Rodzaevsky and his clique of White exiles long for the idyllic good old days of Tsarist Russia. However, while they look to the past for inspiration, they're more interested in forging a new fascist society than bringing back the monarchy.
• The Exile: During the Soviet Union's reign, the Russian Fascist Party were exiled to Harbin, along with the White Movement. When Russia splintered and Yagoda went to war with the Central Siberian Republic, the RFP joined forces with the Whites to return to Russia and invade the Far East.
• Fascist, but Inefficient: As a result of Rodzaevsky's unrestrained paranoia and sweeping purges, Amur's government is filled with incompetent commanders and administrators, little more than their Vozhd's puppets. As would be expected, Amur is one of the hardest unifiers to play as.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The RFP "military" starts out as a disorganized band of street fighters, mercenaries, and peasants who will eventually be reforged into a proper military that has a chance of reunifying Russia.
• Got Volunteered: Implied in the Russian Women's Fascist Movement, where the word "voluntary" is in quotations when discussing how women must attend their local meetings and be indoctrinated as homemakers.
• The Gulag: In the regional stage, the RFP reopens Kolyma, a prison camp where Jews and political prisoners, particularly communists, are sentenced to, forced to work in dangerous conditions to mine the gold and platinum there.
• History Repeats: Some Russian elders note the similarities in the RFP's anti-semitic attacks to the ones committed under the old Tsardom, silently mourning the fact that some things will seemingly never change.
• Industrialized Evil: Amur's economy is directly inspired by the German model, where slaves are forced to work in grimy, hazardous conditions to fulfil the harsh quotas set by powerful megacorporations.
• Make an Example of Them: The filthy ghettoes that Jews are forced into are blatantly shown to the public as a display of what happens to those who are supposedly plotting Russia's downfall.
• MegaCorp: The creation of megacorporations is encouraged in Amur, with Rodzaevsky hoping to emulate the corporatist economy of the Germans. The Far Eastern Conglomerate is the first of these experiments.
• No True Scotsman: The children are brainwashed by the RFP into believing that Russians are the strongest race and anyone who doesn't endure their harsh training exercises is not a real Russian.
• Non-Indicative Name: Every branch in the military starts with the descriptor "Free", which is ludicrous considering that they serve a fascist dictatorship.
• Obliviously Evil: Some members of the RFP have no qualms about the atrocities they participate in, considering themselves heroes who are restoring Russia's lost honor.
• Obviously Evil: The flag of Amur has a swastika on it, which should give you a sign of how bad Amur is.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • While building a navy, Yumashev's surviving command can be released from the work camps to bring needed expertise and manpower for the endeavor.
  • The lower-ranking politicians of Central Siberia can be allowed to join the RFP in the superregional stage after thorough examination, since their experience can be useful.
  • Similarly, the defeated Central Siberian armies will be recruited into the Free All-Russian Army to aid their final reunification of Russia.
• Putting on the Reich: As part of Rodzaevsky's attempt to emulate Hitler, the RFP's capital Zeya is filled with Nazi symbols and antisemitic propaganda and the flag of Amur has a swastika.
• Quantity Versus Quality: As the RFP builds a proper army, they can either invest in mass conscription of moderately trained soldiers or a smaller, but modernized force equipped with better technology.
• Red Scare: Rodzaevsky is firmly convinced that Bolshevism needs to be cleaned from Russia and that Fascism is the solution. Even as Russia is bombed by the Nazis and as Moscow is ruled by Germans, he's still convinced Germany is an ally against communism.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand: If his request is granted, Bolotov will form the Otryady Obespecheniya Bezopasnosti, a rival paramilitary group to the Blackshirts.
• Sinister Surveillance: The one advantage of their small starting territory is how easily it can be controlled by the RFP, in which Blackshirts can keep tabs on everyone and neutralize any would-be dissenters. Rodzaevsky even thinks that the Japanese Kenpeitai is a model for his police to follow.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: More often, dissenters are not downright killed, but rather sent to concentration camps where they are forced to work under grueling conditions and at gunpoint.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Unsurprisingly, the RFP has very traditional views on how a women should behave, viewing them as nothing more than homemakers who are apparently too stupid to understand their doctrine.
  Children, Kitchen, Church!
• The Stool Pigeon: Civilians are encouraged by the government to spy on their friends and family to out them as Jews, communists, or Freemasons, which would sentence them to hard labor or death.
• Suddenly Significant City: Zeya, capital of Amur, is a small and fairly obscure mining town in Amur Oblast that's known for its dam. In TNO, it becomes the dark heart of the RFP's domain.
• Supervillain Lair: Rodzaevsky and his Supreme Council meet in a hotel converted to look much grander than it was, complete with a giant glowing swastika on its top, resembling the Russian Fascist Party's old headquarters in Manchuria, next to the Soviet border.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Shekherev and Bolotov are hated rivals over the future direction and methods of the RFP, which is finally taken notice by Rodzaevsky in the superregional stage, who threatens them with death if they dare interfere with his rule.
• Theme Naming: All military branches of the RFP start with "Free All-Russian" as a title.
• Tired of Running: As a Jewish family attempts to flee the Blackshirts, the grandfather stays behind because he's spent his whole life running from anti-Semites, urging his family to leave him behind so that he can face the thugs head-on.
• Training from Hell: It's said that a soldier isn't considered a "true man", until he endures the "Three Harshes": harsh weather, harsh discipline, and harsh enemies.
• Un-person: Purged members of the Supreme Council have their names stricken from the RFP's records, their memories buried.
• Understatement: The Union of Fascist Little Ones is an agency that recruits children into "physical projects", which actually enslaves them into hard labor as a form of "discipline".
• Villainous Underdog: As can be expected from a band of fascist thugs with more fanaticism than competency, Amur is one of the weakest warlords in Russia by game start, which isn't helped by how their most immediate rivals, the other Harbin Three warlords (both of which are individually stronger and comparatively less evil), can form a pact to take down Amur.
• Yes-Man: The Supreme Council of Amur is little more than Rodzaevsky's echo chamber, consisting of thugs and sycophants who would never dare challenge his authority. That said, his more prominent supporters among said sycophants, notably Shekherev and Bolotov, are nonetheless shown to be competent, keeping his regime functional enough to potentially outlast him.

Konstantin Rodzaevsky

^{70s Rodzaevsky portrait}

Role: Head of State

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya^note Russian Fascist Party

Ideology: Clerical Fascism^note National Socialism

60's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky was always a man of the East. The perceived oppression of the new Soviet system which he despised from a young age pushed him to flee Blagoveschensk in the Union for Harbin, the city in which the emigrés thrived. There, he became convinced that a system to rival Bolshevism had to be created; he found that system in Europe, where Fascism had just been born. The nascent ideology was adopted by many Russians, bitter from their loss in the civil war. A young and charismatic Rodzaevsky grabbed the chance to unite them all under the banner of the swastika, setting crowds on fires with his speeches. He made a promise to return to his homeland one day, and liberate its people.

Shortly after its foundation, the Russian Fascist Party forged a close relationship with the new overlords of Manchuria, Japan. The greatest benefactors of the party supported it throughout its entire existence, until the opportunity for reclamation came with the collapse of the Presidium.

Emboldened by the enthusiasm of his Japanese allies, the leader of the RFP went on a noble crusade to crush Judeo-Bolshevism. However, his dreams of complete liberation were dashed by his rivals: the generals and their Tsar, and worse of all, Mikhail Matkovsky and his band of traitors who looked across the Pacific for help. Konstantin Rodzaevsky, left alone in Zeya as the leader of a mere warlord state, has become enraged, and has vowed to get revenge against all of Russia's enemies, whoever they may be: Jews, Reds, Matkovskyites, Tsarists, anyone who dares challenge the Vozhd. To him, it is the only way to restore the nation to its old days of glory, yet that dream seems further and further away.

70's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)} Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky has been known by many names to many people. To his detractors, he was insane. To his enemies, he was the bandit king. To his supporters, he was the Vozhd. He was the one who led the Russian Fascist Party into Russia. He was the one that began the crusade against the Bolshevik and the Jew. And he was repaid with treachery. Traitors desecrated his vision, slaughtered his comrades-in-arms, and distanced themselves from his movement. Rodzaevsky fell into a great depression, latching onto a drinking habit and increasingly-dangerous paranoia; the dark days of Zeya.

But as his enemies were rooted out, and the splitters dealt with; the Bolsheviks destroyed and the crazed cultists ground into dust, Konstantin Rodzaevsky found his spirit renewed as the Vozhd and he was reborn: seizing more and more of Russia, he worked to shed his alcoholism, and his paranoia evaporated alongside the last of his internal enemies. Even the perfidious Germans, who the Vozhd had once looked up to, showed their true colors by ignoring him. But this was not a tragedy - it was a revelation. The Vozhd realized that the Germans were stagnant failures who fell short in establishing their own national socialist utopia - the Germans themselves a race of collective disappointment. The Vozhd learned that the Slav would not need the crutch of another.

The National State, the product of Rodzaevsky's hard work, was the first serious step in his vision to forge a Russia strengthened by national socialism. He marches onwards, the fires of national socialism burning in his heart and with full confidence in the future - a national socialist future. A Slavic future.

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• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • His attempt to reach out to Germany for an alliance of National Socialism ends with the German minister of foreign affairs being utterly confused at the contents of the letter. He throws it away, dismissing it as either a prank or the ravings of a madman, leaving only radio silence for Amur, much to Rodzaevsky's anger.
  • Should Yockey become President of the United States, Rodzaevsky will voice his support. Yockey's response upon getting news of this is to rant about culture wars, Slavic civilization, and equate said support to the loyalty of a dog.
• The Alcoholic: His disillusionment with Matkovsky's betrayal has led him to drinking as a coping mechanism, which partially explains his erratic behavior. When he reaches the superregional stage, Rodzaevsky puts an end to this vice, a sign of his growing mental stability.
• Any Last Words?: He asks this verbatim to Matkovsky when he's about to be hanged, if Magadan is defeated by Amur.
• Asshole Victim: Usually ends up as this when he loses to one of the other factions. Bonus points if he loses to Yagoda's Irkutsk, as he's swiftly executed by the NKVD, a fate which he ends up sharing with any other faction that is beaten and purged by Irkutsk.
• Ax-Crazy: Rodzaevsky is just as much of a disturbed weirdo as he was in real life, if not more so now that he has the means to act out his megalomaniacal whims. This is downplayed later on, however, as he gradually composes himself.
• Bad Boss: The combination of his paranoia and brutality makes him one of the cruelest bosses to work for in Russia, with his inner circle not even safe from his constant purges.
• Bait the Dog:
  • Rodzaevsky allows workers to unionize... but only under the approval of the Union Oversight Committee, which answers directly to the Vozhd and essentially purges anything that he doesn't like anyway.
  • His promises of class collaboration and representation for all Russians makes him initially accepted by some as a fair ruler, but any good intentions behind these policies are soiled when he has a labor strike violently suppressed. One event even shows a man beginning to wonder how much he needs to sacrifice as a factory worker before he no longer has to work seventeen hours per day.
• Beard of Evil: Rodzaevsky's starting portrait has him with disheveled-looking stubble, which is less "Beard of Sorrow" as it is "Beard of Insanity". In his 70s portrait, Rodzaevsky grows it out into a slightly tidier, but no less sinister beard (complete with an almost Dastardly Whiplash-style moustache).
• Berserk Button: Having his offers of friendship snubbed. When Germany rejects an alliance with radio silence, Rodzaevsky goes ballistic and renounces all adoration of the Nazis from then on.
• The Caligula: By game start, Rodzaevsky is an insane, paranoid and megalomaniacal alcoholic ruling over a petty warlord state. Should he manage to consolidate his power, defeat his rivals and reunify Russia however, he gradually becomes more and more sane, if no less evil.
• Category Traitor: Rodzaevsky brands every Fascist he doesn't like (bonus points if they are aligned with Matkovsky, or are Matkovsky) as "Kosher fascists"^note A real term Rodzaevsky appropriated from British fascist Arnold Leese IRL for their apparent lack of ideological fervor and insufficient anti-semitism. When Matkovsky finds Amur's files about himself filled with this insult after Rodzaevsky's defeat, he can't help himself but smile at his old friend's antics.
• Defiant to the End: When defeated and captured by another Far Eastern warlord, Rodzaevsky does not stop raving at Jews and Bolsheviks and insulting his captors until his execution.
• Do Wrong, Right: Eventually, Rodzaevsky decides to invade the German sphere because he thinks that they have been corrupted by Zionist agents and thus no longer worthy of spearheading the National Socialist cause.
• Evil Feels Good: Reunifying the Far East and watching his enemies suffer is the first comforting thought that Rodzaevsky has in a long time.
• Faux Affably Evil: Rodzaevsky is described as being a fiery and impassioned orator who has a certain amount of genuine charisma, with the game even referring to him as "The Vozhd of the Russians" (which implies he's able to win ordinary people over with his charm and confidence). This stands in sharp contrast to him also being a ghastly madman with genocidal ambitions.
• Foil:
  • Over time, he's revealed to be one, in a rather perverse sense, to Sergey Taboritsky. In admiration of Germany's leadership, both seek to subjugate Russia under Nazism as insane, megalomaniacal leaders of their respective factions. Taboritsky differs by following monarchist ideals and adopting Esoteric Nazism as a regent, sincerely believing that he will pass his power over to a rightful Tsarevich, while Rodzaevsky is a committed fascist planning to hoard his power to himself, to the point where he eventually rejects his earlier approval of the Reich. Furthermore, Rodzaevsky progressively becomes more composed and sane (though no less vile) towards the 70s, almost in a warped reversal of Taboritsky's Sanity Slippage.
  • He is also one to Gutrum Vagner, another National Socialist warlord on the other side of Russia. Both of them are disturbed leaders that practice Nazism and seek an alliance with Germany, who will want nothing to do with either of them and take their diplomatic letters with bewilderment. However, Vagner operates with a cult-like demeanor, worshipping the Germans as gods and believing that they will recognize his organization's attempts to "Aryanize" themselves, while Rodzaevsky has had comparatively more experience, makes no attempt to Germanize Russian culture, does not believe in a Master Race and will eventually conclude that Germany should not be Russia's ally, thinking that they have failed to follow National Socialism and that his nation and people will stand just fine on their own.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Rodzaevsky is slavishly loyal to Japan, constantly giving them all sorts of benefits and thinking that they are natural allies owing to his past collaboration. Truthfully, Japan has no respect for Rodzaevsky and his band of thugs, only supporting him because he's so generous towards them.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: While not exactly a nobody to begin with, at start of the game, Rodzaevsky is nothing more than a paranoid, alcoholic loser in the middle of nowhere, who has delusions of grandeur, and who wishes for German approval. By the time he unifies Russia, he has shed his alcoholism and paranoia, become more sane and competent, and has come to the realization that the Germans are not Russia's friends. He still remains a violent fascist after all of this, though.
• The Fundamentalist: He considers himself a paragon of the Christian faith and believes that God has ordained him to combat the "forces of the Devil" (that is, anyone who doesn't share his ideology).
• Hated by All: Rodzaevsky's extremist tendencies have turned one faction of his party against him and pretty much everyone in the Far East despises his faction. Even Sablin, who has a tendency to forgive his opponents or just imprison them in his least brutal route, decides that he must die for peace to be restored to the east.
• Hate Sink: Violent, hateful, paranoid and megalomaniacal, Rodzaevsky is arguably the most despicable warlord in all of Russia bar none, even if his rule may not be the worst outcome for Russia objectively. Leaders like Yazov and Tukhachevsky may have sympathetic goals, while other Nazi-adjacent warlords like Velimir and Taboritsky are so insane that they are at least entertaining or even pitiable in their delusions. Rodzyevsky, meanwhile, commits his atrocities with a (mostly) sane mind, and out of no other convictions but zeal, hate and lust for power. His only real positive trait is caring for his pet.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Incredibly misogynistic, Rodzaevsky considers women to be the inherently stupider sex, fit only to serve as domestic housemakers. Though he founds the Russian Women's Fascist Movement to educate them on their roles, he thinks that they are barely smart enough to comprehend their lessons.
• Heel Realization: Initially Defied, but eventually played straight. If defeated by the Father, Rodzaevsky thoroughly renounces his religion or any opportunity to repent for his atrocities, even spitting on the boots of the pastor. However, on the day he is to be executed, Men pays a final visit to Rodzaevsky in his private quarters. No one knows what words were exchanged between them, but it was enough to elicit a rare moment of actual grief from the defeated Vozhd over his crimes, enough to get him to accept his due punishment calmly.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Rodzaevsky still thinks the Nazis could be valuable allies to Amur in cleansing Russia of Bolshevism... even though they've killed millions of his countrymen in their genocidal war of aggression. It's not clear why Rodzaevsky is so unwilling to change his mind on this even after it caused a split within the RFP. It could be that he views the widespread destruction as a necessary cost in eradicating communism for good... or he's just that bloodthirsty and immoral that he doesn't care about all the innocent people who've gotten burned. Subverted, however, when he unifies Russia, at which point he turns against Germany for supposedly not following National Socialism properly.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Fear. The rank-and-file members of the RFP have learned to obey the Vozhd's every word because to do otherwise would mean a purge. Whenever Rodzaevsky's period of random purges stops, everyone can breathe a little easier.
• Irony: Rodzaevsky is mentioned as having a hatred of communism, but of the other Far East unifiers, his situation at the start is closest to Genrikh Yagoda's - both being older hardliners of an ideology (Fascism and Communism) who face mutinies by a younger, more idealistic leader (Mikhail Matkovsky and Valery Sablin) who practices a less extreme version of the same ideology (National Socialism from Rodzaevsky vs Matkovsky's regular Fascism; Bolshevism from Yagoda vs Sablin's Leninism), and will likely die if they are not the one to unify the region.
• Lack of Empathy: Befitting a fascist dicator, Rodzaevsky has no concern for the people he oppresses, considering them non-human. He's not even disgusted by the horrid conditions of a concentration camp and what the prisoners are subjected to, something that his economic minister nearly vomits at.
• Lonely Piano Piece: In stark contrast to virtually all the other Russian warlords, whose reunification themes tend to be uplifting or ominous marching songs and orchestral pieces, Amur's is Erik Satie's subdued and somewhat mournful Gnossienne No.1. Even as he accomplishes his dreams of revenge, Rodzaevsky remains a bitter and empty man who has destroyed all of his real friendships and surrounded himself with ambitious sycophants.
• No True Scotsman: Other Fascists that he doesn't like are dubbed "Kosher Fascists," and he especially feels this away about Matkovsky and his allies. Should he reunify Russia, he will extend this label to Germany, dropping the intention to ally with them and believing that they are not practicing National Socialism correctly.
• Nostalgia Filter: Rodzaevsky can reject Bolotov's proposal to create the OOB on the simple grounds that the Blackshirts are the original paramilitary group of the RFP and thus automatically better.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Much as he despises Bukharin, Rodzaevsky acknowledges he had a good idea with rapid industrialization under the Siberian Plan, in which he repurposes this campaign for his own means.
• The Paranoiac: Although he was already a bitter and hateful man, Rodzaevsky became even more vindictive and paranoid after Matkovsky's defection. Combined with his preexisting nastiness, Rodzaevsky's purges got even more ruthless and extensive.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Despite being a violent Nazi, it seems even he has the capacity to care for others. In one flavor event, he feeds and adopts a stray kitten as his own, affectionately giving the kitten the name Mura.
  • In one of his purges, manipulated by Alexander Bolotov, Rodzaevsky is surprised to find his old friend, Lev Okhotin, on the list for supposed embezzlement and bribery. However, Rodzaevsky can take Okhotin's name off the list, thinking that he would never do something like this. Even if he does choose to execute him instead, Rodzaevsky has the shred of decency to do so in private rather than listen to Bolotov's urges to humiliate him publicly.
  • If he manages to reach the superregional stage, Rodzaevsky is slightly gentler on Kemerovo than he is with the rest of Central Siberia, refraining from using concentration camp labor to build up the province like he does for the others and co-opting the royal unions and Rurik's legacy to serve the RFP. He views Rurik as someone whose views on traditionalism and class collaboration were not far removed from the RFP, but who was brought down by Judeo-Bolshevik influences.
• Poke the Poodle: If Barry Goldwater (a Jew) becomes President of the United States, Rodzaevsky will send him a denouncing letter full of anti-Semitic tirades, calling him "one of the most corrupt and black-hearted Judeans of them all" who manipulated the American population to ensure the total Zionist domination. At the end of the letter, he declares that no matter how Goldwater and the Jewish ruling class feel confident in their untouchability, the American people will eventually take action against their yoke and the Russian people will aid them.
  "That ought to put him in his place!"
• Politically Incorrect Villain: As you would expect from a National Socialist, Rodzaevsky has a bitter hatred for Jews.
• Pragmatic Villainy: In the regional stage, Rodzaevsky purges the more thuggish and overtly violent members of the RFP because such tactics are no longer useful for a larger country.
• The Purge: Rodzaevsky's paranoia is so severe that anyone suspected of being a traitor, a foreign agent, or not sufficiently loyal to the RFP will be executed sooner rather than later. As a result, Amur's government is filled with sycophants in lieu of competent administrators and commanders.
• The Quisling: As was the case in real life, he previously collaborated with the Japanese Empire and used the blackshirts to do their bidding (which included kidnapping people for the Kwantung Army to use as test subjects in Unit 731). During the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Japanese showered him and his blackshirts with Japanese materiel, training, and basically anything else that he could dream of, in exchange for the implied Japanese influence in Russia if he manages to unify the country.
• Right-Hand Cat: Rodzaevsky adopts a stray cat and names it Mura.
• Sanity Strengthening: As time passes, Rodzaevsky gradually composes himself and becomes less and less insane, if no less vile.
• The Social Darwinist: He justifies his atrocities as a net benefit to the human race. If someone perishes in the horrid working conditions he sets in his country, they were apparently unfit to live anyway in a "survival of the fittest" world.
• Straight Edge Evil: He gradually gets his act together, composing himself and eventually doing away with his more self-destructive habits. By the 70s, he even tidies up, complete with a beard.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Should Amur be the one to unify Russia, being an insane fascist that grows somewhat saner and more pragmatic the longer he remains in rule.
• Unwitting Pawn: His mood swings and paranoia make him an easy tool for his subordinates, especially Shekherev and Bolotov, to get rid of their own enemies, listing their names for Rodzaevsky to purge.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • His rant about the factories' decrepit state is directed at a legitimate concern that must be corrected in the regional stage by encouraging class collaboration and improved equipment.
  • In the Second Party Congress, Rodzaevsky accurately points out the constant infighting between Shekherev and Bolotov that ultimately weakens the entire party, threatening to kill them if they dare threaten the state's stability again.
• Warhawk: The Russian military is a jewel in Rodzaevsky's eyes and he modernizes it so that he can prepare for future wars against the "Zionist puppets to [the] west".
• We Used to Be Friends: Even after defeating and executing Matkovsky and the monarchists, Rodzaevsky still remembers a time where he once called them friends. The atmosphere of Harbin and the scarcity of resources in their struggle made cooperation between the Whites and the fascists absolutely necessary. There were always arguments, but there were both good times and bad. Sharing dinner and a vodka with Ataman Semyonov, or drunkenly belting out White Army songs with Matkovsky from his balcony into the chilly, Manchurian night.
• Windmill Crusader: He deludes himself into thinking he's a righteous warrior fighting against a Jewish international cabal that seeks to spread communism and liberalism throughout the world.
• Worthy Opponent: Much as he hates Matkovsky, he does acknowledge him as a fellow nationalist and far more honorable than WerBell's mercenaries.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When his letter asking for an alliance between fellow Nazis reaches Germany, the minister of foreign affairs initially believes it to be a prank, if not the work of a madman. They're in such disbelief that it is serious that they throw it in the garbage.

Georgy Shekherev

Role: Military Commander, Foreign Minister (Rodzaevsky cabinet), Secretary of Defence^note Security Minister (WerBell cabinet)

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya^note Russian Fascist Party

Ideology: Clerical Fascism^note National Socialism, Military Junta^note Despotism (WerBell cabinet)

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Born in Imperial Russia in 1916, a mere few years before the Russian Revolution tore down the centuries-old Imperial Institutions, Georgy Vladimirovich Shekherev found himself and his family relocating to Harbin following the victory of the Soviets over the White movement. Briefly training to become a Russian school teacher in Harbin during his youth, he instead found himself enticed by the Asano Detachment - a force of ethnic Russians commanded by Japanese officers in the Kwantung Army.

As the Asano Detachment evolved to a number of basically-independent brigades, Shekherev found himself a satellite of the Russian Fascist Party, many members of which were also a part of the Asano Brigades. Finding himself engrossed in the movement, he further fell into the orbit of Rodzaevsky when reading his works, especially the ABCs of Fascism. Ultimately joining the party and subsequently its Blackshirt paramilitary wing, Shekherev impressed his peers and superiors with his devotion to the cause and ability to get just about any task done, no matter the amount of work or degree of brutality required.

Since the party's arrival upon the Amur, Shekherev has found himself a prominent position both in the party and at the side of Konstantin Rodzaevsky as the head of the RFP's Blackshirt movement. A man at a crossroads, Shekherev is desperate to transition the party away from Alexander Bolotov's thuggery, driving an increasingly large wedge between the two men. However, he is chained to the nature and purpose of the organization that he runs.

---

• Les Collaborateurs:
  • Living in Harbin after the Russian Revolution, Shekherev joined the Asano Detachment, an army of Russians commanded by Japanese officers in the Kwantung Army. This was where he first met the founding members of the RFP.
  • If WerBell unifies the Far East, Shekherev will be allowed to join their ranks in exchange for a release from prison.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Shekherev is allowed to join WerBell's cause when he reunifies the Far East, but there's no indication that he's actually renounced his views and not trying to just get out of imprisonment.
• A Lighter Shade of Black:
  • In his conflict with Bolotov, Shekherev is the more moderate and restrained of the two, even if he is no less vile or anti-Semitic.
  • Shekherev is also the only one of Amur's starting commmanders to not join up with Andrey Dikiy's Regency after the collapse of the Holy Russian Empire, and while it's unlikely his pragmaticism saved him, Shekherev is nowhere to be seen After Midnight.
• Meet the New Boss: If Shekherev emerges as the more dominant member of Rodzaevsky's inner circle, it's hinted that he's more likely to continue his Vozhd's policies with a more professional face.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He opposes the mafia-like and mindlessly brutal methods advocated by Bolotov because it would reflect badly on the RFP and make it harder for them to seem like a legitimate state.
• The Purge: To curry Rodzaevsky's favor about his usefulness, Shekherev gives him lists of supposed traitors to sate the Vozhd's paranoia and desire to purge the state of any enemies.
• The Quiet One: Shekherev is less prominent on the Congress floor than Bolotov because he prefers to work from the shadows and silently take out those are suspected to be internal enemies.
• The Spymaster: Commanding the Blackshirts, Shekherev spies on his fellow RFP members for potential Zionist or communist sympathies that would get them purged by the Vozhd.

Alexander Bolotov

Role: Chief of Internal Security^note Security Minister (Rodzaevsky cabinet)

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya^note Russian Fascist Party

Ideology: Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Alexander Alexandrovich Bolotov was born and raised under unclear circumstances before fleeing the Soviet Union to Harbin in 1926. Since joining up with the Russian Fascist Party, his dedication to his party and his Vozhd has been matched only by his willing violence towards the enemies of the party and the Russian people.

As the Vozhd's paranoia has only begun to increase as a result of the splitter Matkovsky and the collapse of the unified front with the monarchists, Bolotov has intensified his influence over the dictator, frequently having his ear when recommending names for purges. More often than not, however, these names are those that Alexander Bolotov had previous misgivings with...

---

• Ax-Crazy: Bolotov is an incredibly brutal man with a degree of personal bloodlust that's hard to rival; his idea of "stress relief" consists of spending hours beating prisoners to death with crowbars. He is by far the most despicable member of the Russian Fascist Party's leadership, which is impressive given that...well, it's the Russian Fascist Party.
  • If the Siberian Black Army takes over the Far East, Bolotov survives and manages to Take a Level in Jerkass in spite of already being a bloodthirsty maniac to begin with. When the Jews and other minorities that the RFP deported from Blagoveshchensk are invited back, he goes completely off the deep end and murders them in droves under the belief that he is the new, true Vozhd of Russia.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Bolotov is despised by Rodzaevsky, but he can't be purged yet because his skills are too useful to dispose of so soon.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Taking advantage of Rodzaevsky's paranoia, Bolotov purges his enemies by giving their names to the Vozhd, convincing him that they are internal enemies who need to be eliminated. More often than not, these names were past rivals of Bolotov that needed to be eliminated.
• The Dreaded: Bolotov is feared by almost all of the RFP leadership for his willingness to sate Rodzaevsky's paranoia through frequent purges, and unsettles even Rodzaevsky himself. He becomes this for the town of Rodzaevsk as well if the Siberian Black Army takes over Eastern Siberia, devolving even further from an Ax-Crazy Dragon to a plain Serial Killer.
• More Despicable Minion: Bolotov embodies all of Rodzaevsky's worst traits without the few Pet the Dog moments that sometimes humanize the Vozhd. At his core, Bolotov only cares about his self-aggrandizement and bloodlust, engaging in levels of thuggery that not even the rest of the RFP do.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: In lieu of knowledge as to his identity when he becomes a Serial Killer who terrorizes Rodzaevsk if the Central Siberian anarchists take over the Far East and returns the deported minority population, Bolotov becomes known as the "Ghost of Rodzaevsky".
• Pet the Dog: Bolotov likes Mura enough to keep him as a pet when he becomes the Ghost of Rodzaevsky. When he's caught in a stand-off with the Siberian anarchists, Mura rubs against his leg and Bolotov hesitates to roughly shoo him away.
• The Purge: A favored method of Bolotov to eliminate his rivals and build his power base. If someone ever crosses him, Bolotov only needs to put their name on Rodzaevsky's list, targeting them as an enemy for the paranoid Vozhd to execute.
• Sadist: Even by the standards of the RFP, Bolotov is exceptionally cruel, often beating prisoners to death with a crowbar whenever he needs to vent his frustration.
• Sanity Slippage: Already a horrendously cruel man, Bolotov goes off the deep end if the Siberian Black Army reunifies Central and Eastern Siberia, and slips into the town of Rodzaevsk to murder formerly deported Jews and other minorities as they return home under the belief that he is Rodzaevsky's successor.
• State Sec: To limit the influence of his rival Shekherev, Bolotov can convince Rodzaevsky to dismiss the Blackshirts as ineffective and create a new paramilitary group called the Otryady Obespecheniya Bezopasnosti, which will be trained to root out more internal enemies in Amur.

Magadan

^{Flag of the Siberian National Republic}

^{Flag of the Republic of West Alaska}

^{Flag of the United States of Russia}

Official Name: Free State of Magadan, Republic of West Alaska (WerBell coup), Siberian National Republic (regional unification), United States of Siberia (WerBell regional unification), Russian National Republic (national unification), United States of Russia (WerBell national unification)

Ruling Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya^note Russian Fascist Party

Ideology: Corporatism^note Fascism

The distant port town of Magadan is controlled by a splinter group of the Russian Fascist Party under Mikhail Matkovsky, who split with Rodzaevsky due to the latter's crazed support to Nazi Germany even as they genocided the Russian people. Matkovsky prefers more pragmatic and calculated methods to build his All-Russian nation, and is seeking connections in America to support his rising movement.

---

• Actually Pretty Funny: When the Republic of West Alaska is proclaimed, many international observers voice their incredulity about its byzantine nature, including one captain who visits the country to trade auto parts. When one Russian overhears the captain's comment, he bursts into laughter.
• Affectionate Nickname: In WerBell's Russia, the new host of Radio Free Magadan is nicknamed "Roast Beef" by both mercenary and civilian.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Magadan's invasion of Amur is codenamed "D-Day" in a timeline where the Normandy landings never occurred.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In case WerBell picks a pro-OFN economic policy, he advertises the Far East as new grounds for American companies to grow without government oversight, luring all sorts of entrepreneurs to move in and start investing there. Unfortunately, they realize too late that it was a honey trap. In Siberia, the infrastructure is horrible and labor is often unavailable, causing investors to leave the companies and force them to bail out to the government. However, by accepting WerBell's offer, things get even worse as they are now forced to donate a fraction of their revenue and products to the government in their reconstruction efforts, essentially trapping them in Russia and forever in debt to helping the mercenaries.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Under Matkovsky in the superregional stage, the authority of the State Intelligence Agency is expanded, engaging in outright wire tapping to arrest and execute even more people who have been deemed traitors.
• Bilingual Bonus: The flag for West Alaska has text translating to "Republic of West Alaska" and "Fortune favors the bold", communicating the change in regime from Matkovsky's fascists to WerBell's mercenaries.
• Condescending Compassion: In broadcast 45 from the Magadan Free Radio, the hosts advertise some American-imported deodorant, in which one of them says that it would be perfect for the "Siberian savages out there in the woods". Everyone, including the other host and the Siberian hunters listening to the broadcast, is astounded at his obliviousness.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The port of Magadan is one of the most developed and important cities of the Far East, but that's all the region was good for, since a whole Russia wouldn't need to develop it for any other use. With Magadan all alone, every area around it is severely undeveloped and useless to the RFP, making it an immediate priority for Matkovsky to fix with an industrialization plan.
• Defector from Decadence: Matkovsky and his faction of the RFP believe that Rodzaevsky is too excessive and too pro-Nazi, so they decided to split off from them.
• Disappeared Dad: When news of WerBell's coup breaks out, an American journalist is sent to write a story about it. As he spends more time with the mercenaries, the journalist comes to enjoy the freelance life more than his time in America and stays far longer than he should, abandoning his family and even cheating on his wife. By the time he comes back, he's rejected by his family as a deadbeat dad and forced to return to the mercenary lifestyle for good.
• Dumbass Has a Point: If Radio Free Magadan is allowed to run with less government interference, the two hosts celebrate the occasion, with Sergei exclaiming that the right to assembly should be guaranteed in Magadan like it is in America. It's a surprisingly astute statement from a man whose acted like a complete buffoon prior, something that his co-host acknowledges.
• Enemy Mine:
  • While both Matkovsky's Magadan and the White Army in Transbaikal don't like each other very much, they are both aware of how insane and dangerous Rodzaevsky's Amur is, and form a pact early on to take him out of the picture.
  • In an attempt to gain the upper hand against its enemies and counterbalance Japanese interests in the Russian Far East, Magadan under Vozhd Matkovsky seeks aid and recognition from the superpower which is the most opposed to the values of Fascism: the United States of America. Maintaining relations with them is vital to Magadan's survival and reunification campaign.
• Evil Reactionary: The Old Guard of the RNTP, formed after Magadan unifies the Far East, is made out of fascist hardliners. As there is practically no desire for a Rodzaevsky-style return to extremist ideals among the populace or the political class, the hardliners are isolated and powerless, mostly made up of obscure, ineffectual figures.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: After WerBell's coup, he renames Magadan to the Republic of West Alaska because it's literally west of Alaska.
• The Federation: After Magadan unifies the Far East, Matkovsky adopts a federalist model, affording each individual province or territory some amount of autonomy and independence from the federal government.
• From Nobody to Nightmare:
  • Magadan's military initially starts out weak and poorly disciplined with outdated equipment. However, bringing mercenaries and military advisors to train them will drastically transform them into a proper fighting force, even impressing Matkovsky.
  • The mercenaries aren't much better, being ill-disciplined and inexperienced in regards to battle tactics. Frustrated, WerBell enacts a harsh training program to get them back into shape.
• Going Native: To survive the harsh Siberian climate, Magadan's soldiers adopt a training regime based on how the Siberian natives cope with the extreme environment.
• Good Feels Good: If the Blackshirts are reformed in the regional stage, one of their members acknowledges how good it feels to no longer be treated with fear and dread by the people, which motivates him to actually help them rather than terrorize.
• Gone Horribly Right: Matkovsky's reformist pretensions and attempts to attract the OFN could wind up backfiring, as they could lead to Nikolay Petlin taking power and genuinely living up to said claims.
• Grim Up North: Magadan's most immediate concern is preparing for the winter, but no matter how much effort they put into it, supplies dwindle and equipment becomes near-dysfunctional. This forces Magadan to open up to foreign aid from the Principality, the United States, and the Russian émigrés led by Anastasy Vonsiatsky.
• The Gulag: At the regional stage, Magadan repurposes the infrastructure of Dalstroy, a Soviet forced labor trust, to build a network of concentration camps for political dissidents, since executing them outright would give a bad look.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • The logo of the Magadan Free Radio, as seen in events, is based on the logo of Radio Free Europe.
  • The name of Matkovsky's faction in the newly-founded Russian National Labor Party is Trudoviki (Laborists) - the same name as the Social Democrat group in the Imperial Russia that was led by Alexander Kerensky.
• Hypocrite: Matkovsky's wing of the RFP delineate themselves from Rodzaevsky's thuggery, even though one event clearly shows some of them ransacking and extorting a local shop.
• Is This Thing Still On?: In the first broadcast of the Magadan Free Radio, one of the co-hosts, named Sergei, shouts the name of his colleague Vasily into the microphone (likely blowing off a few eardrums) when he notices Vasily hasn't taken his seat yet. They then introduce Matkovsky and the Magadan Free Radio to the audience, only to immediately return to lip-smacking:
  What the fuck is wrong with yo-
• Lethally Stupid: Sergei, one of the hosts of Magadan Free Radio, acts a like a total bozo in every broadcast, but he reaches a new level in broadcast 60, where he presents an M1911 handgun and waves it around like a maniac before he starts negligently discharging it.
• Meaningful Rename: In the regional stage, the Russian Fascist Party is renamed to the Russian National Labor Party to reflect Matkovsky's attempts to distance himself from Rodzaevsky and his negative reputation.
• Merchant City: With Vladivostok having fallen into Japanese hands, Magadan becomes Russia's main trade hub on the Pacific. Smugglers from Kamchatka and Alaska carry goods to be processed into the city every day, and Matkovsky's government grows from these riches.
• MegaCorp:
  • Under Matkovsky, Russian and American corporations are encouraged to expand their operations in his realm, free to exploit the common laborers for the benefit of the state and their profits. He can even create the All-Russian Council of Corporations to give them greater sway over the country's economic policy.
  • Similar American corporations can be propped up by WerBell, if he pursues an open door policy of letting them run amok in Siberia. Even if he doesn't pursue this policy, WerBell will instead encourage the growth of companies loyal to him, giving them unfair advantages in the market for a price.
• Ironic Name: Despite the event's name "Fair Elections", the narrative shows that the former Salons of Tomsk have been outlawed as political parties and the RNLP wins a whopping ninety-five percent of the vote.
• Not-So-Safe Harbor: On top of being a major economic hub, Magadan itself has gained notoriety as a den for smugglers and mercenaries. These are tolerated by Matkovsky's clique for so long as they contribute to the RFP's cause, keep the lines to American waters open, and don't cause too much trouble. Said mercenaries, under WerBell's command can seize control, however.
• Old Soldier: Numerous mercenaries under the employ of WerBell are old veterans who participated as far back as the Russian Civil War.
• Opportunistic Bastard: The mercenaries hired by Matkovsky have no loyalty to his cause. They desert as soon as things start going south for them against the White Army and return to serve the latter when they are looking for employment.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: Matkovsky's fascist dictatorship is officially known as the Free State of Magadan, although by all accounts it is less counter-productively violent or repressive as the other nearby fascist states like Amur and Japan.
• Perspective Flip: In an early event, an RFP thug named Vlad is introduced extorting pay from a shopkeeper and patronizingly calling him one of his "favorite customers". However, the proceeding event paints Vlad in a more pitiful light from his daughter's perspective, revealing that he's Secretly Dying from natural causes and used to be a decent man, until age wore him down.
• Pet the Dog: WerBell's mercenaries blindfold Rodzaevsky before he is about to be executed so that he won't have the displeasure of watching the soldiers prepare to shoot him.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Some members of the Laborists express unease about Matkovsky rejecting the creation of a Sobor because it will worsen the factional rivalry with the Reformists.
• Private Military Contractors: Magadan has the option to hire mercenary factions such as Mitchell WerBell in order to solve its manpower shortage.
• The Purge: While not as bad as Rodzaevsky's, Matkovsky conducts his own purges against suspected traitors, having them taken away to the woods to be shot.
• Put on a Bus: When WerBell unifies the Far East, his head of government, Nancy Wake, decides to leave Russia, boarding a boat from Magadan and passing the position to Gordon Ingram.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Under WerBell, Magadan's military becomes a hodge-podge group of blackshirts, mercenaries, and explorers, as the state serves as a haven for all sorts of outcasts to join and enrich themselves.
• Red Baron: A mercenary who joins WerBell in the regional stage, is nicknamed the "Man of a Thousand Lives", owing to his mercenary experience in many foreign nations.
• The Remnant: With Matkovsky's Laborists shifting away from fascism and Petlin's reformists rising in reaction, the Old Guard of the party become the last retainers of the party's fascist ideology. However, with bad memories of Rodzaevsky still fresh in everyone's mind, they are effectively powerless and only kept around to make Matkovsky look good by comparison.
• Secret Police: Matkovsky uses the NKVD as an inspiration for his own intelligence service: the State Intelligence Agency, a body consisting of spies, commissars, and secret police, whose task is to investigate dissent and monitor the enemy.
• Settling the Frontier: Under WerBell's pro-American economic policy, small American businesses can migrate to the Far East and settle down there, free to work with no oversight from a "Big Government". One settling businessman even calls the land a new wild west.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: The hosts of Radio Free Magadan act as comedic reliefs during the early game. However, in the regional stage, Matkovsky has the option to have them "disposed of" to ensure that the station is totally loyal to his word, signaling how serious he is about clamping down on potential dissidents.
• Shown Their Work: The symbol on Magadan's flag is a badge of Saint Vladimir, used by the RFP to indicate the religions of its members.
• Start My Own: Matkovsky and his faction started their own government after an ideological schism with Rodzaevsky.
• Suddenly Significant City: While Magadan had already been known as a budding port town and a key component in the original Dalstroy system, the subsequent loss of Vladivostok to Japan, the ensuing collapse of the Soviet Union, and consolidation of Matkovsky's RFP clique made it the key trading hub in the Far East and a vital point-of-entry for any potential American aid.
• Super-Fun Happy Thing of Doom: In the superregional stage, Matkovsky establishes the State Department of Moral Decency to ensure that all press and political views are in-line with the Vozhd's. If someone doesn't, they'll get arrested.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: If the Far East is unified by WerBell, he'll need to manage the influence and opinion of the mercenaries, locals, and collaborators, who fiercely debate over how Russia should be governed.
• Took a Level in Badass: Exclusively in in WerBell's path, a minor subplot follows a Texan soldier named Jack "Python" Svoboda who starts off pretty pathetic and witless, even missing a couple gunshots when he ambushes some enemy soldiers. As time passes, his marksmanship rapidly improves, until he's promoted to a sergeant and fires at a group of sneaking troops by pure detection.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: Befitting WerBell's opportunism, he allows captured enemy officials and soldiers to join the Army rather than go to prison.
• Villains Out Shopping: At one point, some drunk RFP members from Magadan confuse an American smuggler for John Wayne, who goes along with the misconception just to have one night of drinking and watching a terrible movie adaptation of Captain America.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The two hosts of Magadan Free Radio, Sergei and Vasily, are personal friends with each other, despite the former's constant screw ups that gets on his colleague's nerves.
• We ARE Struggling Together:
  • Despite Werbell's mercenaries being brought over to the RFP's cause, both organizations have a tense relationship, with the former's drunk antics often getting the latter in trouble and thus earning their ire.
  • Matkovsky's token reforms creates tensions and factional sentiments in his own party, between the Vozhd's loyalists and Petlin's genuine reformists. Inevitably, both sides will come to blows and determine the future of the Republic.

Mikhail Matkovsky

^{70s Matkovsky portrait}

Role: Head of State

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya^note Russian Fascist Party, Russkaya Natsionalnaya Trudovaya Partiya - Trudoviki^note Russian National Labor Party - Trudoviks (regional)

Ideology: Corporatism^note Fascism, Civilian Dictatorship^note Despotism (Regional Unification)

60's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} In so many ways, Mikhail Alexeevich Matkovsky displays a form of Russian fascism that contrasts itself against Rodzaevsky's formulation. Where Rodzaevsky is dogmatic, he is pragmatic. Where Rodzaevsky is a skilled, fiery orator, he is the negotiator, using his tact and political acumen to sway political enemies to his side. Where Rodzaevsky praised the anti-Semitic initiatives from the Blackshirts, Matkovsky despised their thuggery. For a brief moment, their goals aligned. The results of their cooperation saw the membership RFP rise and peak, as more and more Russian émigrés saw the appeal of fascism.

Then the Great Patriotic War erupted. With the Germans waging a conflict of extermination upon Russia, the differences between these two simmered. Despite Hitler's destructive, genocidal intent, Rodzaevsky sought his support, dreaming of a Russia free from Bolshevism at last. Matkovsky had no such illusions. Germany's war against the Soviet Union, and therefore against Russia, lay bare their racial hatred for Russians. No matter what appeal the RFP could garner, the Nazis did not factor any independent Russia into their plans. However, true to Matkovsky's tact, he and his clique remained silent and bided their time, growing their power in the intervening years.When the time came, they seized the city of Magadan from Rodzaevsky, driving the loyalists out and officially splitting the party. Now in charge of his own domain, Matkovsky seeks to save Russia from her ruin. The means to this end lay across the ocean, past the Japanese: America. However, even for an experienced negotiator such as Matkovsky, convincing any foreign power is a difficult task; yet, he will not let mere doubt stop him.

70's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)} The hum of the gramophone, the clatter of silverware against plates, the gleam of rooms bedecked in gold and silver - all the riches of the world, within Mikhail Alexeevich Matkovsky's grasp. Yet, he felt it all ebb away, the pangs of pain below his ribs like seizures that recalled Harbin. Before the face of death, every man lives in poverty; the Vozhd of Russia was not an exception. The scent of wine and lure morphine seemed to deaden his episodes. However, when morning comes, the Vozhd stands before his doom: a slow, painful death, dealt with by dice belonging to jesters of fate and chance.

The chemotherapy, medicines, pills, tablets, all he tried, to no avail. His American friends, who had rescued him from the jaws of defeat time and again, could only upraise their shoulders in a shrug. Matkovsky was old. Only now, at the apex of his power, he entered the nadir of his existence. No amount of political connections, schemes, and purges could cure him. Woe was he! If only he could tear out his liver and be done with it - but no. Matkovsky's lot was to live, and live he shall.

When one's death is beyond doubt, all that remains is not what glitters, hums, or clatters, but the quiet preponderance of one's legacy. So Matkovsky looks to the west, across the barbed wires that demarked Russian and German territory. Here will be where he shall sear his name unto the annals of history. Through war or peace, the Vozhd no longer cared.

The method is secondary; the ends justify the means - for, after all, the end is near and nigh.

---

• Actually Pretty Funny: After defeating Amur, Matkovsky pays a visit to Rodzaevsky's old office to look up his old file in the RFP records, where he finds that his old boss has written long, run-on sentences cursing him and denouncing him as a "Kosher Fascist". Matkovsky is quite amused by this insult.
• All for Nothing: Upon learning about his cancer, Matkovsky realizes that for all his plots, purges and gambits to stay at the top, he will not live long enough to savor his victory, even as he unifies Russia.
• Bait the Dog: When imprisoned by a victorious Petlin, Matkovsky curses his foreign minister, until the latter tells him that he will take care of Russia to the best of his abilities. For a moment, a flash of sympathy is given by Matkovsky before he turns back around and swears that he will torment Petlin in Hell if he fails.
• Bald of Evil: By the beginning of the 70s, Matkovsky has become completely bald, probably because of the cancer that is diagnosed when he unifies Russia.
• Broken Pedestal: Matkovsky's father fought with the White Army during the Russian Civil War, which used to make his son well-respected by them. Now that they stand opposed, Matkovsky is denounced as a traitor to the movement and undeserving of his father's legacy.
• Cincinnatus: Subverted. Matkovsky calls himself a benevolent dictator and a "true Cincinnatus", but only to seem like a more desirable partner to the United States. Otherwise, he has zero intention of letting go of power.
• Cruel Mercy:
  • Matkovsky spares Sablin by exiling him to an isolated wilderness, leaving him with nothing but a revolver, a coat and a loaf of black bread.
  • Downplayed, but he gets on the receiving end should WerBell's takeover result in him taking exile in America. He spends the rest of his days in relative comfort among the Russian exiles in San Francisco, not too unlike the old days in Harbin. On the other hand, despite being popular, he has to live knowing that this time, he has no real political power, and that he could never return to Russia.
• Destroy the Evidence: Upon arrival in the conquered Irkutsk, Matkovsky orders his grunts to burn down all NKVD papers, in order to destroy the evidence of his past NKVD connections during his life in Harbin.
• Do Not Go Gentle: Even when his advisors urge him to go to the United States to treat his cancer, Matkovsky refuses, distrusting his subordinates to govern Russia while he's away. The last thing he resolves to do before he dies is retake Moscow and cement his legacy in history forever.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: One of the reasons he defected from Rodzaevsky is that he was disgusted with the unhinged antisemitism and bigotry of the blackshirts. One example of it early on is when he decides to hire native Siberians as advisors and trainers for his army, so his men could survive the harsh Siberian winter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Matkovsky betrayed Rodzaevsky in the past simply because he found his methods too thuggish and his admiration of Germany too unbearable.
• Faux Affably Evil: Matkovsky doesn't have Rodzaevsky's personal magnetism but he's much more laid-back and even-handed even if he's still a fascist. However, his true colors as a cruel dictator are exposed when he rages against a successful coup by Petlin or when he's informed of his cancer.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears a pair of glasses and just because he's better than Rodzaevsky doesn't necessarily mean he's a good guy.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Matkovsky allows Petlin to create the Siberian Bill of Rights to give off the image of liberalization and earn the sympathy of the United States. However, Petlin can expand the Bill of Rights to have fewer loopholes and contribute to his potential coup against the Vozhd.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Matkovsky eventually settles on writing down his views and experiences after winding up as an exile in America following WerBell's takeover.
• Join or Die: If WerBell's coup fails, Matkovsky gives his remaining men the option to serve his cause for real or face death.
• Karma Houdini: Downplayed. Following WerBell's successful coup, he's not only revealed to have a relatively comfortable exile in America, but is even entertaining the idea of writing down his ideas and experiences for future generations. On the other hand, though his remaining days are reminiscent of Harbin, he doesn't have any actual power anymore, and that he can never set foot in Russia.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: While Matkovsky is a fascist, he is a pragmatist that despises the Blackshirts' thuggery and recognizes Hitler's genocidal intent towards Russians, while his rival and former colleague Rodzaevsky is virulently antisemitic and so excessively radical that he has a positive view of the Nazis.
• Loophole Abuse: Keeping up the image of a democracy, Matkovsky allows the people to elect local officials, but the Peace Preservation Law allows the government to veto any candidates they deem a threat to "national safety".
  You get one vote, and one man to vote for.
• Metaphorically True: Not too unlike Shafarevich's regime in Komi, Matkovsky's rule feigns the functions and tenets of a democratic government to placate the United States, getting away with an otherwise "moderated" form of fascism through Weasel Words and technical loopholes. Whatever couldn't be explained away or hushed up, he could always send to Dalstroy, or quietly liquidate in the Siberian forests.
• Mole in Charge: Subverted. In addition to his NKVD connections, it's strongly implied that Matkovsky purposefully rose up the ranks and befriended Rodzaevsky to subvert the RFP's cause. On the other hand, he has no love for Yagoda's Irkutsk, being far more keen to lead his own fascist movement rather than following his old orders.
• Necessarily Evil: From Matkovsky's perspective, cozying up to the Americans is this, going so far as to pay lip service to democratic reforms if it means receiving ample OFN support.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Despite hating WerBell for trying to overthrow him, he can't deny that he was competent commander and borrows his old practices to enforce further discipline in the RFP's army.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Upon the arrival of Steve, Matkovsky can personally invite the tourist to meet him personally over a bottle over vodka. He even gifts him an enormous bearskin before Steve departs from Magadan.
  • When an American smuggler is invited to a casual RFP assembly, Matkovsky gives him a bottle of vodka to drink over the movie they watch.
  • Out of all Far East Russian unifiers, Matkovsky is amongst those who will end up exiling Michael Andreevich Romanov instead of executing him like Yagoda or Rodzaevsky.
  • To the peasants, Matkovsky gives them subsidies to repair their homes and equipment out of sympathy for the conflict and violence they faced prior.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Even though he moves away from fascism after reunifying the Far East, Matkovsky still holds ethnic minorities in contempt, gerrymandering voting districts so that they hold less representation in the government.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Matkovsky is a Fascist and one of the founders of the Russian Fascist Party, but he is far more pragmatic and flexible in regards to the ideology than Rodzaevsky. In the past, he attempted to downplay the most firebrand aspects of Fascism to attract more support from White émigrés, protested the use of the swastika as a symbol of the RFP and considered the anti-Semitic campaigns harmful for the image of the party. He retains his pragmatic interpretation of Fascism after betraying Rodzaevsky and establishing his own fiefdom in Magadan, and is ready to take some concessions to make his regime more attractive in the eyes of the public and America.
• The Purge: After arresting Petlin for treason, Matkovsky initiates a purge against the reformists in his party, solidifying his dictatorship's control.
• Repressive, but Efficient: Matkovsky could be said to be this compared to his former compatriot Rodzaevsky. He's shrewd enough to recognize that Rodzaevsky's frothing-at-the-mouth paranoia and antisemitism are counterproductive to the RFP's goals, so he rejects those in favor of a more "moderate" type of fascism.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • If he's defeated by the Father, Matkovsky will make an unsuccessful getaway from Magadan.
  • In the event of a successful mercenary coup, Matkovsky flees to the United States, losing all of his political power, but at least keeping his life from a mob of angry soldiers.
• Shoot the Messenger: A drunk Matkovsky has the doctor who informs him of his cancer diagnosis sent to Dalstroy.
• Shown Their Work: Matkovsky's NKVD connections are based on his real life exploits as the Soviets' mole within the RFP.
• The Starscream: In addition to turning on Rodzaevsky, he's also turned on his former NKVD superiors in Irkutsk to forge his own destiny.
• Start My Own: Matkovsky founded his own fascist party because he got fed up with Rodzaevsky's lack of restraint.
• Straight Man: Compared to the jovial Vonsiatsky and Werbell, Matkovsky is colder and more professional, disapproving of the overt hospitality they gained from living in America.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: Well, a happy ending for him, anyways, in WerBell's route. Despite getting overthrown in Magadan, Matkovsky escapes and settles peacefully in the United States, where he gets to host celebrations with the other Russian émigrés and hold some fraction of power as their leader. He even thinks about writing an autobiography to inspire a new generation of fascists on American soil. It's a far better ending than learning he has cancer or getting disgracefully couped by Petlin.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: In the regional stage, Matkovsky is given mutually exclusive focuses to either solidify his tyrannical power or liberalize the country at Petlin's behest. Obviously, Matkovsky must engage in the former if he is to retain power. Otherwise, Petlin wields the influence to coup the Vozhd.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Despite being a fascist warlord, Matkovsky wants to improve his image to the outside world in order to attract support from the US and the OFN in order to unify Russia. He's even got a positive reputation in his own state, with several naïve recruits joining the military to serve him and many Russian willingly immigrating to his state.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • If Petlin launches his coup to take over Magadan, Matkovsky will have to be dragged, screaming angry insults in disbelief of this betrayal.
  • When he is informed by a doctor that he has cancer, Matkovsky goes absolutely livid and orders his guards to sentence the messenger to Dalstroy.
• Wicked Cultured: He enjoys drinking vintage vodka and listens to age-old songs, including Tchaikovsky.
• You Can't Go Home Again: After seemingly disappearing from the public eye following WerBell seizing power, Matkovsky's revealed to have taken exile in America. Though he can never return to Russia, he takes solace in that his remaining days are relatively comfortable and somewhat reminiscent of his Harbin days.
• Your Days Are Numbered: By the time he unifies Russia in the 70s, he's diagnosed with cancer, giving him at best only a few years to savor his victory.

Nikolay Petlin

Role: Minister of Foreign Affairs^note Foreign Minister (Matkovsky cabinet), Head of State (Coup)

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya^note Russian Fascist Party, Russkaya Natsionalnaya Trudovaya Partiya - Reformatory^note Russian National Labor Party - Reformers (regional)

Ideology: Dominant-Party Democracy^note Paternalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Unlike the other senior figures in the Russian Fascist Party, Nikolay Nikolayevich Petlin was a native of Harbin, not an emigre. At first, this difference only seemed to be at surface level. Working as a playwright, composer, and writer in Harbin, Petlin joined the Russian Fascist Party and was noted for his talents as a political organizer. Soon, he became the leader of the Fascist youth organization, before finally landing himself a spot in Konstantin Rodzaevsky's Russian Fascist Supreme Council, a timid man surrounded by the personalities of Matkovsky and Rodzaevsky.

When the Germans invaded Russia, Petlin condemned Rodzaevsky's support of the Nazis' invasion, resigning in protest. From then on, he drifted to Matkovsky's wing of the RFP, serving as his personal secretary - an arrangement that survived until Matkovsky's act to separate his wing of the party from Rodzaevsky. Petlin found himself rising again, and the former Vozhd of the Russians appointed him as his deputy when the schism occured. Under Petlin, the RFP pursued an agenda of courting the United States by promising reform, a promise that Matkovsky had subverted again and again.

Petlin was there when the Russian Fascist Party became the Russian National Labor Party. He was there when they conquered Siberia, and paraded through the cities of Irkutsk and Yakutsk. He was there for Matkovsky's resignation and arrest over the crimes of the Dalstroy. This time, Petlin swears, he will be there when democracy returns to Russia, under the leadership of the emigres.

His destiny shall be the redemption of Harbin.

In-Game Biography (Minister of Foreign Affairs) ^{Click to Show}Nikolay Nikolayevich Petlin was born a Harbin native and has been a prominent member of the RFP for decades. Joining Matkovsky's wing after the split of the RFP, Petlin has found himself with a growing disillusionment with fascism, first with Rodzaevsky, and now in Magadan. Every day Petlin leaves his office, he sees his fellow Russians living in fear of the whims of the government and the one tyrant who has total control of their lives. Fascism isn't working, any form of it, and Petlin was only beginning to see the entire truth of the matter.

However, with his job as the Chief Foreign Diplomat for the party, Petlin believes he has discovered a new path for Russia, the American path. For the most part up until now, contact with America has been sparse. However, Petlin plans to change that, and maybe one day the American model could come to Russia, reforming the fascist state into something freer, something every Russian could live in without having to fear for their lives or the lives of their families. Petlin's past sins continue to gnaw at him every night, and if making Russia into a better place is the only way for redemption, then he would have to try.

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• The Atoner: Petlin is guilty for the past atrocities he abetted to in the RFP, enough that he betrays Matkovsky to veer Magadan on the right path.
• The Coup: If the reformists hold enough support, Petlin will launch a coup to overthrow Matkovsky and actually live up to the Republic's rhetoric of democratic rule.
• Defector from Decadence: In a bit of Irony, just like how Matkovsky and his wing of the RFP split from Rodzaevsky due to the latter's pro-Nazi views and lack of restraint, Petlin and the reformist wing of the RNTP can split from Matkovsky's Labour wing, due to the the latter's unwillingness to enact further reforms.
• Heel–Face Turn: Petlin regrets his past role in the Russian Fascist Party and hopes to redeem himself by reforming Magadan into an actual democracy modeled after the United States.
• Heel Realization: As if Rodzaevsky was bad enough, Matkovsky's insincerity in reforming Magadan and true colors are what finally drive Petlin to put his plans into motion.
• Hero-Worshipper: Petlin admires the federalist, democratic government of the United States and models his government after theirs.
• Heroic Russian Émigré: Downplayed. While Petlin is a fairly high-ranking member of the RFP, and is willing to tolerate working with Matkovsky, he doesn't see himself as an emigre but as a native of Harbin. Nonetheless, he's sincere with his desire to bring democracy and liberty to Russia. With enough effort, not only can he pull this off, but even become the nation's head of state.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: In real life, Petlin was a major figure in the RFP who left the party during World War 2 over its open support for Hitler. His remaining years were ones in relative obscurity, running a White émigré literary journal in America until his death in 1999. In TNO, his anti-socialist views and disillusionment with fascism remain consistent, only this time he now has a chance to transform the party into a genuine force for democracy.
• Hitler Ate Sugar: Petlin is occasionally accused of being a socialist by Matkovsky, who disapproves of his liberal tendencies.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Despite knowingly working with the RFP, and eventually realizing that Matkovsky has no real intentions of reforming Magadan into a democracy, Petlin bides his time. Whether because he genuinely considers working from within to be the best chance he'd have to achieve his goals, or due to how he's come too far to stop.
• I Just Want to Be You: To curry sympathy from the United States, Petlin pens the Siberian Bill of Rights to supposedly liberalize Matkovsky's government. However, whereas the Vozhd sees it as a means to an end, Petlin legitimately wants to liberalize and model the government after America's. In the regional stage, he gets his chance to shape the government after the United States', even copying their cooperative federalist model and adopting the eagle as their national bird from the bald eagle's inspiration.
• Internal Reformist: Petlin wants to turn Magadan from a fascist republic into an actual nationalist democracy through extensive reforms.
• Long Game: While Petlin is a genuine democratic reformer, he's willing to bide his time and cooperate with Matkovsky for as long as it is practicable.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He only served Matkovsky because he genuinely believed that he was a decent man and harbored liberal views himself. When the Vozhd rejects his original draft of the Siberian Bill of Rights, Petlin finally realizes his superior's true colors and began plotting a betrayal.
• The Purge: After removing Matkovsky from power, Petlin seeks out his remaining supporters in the government and armed forces, firing the worst and marginalizing the rest.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Though not a socialist himself, Petlin is willing to negotiate and work with the labor unions in Novosibirsk, promising them all sorts of political rights.
• Slave Liberation: If Petlin takes power, he disbands Dalstroy and repatriates the prisoners who were previously enslaved by the Vozhd.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Just as in real-life, Petlin had an affair with Rodzaevsky's wife and is sympathetic by default of not being an unhinged fascist. It also helps that they're still in a healthy relationship together.
• Token Good Teammate: Petlin is the only prominent high-ranking member of Matkovsky's government who sincerely supports democratic and liberalising reforms, seeing democracy as a desirable end in itself and not just a mean to strengthen the fascist dictatorship and gain support from the OFN.
• Uncertain Doom: If WerBell and his goons take over Magadan, the fate of Petlin will be unknown, with not even the mercenaries knowing what happened to him.
• When He Smiles: If Matkovsky allows him to form the Grand Sobor, a primitive legislative body to somewhat democratize the nation, Petlin will smile for the first time in years, hopeful that the path to liberalization will continue.
• Unperson: Zig-Zagged. If he fails to wrest control from Matkovsky, he'll get arrested by the latter's thugs when they invade his home, thrown into the back of their van and disappearing without a trace. However, his Siberian Bill is kept in place as the last memory of his existence, even if it is gutted even further by Matkovsky.

Vladimir Kibardin

Role: Head of Government (Matkovsky cabinet)

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya

Ideology: Corporatism^note Fascism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Secretary of the RFP centered in Magadan, Vladimir Vladimirovich Kibardin has been a loyal follower of the Vozhd since the beginning. From exile in Harbin, the crossing of the Amur River, then solitude in the Port of Magadan, Kibardin has stayed by Matkovsky's side through every trial and tribulation Russia and the communists had to offer. However, if Matkovsky is the pragmatist of the RFP, Kibardin would be the dogmatist, his struggles only furthering his devotion to the ideology of fascism. To Kibardin, orthodox fascism is the only hope for Russia; meaning no evolution or devolution in the case of Rodzaevsky could change that.

However, Kibardin's worship of orthodox principles could mean he is more loyal to the ideology of fascism than the Vozhd himself. One day, Kibardin might have to choose: His Vozhd, or his ideology?

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• Dragon with an Agenda: He has loyally served by Matkovsky's side since they both joined the RFP, but his zealous support for fascism might clash with the pragmatic approach of his boss.
• The Fundamentalist: Kibardin is a dogmatic fascist who believes that his ideology is the only hope to save Russia, which may possibly outweigh his own loyalty to Matkovsky.

Vladimir Goltsov

Role: Economy Minister (Matkovsky cabinet)

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya

Ideology: Corporatism^note Fascism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Fleeing to Harbin as a youth following his mothers' arrest by the Soviet Union, Vladimir Efimovich Goltsov is as anti-communist as one can be. His firm hatred and beliefs led him to abandon his studies at the Chemical Mining Institute in 1937 to join the Russian Fascist Party. Initially and admirer of Rodzaevsky, he joined Matkovsky's wing instead during the split of the RFP, seeing Rodzaevsky as too much of a Germanophile.

Now a firm follower of Matkovsky, Goltsov is preparing Magadan for the crusade to purify and save Russia. Using his past knowledge from his studies as well as his experiences as a railroad worker, Goltsov now works with the Vozhd closely to develop Magadan into a fulfilling base to carry out their operations to reconquer Russia. However, Goltsov's plans to transform an empty port into a thriving industrial and military hub remains to be seen.

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• Boring, but Practical: He used to work as a railroad worker, in which the experience that came with this meager occupation proved especially useful when it came to developing Magadan's industry and turning it into the thriving urban hub it is now.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He couldn't stand Rodzaevsky's admiration of Nazi Germany, which convinced him to join Matkovsky's defection to Magadan.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In the Soviet Union, he was forced to flee his home and witness his mother get arrested by the authorities, which influences his current anti-communist beliefs.

Alexander Pavlov

Role: Security Minister (Matkovsky cabinet)

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya

Ideology: Corporatism^note Fascism

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• Politically Incorrect Villain: Pavlov is contemptuous of American people, hating their accents and "drunken hooliganism".
• Sadist: Even for a fascist, Pavlov is particularly bloodthirsty, flashing a wicked smile at the notion of raiding a warehouse to enforce the Vozhd's will.
• Undying Loyalty: When Matkovsky is deposed by Petilin, Pavlov is outraged by the betrayal and professes his continued loyalty to the old Vozhd, refusing to recognize the new regime.

Igor Kovalchuk-Koval

Role: Minister of Foreign Affairs^note Foreign Minister (Matkovsky cabinet - Petlin arrested)

Party: Rossiyskaya Fashistskaya Partiya

Ideology: Civilian Dictatorship^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show}With Petlin having been arrested and the Laborists securing their power, a new replacement for the office of Chief Foreign Diplomat had been necessary. That job has been given to one Igor Konstantinovich Kovalchuk-Koval, a more minor diplomat up until now. Having been in the shadow of his predecessor for quite some time, Kovalchuk-Koval is ready to show his face to the world, that face depending on how Matkovsky wants him to appear, anyway.

Knowing his position, Kovalchuk-Koval is much more willing to toe the line than Petlin, not like that is a problem for him. Still, diplomats from across the world will find a stark change in the Far East's diplomatic stance, the Americans especially. It is Kovalchuk-Koval's job to make sure the weapon shipments continue to arrive, and the Vozhd is watching his chief diplomat much closer this time. Kovalchuk-Koval now knows there is always a replacement waiting right behind him.

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• The Creon: Unlike his predecessor, Kovalchuk-Koval never dares oppose Matkovsky, knowing that the Vozhd can easily replace him if he shows any sign of treachery.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Kovalchuk-Koval is a bog standard diplomat who is completely outshined by the more iconic Petlin. However, with Petlin arrested by Matkovsky's men, it is now Kovalchuk-Koval's turn to take his place, all under the careful eye of the Vozhd.
• You Are in Command Now: After Petlin is discreetly purged by Matkovsky, Kovalchuk-Koval is promoted in his place.

Sergey Solovyev

Role: Head of Government (Petlin cabinet)

Party: Russkaya Natsionalnaya Trudovaya Partiya - Reformatory

Ideology: Dominant-Party Democracy^note Paternalism

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• No-Respect Guy: His propaganda work is usually credited to the party instead of himself.
• Propaganda Machine: Solovyev's is responsible for printing out propaganda for the RFP, careful to follow their guidelines and always in fear that he'll be replaced one day.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Under Matkovsky's regime, Solovyev's job is to run a printing press that toes the party line. However, Solovyev feels empty about his work, having no genuine loyalty to their cause.

Yuriy Vlasov

Role: Minister of Foreign Affairs^note Foreign Minister (Petlin cabinet)

Party: Russkaya Natsionalnaya Trudovaya Partiya - Reformatory

Ideology: Dominant-Party Democracy^note Paternalism

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• The Face: Vlasov is Petlin's representative to the American businessmen trying to invest in Russia, such as advertising Krasnoyarsk's hopeful hockey team.

Andrey Starostin

Role: Minister of Economy^note Economy Minister (Petlin cabinet)

Party: Russkaya Natsionalnaya Trudovaya Partiya - Reformatory

Ideology: Dominant-Party Democracy^note Paternalism

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: One of his strategies to attract businesses to Russia is developing its sports teams. It might seem trivial and unorthodox, but it surprisingly works because it attracts more financial activity in Russia's cities.

Mitchell WerBell III

^{70s WerBell portrait}

Role: Military Commander, Head of State (Mercenary coup)

Party: Soldaty Bez Granits^note Soldiers Without Borders

Ideology: Personalistic Dictatorship^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)} The story of an American soldier of fortune seizing a Siberian city with nothing but his wits and superior firepower seems like a lurid tale too ridiculous for even the pulpiest dime-store novel.

But sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

Mitchell Livingston Werbell III was the son of a Russian émigré, born and raised in America. A brief stint in the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, was his springboard into the murky and deadly world of mercenary warfare. His unsavory missions spanned the globe from Cuba to Kamchatka, yet he still maintained his contacts with some of America's industrial elite and his father's old comrades. One in particular was Anastasy Vonsiatsky, the increasingly elderly Russo-American fascist. When Mikhail Matkovsky's regime in Magadan hoped to use Vonsiatsky as the gateway to American aid, Werbell saw an opportunity. What followed was as bold as it was suicidally insane, but he succeeded beyond all odds.

Through a mix of diplomacy, favors called in from old friends, and a few well-placed military raids, Werbell has successfully seized power in Magadan and declared the city to be the capital of the Republic of West Alaska. He hopes to achieve the reverse of what Matkovsky hoped with Vonsiatsky, serving as a conduit for a steady flow of American money and arms into his fledgling Siberian empire. However, Werbell's neighbors want nothing more than to drive him into the sea, and this may prove to be something far greater than he can handle...

70's In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)} Against all odds, Mitchell Livingston Werbell III has succeeded. Thanks to luck, skill, and an abundance of American aid, the United States of Russia is now one of the largest nations on the planet. To state that the world is shocked would be an understatement. Analysts are still struggling to figure out how his government hasn't already collapsed from the sheer ridiculousness of its existence, all while the man himself sits upon a veritable mountain of money, laughing all the way.

Someone like Werbell, though, never truly rests. Constantly jumping between managing internal affairs, foreign connections, and personal matters, the mercenary is clearly not content with merely unifying Russia. His commitment to the army without borders is unwavering, but so is his support for bringing American-style democracy to Russia. It remains to be seen how these contradictions will be addressed, but some are beginning to hope Werbell, for all his flaws, might actually bring something good to the exhausted Russian people.

Decried as an American asset by many, Werbell finds himself with both Japan and Germany wary of - if not outright hostile to - his regime. Though he certainly loves his home country, Werbell is not nearly as leashed as some fear or would like him to be. He is a man with an army and a vision, and the world awaits his next move with bated breath.

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• Affably Evil: WerBell is both unflappably polite and loose about the idea of murder, especially in his "Caesar" focus branch as opposed to "Cincinnatus". Even in the beginning, he offers Valery Sablin a good dinner before executing him as some sick sense of hospitality, and offers the Father the chance to support his rule even though he knew the priest would never support such a brazen, amoral killer, executing him when he refuses. When he decides to be a despot, he offers amnesty to Rodzaevsky's fascists to act as local thugs and sets to pillage the ruby and diamond mines of Yakutia, as well as extracting Russia's wealth to support his mercenary army.
• The Alcoholic: WerBell can often be found drunk due to his heavy alcoholism, an extension of his care-free attitude in life.
• Arms Dealer: Part of his job in Magadan is to sell weapons to the RFP, which he considers good business.
• Bad Boss: Zig-Zagged, if he uses a "carrot and stick" method in his government. WerBell will happily reward the hardest-working people in his work, but if someone doesn't live up to those standards, he has them harshly punished.
• Bait the Dog: A moment of this occurs in a scenario where he is unifying Russia. When he captures Mikhail, he spares his life and makes the offer to send him back to Australia... for a price. If he can't pay up directly, then WerBell will make sure that his remaining family sends as much money as they can.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He's reckless and jovial, but also surprisingly vindictive and capable of unifying Russia.
• Big Fancy Castle: WerBell's Presidential Palace is built as closely as possible to the Winter Palace which was once in Saint Petersburg.
• Blood Knight: He finds a normal life to be pretty boring, preferring the action to be found in warfare and firefights.
• Brutal Honesty: In terms of his foreign policy approach, WerBell can be bluntly honest about his regime being backed by the United States, thinking that there's no point in hiding the fact, especially when their stamps are blatantly the Stars and Stripes.
• But Not Too Foreign: WerBell is an American who was descended from a Russian officer who served in the White Army.
• Cigar Chomper: Exaggerated; not only is WerBell chomping a cigar in his 70s portrait, even the flag of his country West Alaska has a cigar-chomping skull on it.
• Cincinnatus: In his aptly named "Cincinnatus" path, WerBell thinks about stepping down in the future when he finds a worthy Russian to succeed him as President.
• Les Collaborateurs: WerBell recruits many locals to maintain control over his state, seeing value in their experience dealing with their countrymen and understanding of Siberia's territory.
• The Coup: After Vosniatsky dies, Werbell leads a mercenary coup against Matkovsky over payment disputes. If Matkovsky previously picked focuses to increase the mercenaries' influence, the coup will succeed.
• Crazy Enough to Work: By most accounts, WerBell running a mercenary state would be implausible, yet a combination of his wit and pragmatism can not only make it work, but also reunify Russia.
• Critical Staffing Shortage: After he unifies the Far East, WerBell is confronted with manpower shortages in the military that make it more difficult to defend the borders and suppress partisan activity. He must either hire more mercenaries or Russian collaborators to plug in the problem.
• Dark Horse Victory: Nobody expects WerBell to reunify the Far East, being an American mercenary who seemingly had no stake in the matter, beyond working for Matkovsky.
• Death from Above: He expands the Cheryomushki Airbase after unifying the Far East, which will transform his meager air fleet into a true force to be reckoned with.
• Denser and Wackier: A playthrough where WerBell ends up unifying the country is this compared to other nations. It ends up being a Whole-Plot Reference to Metal Gear Solid, his unification theme is an English rock song compared to the orchestral pieces of other leaders, and events tend to be written with a less serious tone.
• Desk Jockey: When he takes over Magadan, he's stuck with the unfortunate business of writing a constitution himself, a boring affair compared to his life as a mercenary. By the time he gets to the section "Minority Protections", he's half-ready to just give up.
• Do Not Go Gentle: He acknowledges that fighting the warlord in West Russia will be a difficult, final step to reunifying Russia, but he charges headstrong at the challenge, confident that his military will destroy all that stand against them.
• Eagleland: He generally has both Type 1 and Type 2 as applicable when he begins to reunify much of Russia. He becomes infamous for being an American mercenary that manages to sweep westward across Russia, he christens his country "Republic of West Alaska" and later the "United States of Russia," even writing a constitution and building a free-market economy based on the American system. By the end of a playthrough, he intends to "make Texans of" even his most serious critics. He can also be questionable in his political decisions, and his endgame is creating a superpower that draws its influence from worldwide mercenary services.
• Elite Army: Having fought in wars the world over, WerBell's men are perhaps the most elite force in the Far East, and his divisions can take an equal of the enemy's one-on-one pretty easily. It's also why they can match the warlord in Western Russia, despite having significantly less manpower.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: He cares not for the nationality or religion of the soldiers or subjects; anyone that can shoot well is welcome to serve.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's disgusted by the destruction of the Winter Palace by the Germans, considering it an "obliteration of history" when Goebbels recorded its demise.
• Going Native: WerBell is following in the example of Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, especially in his "Cincinnatus" path. He comes around to the idea of rebuilding Russia to be strong and independent, even from his American sponsors.
• Gratuitous Latin: The title of his first superregional focus is "Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat", which means "Fortune favors the bold".
• Hero-Worshipper: To a degree, WerBell idolizes the American government and views it as a model for his Russia to follow.
• Historical In-Joke: The superevent that plays when WerBell unifies Russia is the third verse of "Jungle Work" by Warren Zevon, which begins with "Three young men in a Russian truck, with a little M10". The M10 is better known as the MAC-10, whose surpressor WerBell helped design in OTL.
• History Repeats: At least one former Blackshirt, Alexander Pavlov, notes the similarities in WerBell's betrayal to Matkovsky's own treachery against Rodzaevsky. Pavlov ponders to himself if history will repeat again to WerBell and that he will be the one to spearhead that coup.
• Join or Die: If his coup against Matkovsky succeeds, WerBell will allow the remaining RFP members to fight for him or be executed.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Money. Mercenary work is the most reliable method of economic mobility in his Russia.
• Insistent Terminology: As ruler of Magadan, WerBell forces everyone to call him "Mr. WerBell, Esquire". As implied by Radio Free Magadan, the last word is especially important to say.
• Karma Houdini: If his coup fails, WerBell gets no punishment for trying to overthrow Matkovsky, besides leaving Russia, which is what he would've done anyway to find better work.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: In contrast to his usual, daredevil attitude, WerBell recognizes the naval capabilities of Japan and never dares question their dominance of the Pacific. His development of a navy is more of a symbolic action about a Russian revival.
• Language Barrier: WerBell doesn't know much Russian and often requires his fellow men to translate for him when he speaks to the native people. Ironically, this is subverted when he meets Mikhail in Transbaikal, who is also grateful that he's met someone who can also speak English.
• Laughably Evil: His drunken, crazy antics are amusing and charming enough that it can be hard to remember that he also governs Russia like a tinpot dictator.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall At one point in WerBell's path, a soldier wonders aloud how a bunch of mercenaries could've taken over Magadan and be on the road to unifying Russia, saying that it sounds like something from Hollywood. Another soldier entirely dismisses his observation and tells him to just roll with the punches.
• Lesser of Two Evils: He has to use this reasoning when either recruiting the NKVD or the Blackshirts, regarding his chosen organization as the lesser evil.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: WerBell is not by any means good given he is a mercenary who sets up a mercenary-dominated state should he win, but he is not as authoritarian as Matkovsky. Typical per being a mercenary, he is not racist or anti-semitic, but that doesn't keep him from executing an already surrendered Sablin, a harmless Father, or extracting what little money Mikhail's family can spare as a ransom to sail back to Australia.
• Line-of-Sight Name: WerBell names his newly-founded republic in Magadan "West Alaska" on a whim, simply because Magadan is west of Alaska.
• Make an Example of Them: As part of WerBell's regional economic policies, he pushes native Russians to work hard for the state's benefit and the laziest of them all will be punished harshly to motivate the others.
• Multinational Team: In addition to Americans, WerBell's band of mercenaries also counts among its ranks a Scot (Gerry Moggach), a Romanian (Fernando Calistrat), a Frenchman (Roger Faulques), a New Zealander (Nancy Wake), among others.
• Necessarily Evil:
  • In his "Cincinnatus" path, WerBell delays his promises of liberalization to crack down on oppositional forces, reasoning that he needs to exert control for the state to remain strong.
  • If WerBell pursues an open door policy with the American corporations, he acknowledges how hated such an approach will be, but he reasons that their investments are needed to push Russia's development forward.
• Nothing Personal: Like Matkovsky, WerBell goes to war against Rodzaevsky in Amur. Unlike Matkovsky, it's not out of any ideological conviction or vendetta against the Vozhd; WerBell just wants to plunder his office and land.
• Outside-Context Problem: WerBell and his men aren't even Russian; they are mercenaries, brought to Russia by Anastasy Vonsiatsky to fight for Mikhail Matkovsky's Free State of Magadan. This doesn't stop them from launching a coup against Matkovsky to take over Magadan and later uniting Russia under their banner, being the only unifier who isn't even present on Russian soil by game start. This is even lampshaded by his reunification event's victory music, which is an English rock song that contrasts the solemn instrumentals or bombastic marches of other warlords.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When an American journalist visits Magadan after WerBell's takeover of it, the mercenary allows him to shoot some shots from a Garand rifle at the firing range.
  • Whether a Cincinnatus or a Caesar, WerBell does some preparatory work to eventually democratize, such as establishing voting booths and drawing districts.
  • Rather than prioritize the mercenaries' dominance, WerBell can allow more Russians to enter civil service and build some semblance of a civilian government.
• Plausible Deniability: Concerning the relationship with the United States, WerBell can keep it "under the table" to give enough plausible reason to deny accusations about his mercenary activities and arms dealing through the OFN.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Not WerBell himself, but the death of Anastasy Vonsiatsky (the man responsible for bringing him to Russia and paying his men) in February 1965 results in WerBell's mercenaries finding themselves without a job, and puts into motion a series of events that can eventually result in WerBell himself taking over Magadan and from there trying to unify Russia under his banner.
• Plunder: As WerBell conquers his way through Russia, he lets his mercenaries plunder the spoils, stealing cultural treasures to sate their avarice.
• Politically Correct Villain: WerBell may not be a nice person, but he's not prejudiced. He's content to hire foreign mercenaries from all sorts of ethnicities, women are allowed to join the Strategic Service Unit, and minorities are given fair treatment in his Republic.
• Pragmatic Villainy: In the superregional stage, WerBell federalizes the country along ethnic and cultural lines, giving minorities political representation to placate them from rebelling.
• President for Life: In his "Caesar" path, WerBell declares himself "President of West Alaska", even though he actually rules like a dictator who cracks down on personal liberties, like freedom of press.
• Private Military Contractors: WerBell leads a collection of mercenaries who have fought across the world and are now looking to fulfill any need for network. As leader, he has a unique mechanic where he can send two mercenary divisions to participate in foreign conflicts and do dirty work for a price.
• Puppet King: Subverted. WerBell can seemingly become this for his American sponsors, turning Russia into a playground for OFN corporations. However, the superregional stage reveals that WerBell has greater ambitions than becoming their puppet, knowing that their support will inevitably dry up and building a more self-sufficient industry for when that time comes.
• Realpolitik: Thanks to his connections with the CIA, WerBell can shore up support from them by underhandedly purchasing their military equipment. For the time being, he's playing the role as a loyalist to extract as much benefit from them as possible.
• Red Baron: WerBell is known as the Wizard of Whispering Death, after the "Whispering Death" machinegun silencer he helped create.
• Reluctant Ruler: Some events show that WerBell doesn't enjoy the bureaucratic side of ruling Russia and would rather go back to mercenary work, but he endures through the trouble because he's the most capable for the job and the only one willing to do it.
• Repressive, but Efficient: Whether he works with American or Russian corporations, WerBell will practically turn the Far East into an economic powerhouse built on trade and productivity, even if the state has few guaranteed liberties.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: When WerBell converses with one of his fellow mercenaries in the superregional stage, he goes on a passionate speech on how powerful they are, rhetorically asking "How did we get here?" and "Do ya get what I'm saying?" His friend tries to answer both of these and gets cut off each time, so when WerBell asks what else his army needs, the other mercenary stays quiet. After an awkward Beat, WerBell says that question wasn't rhetorical.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If his attempted coup fails, WerBell will flee Russia and settle down in some tropical café, deeming the RFP an unprofitable cause and deciding to look for work elsewhere.
• Settling the Frontier: After he decides to take over Magadan, WerBell likens himself to past American explorers who pushed westward to settle new land, except that he's pushed so far west that he's now on a different continent.
• Sinister Surveillance:
  • If he decides to focus on industrializing Siberia with less American aid, WerBell will ensure that the process goes smoothly by creating a network of informants to track dissidents and saboteurs who will be dealt with as traitors.
  • When WerBell conquers Central Siberia, he organizes the Strategic Services Unit, which is tasked with spying and "discouraging" would-be rebellions.
• State Sec: To counter the rise of communist and fascist militias in the regional stage, he organizes paramilitary units to hunt down these terrorists, using expertise they garnered from the South African and Indonesian wars.
• Understatement: Upon meeting Mikhail when the Principality is conquered, WerBell offers to send him back to Australia for a "small cost" of half-million dollars.
• War for Fun and Profit: In WerBell's path, he can develop his military by establishing the Military Armaments Corporation, designed to produce high-quality weapons for profit.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: While WerBell is violent and maybe a little crazy, he does think he's saving Russia by preparing them for war with Germany, especially in his "Cincinnatus" path where he intends to give Russia back to native control. Even in his more dictatorial "Caesar" path, he reasons that his actions are to keep the nation stable, lest it fall into internal conflict.
• Wicked Cultured: For a mercenary, he has fancy tastes when he rules Russia. He carefully models his Presidential Palace off of the destroyed Winter Palace and brings dozens of bottles of French Wine for his men to enjoy.
• Wild Card: Though he is nominally aligned to the United States and can court support from them, WerBell is still an unpredictable troublemaker who would turn on the OFN if it suits him.
• Whole-Plot Reference: WerBell's path heavily references Big Boss's Outer Heaven from Metal Gear Solid, with both being mercenary-led countries. Soldaty Bez Granits (Soldiers Without Borders) is a reference to Militaires Sans Frontières from MGS, and the skull emblem on of West Alaska's flag is heavily based on the MSF's emblem. The focus description for "A Group Above Nations" is also a paraphrased version of Big Boss's "This is Outer Heaven" quote from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As WerBell transitions to turning West Alaska into a sovereign state, he revokes the citizenship of the American industrialists and kicks them out, citing that they have no further use and that their companies aren't going to try to save them anyway.

Chita

^{Flag of the Russian Empire}

Official Name: Transbaikal Principality, Far Eastern Imperial Realm (regional unification), Siberian Empire (Mikhail superregional unification), Regency of Siberia (White Army superregional unification), Russian Empire (national unification)

Ruling Party: Rossiyskaya Tsarskaya Liga^note Russian Royal League

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

A warlord state controlled by the last White Army remnant under Ataman Grigory Semyonov. Semyonov's clique returned to Russia alongside Rodzaevsky's expedition, and soon split with the fascist brute. They had forcibly crowned Prince Michael Andreevich Romanov, a Romanov with no claim to the Tsar title, as Tsar Mikhail II, and plans to "guide" Mikhail to the Empire's restoration.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: If the Principality defeats Amur, the White Army discover Rodzaevsky's concentration camps◊ and become horrified by the conditions the prisoners were facing, with focus placed on one abandoned during battle. It unravels similarly to how the Allies slowly uncovered the Holocaust in OTL, which has remained hidden in the world of TNO.
• Any Last Words?: Said to Valery Sablin by his White Army executioners, if the Principality defeats Buryatia.
• Apocalyptic Logistics: Subverted. A large portion of the Principality's first focus tree is dedicated towards repairing its deteriorated infrastructure that makes it difficult to move anything, borrowing expertise from Manchuria and founding the Imperial Transport Commission to solve the problem.
• Boring, but Practical: While rebuilding their navy, the White Army focuses on building a small, but modern fleet. It would never be capable of fighting another armada, but it's more suited toward escorting trade ships and defending them from pirates, which is a more important matter in the regional stage.
• Cincinnatus: Under Mikhail's direction, the White Army will cede its authority and declare an end to martial law for a provisional government to take its place, setting the groundwork for a constitutional monarchy.
• Les Collaborateurs: Stuck in Harbin after being defeated in the Russian Civil War, the White Army clique closely collaborated with the Japanese to one day invade the Soviet Union and restore Tsarist rule. Even in the 1960s, they still maintain relations with Japan, imitating many of their economic policies and inviting the Zaibatsu to operate in their lands. Truth in Television as Japan was one of the main backers of the White Movement during the Russian Civil War. However, the movement can distance themselves from the Sphere, if Mikhail takes charge.
• Defeat Means Menial Labor: Under Shepunov's directive in the regional stage, POWs from the previous wars are sentenced to hard labor as a substitute for the lack of a large workforce in the Far East.
• Defiant to the End: A couple of White Army soldiers are prepared to fight to the death against the RFP if they lose, prepared to take as many of them down before they expire.
• Elite Army: The White Army is dedicated to specialist training that makes every soldier an elite that can stand above the average Russian troop.
• Enemy Mine: Before the start of the game, the White Army clique had allied with the Russian Fascist Party in the hopes of taking on Yagoda and ridding Russia of Bolshevik influence. They reached an ideological schism since their hopes of restoring the Russian Empire clashes with the RFP's interests, which had its own schism within, but this doesn't stop them from striking a temporary pact with Mikhail Matkovsky against their common foe Konstantin Rodzaevsky early in the game.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • While the White Army wishes to install a military junta with a kidnapped Romanov as their puppet, they remain appalled by Amur and Rodzaevsky, to the point where they can agree to a pact with Matkovsky.
  • A number of White Army officers balk at Shepunov's idea of instating prison labor, considering it immoral.
• Evil Reactionary: The White Army generals in Transbaikal long for the 'good' old days before the 1917 revolutions overthrew the Tsar. Their incarnation of the Russian Empire resembles the old Empire at its worst, a reactionary, right-wing, anti-Semitic dictatorship that is also a playground for foreign investors.
• The Exile: After the Whites were defeated in the Russian Civil War, they were exiled to the Manchurian city of Harbin, where they joined forces with Rodzaevsky's RFP to return to Russia and take back their homeland.
• Foil: The White Army in Transbaikal is one to the Principality of Vyatka in Western Russia. While both are under different Romanov pretenders, seek to restore the old Russian Empire, and were backed by the Axis Powers in their initial push into the crumbing USSR, there are several differences:
  • Mikhail II has no legitimate claim to the throne, whereas Vladimir III does, by account of the old Imperial house laws. That said, both monarchs are thrust into their position against their will, be it Mikhail being all but dragged along by the White Army after being invited to Harbin or Vladimir reluctantly going along with the Nazis due them keeping his family hostage.
  • While the White Army has benefited from, and through Shepunov could potentially expand, Japanese support, Vyatka actively tries to sever every lingering ties to the Reich, even as its government is forced to be upfront about Vladimir's (forced) Nazi collaboration.
  • The White Army's leadership, especially Shepunov, seeks to undo just about everything that happened in Russia post-1917 and institute a reactionary regime akin to what the Black Hundreds envisioned, even while profiting off from selling out the country to Japanese zaibatsu. This stands in contrast to Vyatka, as even under Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's reactionary rule, the Tsarists make an effort to learn from what went wrong prior to the Revolution and consistently put Russia's integrity first.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The White Army starts out pretty ill-disciplined, but with enough reforms, it turns into an intimidating and professional force. An RFP outpost learns the hard way when a White cavalry unit expertly destroys them with minimal casualties.
• Good Capitalism, Evil Capitalism: The advantages and disadvantages of capitalism are seen in the Principality. On the one hand, such policies turn the country into an economic powerhouse and the zaibatsus introduce diverse products that can't be enjoyed anywhere else in Siberia. On the other hand, their industrialization schemes lead to the destruction of natural environments and displace the people living there, in addition to the zaibatsus' aggressive suppression of any native competitors. Under Mikhail, the influence of the zaibatsus can be minimized in favor of Imperial Corporations, which are effectively the same type of companies that will better serve the interests of Russia and aren't as aggressive against competition.
• Industrialized Evil: Though industrializing is necessary for the Principality to develop its civilian and military sectors, it also means cutting down forests and disrupting the wilderness that has long been home to the people who live in the countryside. When the Imperial Development Company moves in, the locals are not happy.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: The Principality is the least odious of the Harbin Three successors starting out, being a White Neo-Tsarist remnant state divided between absolutist and constitutionalist wings, in sharp contrast to the Fascist leanings of the RFP splinters. Like Amur and Magadan it collaborated extensively with the Japanese Kwantung Army and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, and much of its leadership is dominated by old school militarists that want to rewind the clock back to before 1905, but there is no love for Fascism and limited interest in unconditional loyalty to the Sphere. It also stands a good chance of reforming into a genuine constitutional monarchy.
• MegaCorp:
  • To reap the economic benefits, the Principality invites the Japanese Zaibatsu to extract their rich natural resources, at the expense of their people. If Mikhail takes over, he'll aim to reduce this corruptive influence in favor of the Imperial Corporations.
  • The Realm itself establishes corporations inspired by the Zaibatsu, forming multiple Imperial Corporations to stimulate the economy during the regional stage.
• Nature Is Not Nice: In spite of the rich resource deposits at their disposal, the Principality struggles to exploit this advantage due to tough terrain that renders most of the land unarable. One of the first policies that must be passed is the Reclamation Act, which is dedicated to fixing the terrain to make it more useful.
• Odd Friendship: After the Principality reunifies the Far East, they imprison the remaining communists and fascists to use as prison labor, where they are often forced to work together. Even though the two groups still resent each other over their past ideological conflicts, there is some measure of companionship between them because it's the only respite they have in their squalid situation.
• Old Soldier: With the Russian civil war being over 40 years ago, almost all of the Principality's White generals and soldiers are experienced but very old. If the Principality were to unite Russia, they will need to recruit younger soldiers and set up Imperial War Academies to train the next generation of officers.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Naturally, they despise the Bolsheviks over their bitter defeat in the Russian Civil War, but the White Army acknowledges their effective mobilization doctrines and will adopt those practices themselves.
• Pet the Dog: In Matkovsky's trial, the White Army can have him exiled rather than executed out of respect for his father's past service in their movement.
• Police State: The White Army wield absolute power over Transbaikal, controlling the Tsar as their puppet and mobilizing the Okhrana to spy on their citizenry for a hint of treachery or communist sympathies.
• Praetorian Guard: The Imperial Guard is an elite group of soldiers who are tasked with guarding the Tsar with their life. However, Shepunov can fire them in the regional stage to limit the Tsar's influence even further.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • The Imperial Development Company is a state-owned corporation founded to sponsor public works projects that open employment for the citizens, but only to stimulate their crippled economy.
  • When Yakutia is conquered, the White Army may listen to Mikhail's advice to set up a local occupation government because the region is heavily forested and the White Army is too overstretched to effectively control it.
  • If Men is defeated, the White Army will invariably spare him and sentence him to prison because execution would merely turn him into a martyr for his supporters to keep fighting for his cause.
• Produce Pelting: If Matkovsky is defeated, he will be pelted with vegetables during his trial, thrown by onlookers from the gallery.
• Punch-Clock Villain:
  • Some soldiers of the White Army are not personally malicious and just trying to get through their day like anyone else. One particular soldier gives directions to a lost resident when she asks.
  • Mikhail's personal secretary, Fedor Orlov, is responsible for delivering the Tsar's personal letters to his boss Shepunov rather than his family, so that they can be burned. However, Orlov feels immensely remorseful about abusing Mikhail's trust like this and finally confesses the whole story to him out of a guilty conscience.
• Red Baron: One of the White Army's more flattering nicknames is "The Tsar's Finest".
• The Remnant: Transbaikal is home to Ataman Semyonov's White Russian clique, the last remnants of the White Russian forces from the original Russian civil war 40 years ago, making them the true heir to the White Movement.
• Revenge: The White Army has not forgotten their exile from the Bolsheviks winning the Russian Civil War. If they defeat Yagoda, they have him publicly executed out of personal retribution.
• Secret Police: To quell the rise of communist and fascist terrorist cells in the regional stage, the White Army established the Imperial Department for Order and Security, which is responsible for spying and dismantling any internal threats to the junta.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • At the start, the White Army is divided over its future operational doctrines, with older generals advocating the grand battleplans that were used during World War I, while the younger generals promote new concepts of combined arms. To end the deadlock, a conference must be held to determine the military's direction.
  • Once Mikhail becomes committed to taking the reins of power back from the army, he and Shepunov will begin plotting against each other over who will take charge of the country, despite ostensibly being on the same side.
• This Is Gonna Suck: As the Principality prepares to expand, more than a few soldiers are nervous about fighting the other warlords, recognizing how tough of a fight it will be.
• Western Terrorists: After reunifying eastern Siberia, the White Army has to contend with communist and fascist insurgents who still lurk in the shadows and commit violent acts to protest their rule.
• You Monster!: Upon uncovering the fascists of Amur's concentration camps, they condemn ever having seen such monsters as allies.

Mikhail II

Role: Head of State

Party: Rossiyskaya Tsarskaya Liga^note Russian Royal League

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism (puppet), Provisional Government^note Paternalism (actual)

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Prince Michael Andreevich Romanov was born in exile in Versailles, raised in Scotland, studied in London, and spent the Second World War in Australia serving in the Royal Navy. Although he had hopes of returning to a motherland he had never seen with a Nazi victory, they were dashed by the creation of the Reichskommissariats at war's end. Instead, Prince Michael settled into a civilian life in Australia, working as an aeronautical engineer and staying out of the limelight. Until he received an invitation to Harbin.

What started out as a dinner party with some White Russian émigrés escalated rapidly, and he soon found himself swept away by a clique of White Army generals led by Ataman Semyonov and installed as Tsar Mikhail II in the Siberian city of Chita following a swift campaign of steppe warfare. Though he tried to tell them that his parents' marriage was morganatic, and he thus had no claim to the title, they cared little and continued to hold him up as a legitimizing figurehead.

The Tsar is now stuck between his ally-turned-enemy Konstantin Rodzaevsky's fascist clique to the east, Red Army warlords to the north, Japanese client states to the south, and a post-Soviet dictator to the west. Needless to say, he's been dealt better hands. But he is nonetheless determined to make the best of the situation - assuming the generals ever let him determine anything, that is.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: If Sablin defeats the Principality, Mikhail is reduced to repulsively sobbing and begging for his life, literally hugging Sablin's legs and blubbering "Long live the socialist revolution!" While Sablin doesn't kill him either way, it can potentially backfire and drive Sablin to put him through some forced labor first, since he thinks Mikhail came to serve as their pawn rather than being invited under false pretenses and forced to stay.
• The Alcoholic: The dreary circumstances of his current position and false belief that his father disowned him has led Mikhail to start drinking to cope with the trauma.
• All or Nothing: As the final step to seizing control away from the White Army, Mikhail will need to publicly expose Shepunov's machinations and puppetry over the Tsar. It's an insanely risky endeavor that could easily backfire if Mikhail lacks sufficient civilian support, but it's absolutely needed for his whole gambit to work.
• The Alliance: In contrast to Shepunov's collaboration with the Sphere, Mikhail advocates cooperation with the United States, who will be more privy to them, now that the White Movement has purged its more dictatorial members.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Mikhail is introduced as wishing nothing more than to go back home to Australia to be with his family again. If he manages to unify the Far East, he abandons this notion, decides that his duty is to truly lead Russia and tries to remove the control that the White Army has over him. If he fails to do so, he is sent back to Australia with the knowledge that he has failed in his new mission.
• Book Ends: In two early events, Mikhail writes letters to his father, summarizing the circumstances of his unfortunate situation and voicing his shame about abetting to the White Army's crimes without the power to do anything about it. In the superregional stage, a liberated Mikhail writes again to his father, his hopes rejuvenated about how he will reunify Russia and honor the Romanov's legacy under a benevolent gaze.
• The Coup: Tired of being held prisoner by the White Army, Mikhail resolves to overthrow them in the regional stage, gathering a legion of oligarchs and disgruntled military men to instigate a coup that would put himself in an actual seat of power.
• Defeat Means Friendship: If he is in charge during the superregional stage, Mikhail may conscript officers from the Far East and Central Siberian warlords to fill in the military's vacant leadership positions.
• The Eeyore: Being kidnapped from his family has had an emotional weight on Mikhail, who mopes around over his depressing situation. When he resolves to fight back against his puppet masters, he's much more energetic, something that unnerves a couple of onlookers.
• Enemy Mine As part of his conspiracy to take power from the White Army, Mikhail aligns himself with a band of industrial executives who are sick of having their profits cut to fund the national defense.
• The Everyman: Mikhail was never raised as part of the royal family, having been born in France three years after Red October. He is not a shrewd politician, cunning general, brutal warlord or firebrand ideologue. By the time of his arrival to the Russian Far East, he is just a regular Australian engineer who ended up in charge of a statelet in very unfortunate circumstances.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Fitting for a puppet Tsar, Mikhail is never allowed to join the White Army's meetings, but he does eavesdrop from outside to hear some vital information, such as the arrival of WerBell's mercenaries in Magadan.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: What he fears will happen to himself. When he receives news of his uncle Feodor Alexandrovich's passing, Mikhail is pained to recognize his apathy about the development before sadly pondering about how his family will think the same of his own death as a puppet Tsar kidnapped to a far away land.
• The Good King: After unifying the Russian Far East, Tsar Mikhail becomes determined to make the best of his situation, not that his generals allow him to make many decisions. If Mikhail successfully seizes power from the White Army high command keeping him hostage, he installs a civilian government, turning Russia into a constitutional monarchy.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Downplayed. The only major demographic that doesn't like him is the workers, who see him as another foreign invader trying to placate them with token rights.
• Heroic Russian Émigré: The son of an émigré prince, Mikhail came to Russia from Australia and becomes heroic as he steps up to his responsibilities and, in the loyalist path, unifies Russia as a democracy. Played With in that Mikhail must defeat not just Soviet communism but also the fascists, the Principality's own militarists, and all the other factions fighting for the ruined wasteland the Nazis have left behind.
• Hidden Backup Prince: Played With. He doesn't actually have a claim to the throne, but he was forcibly crowned by the Whites as if he was a hidden backup prince.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: The real Prince Michael fought during World War II as part of the Royal Navy, before moving to Australia and living a rather uneventful life as an aviation engineer. Here, he starts off as the puppet Tsar of a White Army clique, but can eventually seize control from them and unify Russia as a democratic constitutional monarchy.
• I Never Got Any Letters: Mikhail has written nearly a dozen letters to his father and wife, but never receives a single response, unaware that all of his letters are not sent to the post office, but to Boris Shepunov, who has burnt at least one of them.
• Implicit Prison: Under the White Army's thumb, Mikhail is never allowed to even leave his own home without supervision. It's so bad that him visiting the gardens of his estate is considered a privilege. In the White Army path, his ability to leave will be restricted even further.
• Kidnapped by the Call: Mikhail was forcibly put on the throne of the Principality as a figurehead for the Russian Empire claimant.
• King Bob the Nth: Mikhail II, with "Mikhail I" being Michael of Russia (1596-1645).
• Language Barrier: Despite being the proclaimed Tsar, Mikhail doesn't know how to speak the language of the country he's supposed to rule, beyond a few basic phrases. If he manages to take the reins of power away from Shepunov, Mikhail will hire a full-time language tutor to teach him Russian and connect him to the people he will govern.
• Loophole Abuse: Since all of the Principality's economic deals with the Sphere were carried out by the military and not the Tsar, a liberated Mikhail can automatically render them and their debts null, deeming them treasonous acts committed without consent. Suffice to say, the Japanese representatives are not happy at all.
• Modest Royalty: As Mikhail never wanted to be Tsar to begin with, he feels uncomfortable every time his generals spend more money on him that they should, specially when it comes to his "Grand Royal Palace" (a glorified residence full of expensive furniture).
• Offered the Crown: A faction of the White movement led by Grigory Semyonov invited Mikhail to Harbin and crowned him the new Tsar of Russia.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Hearing that the letters he's been writing to his family are actually never sent is what enrages Mikhail for the first time in a long time. More importantly, it's finally what convinces him to try to resist the White Army's control over him.
• The Puppet Cuts His Strings: Should he unite the Far East, he not only comes to fully embrace his duties as a monarch, but also comes to the conclusion that the White Army high command keeping him hostage until that point has to go. If he succeeds, Mikhail purges the White Army and replaces their junta with a civilian government.
• Puppet King: The White generals that forced him into the throne rarely let Tsar Mikhail make decisions by himself. He's even nicknamed "The Hidden Tsar" because of how rarely seen he is in public compared to the White Army officers who control him.
• Pyrrhic Victory: In a manner of speaking, he gets his wish to return home when his gambit to coup Shepunov fails and he is promptly exiled from Russia. However, Mikhail had just developed the resolve to end the White Army's corrupt rule by that point and feels no satisfaction on the trip back, depressed over what Shepunov will do next to Russia.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Once in power after overthrowing Shepunov, Mikhail will orient the White Movement to a more worker-friendly direction, passing a bill of workers' rights to restore some of the benefits they were given by the old Soviet Union.
• Reluctant Ruler: Prince Michael was born in exile, doesn't even speak Russian fluently and had settled into a peaceful civilian life as an aeronautical engineer in Australia after the Second World War. He was dragged into Russian politics after he accepted an invitation to meet White Russian émigrés in Harbin, and was forcibly crowned and is now knee-deep in the Russian political chaos. He's still determined to make the best of his situation however. He stops being reluctant after unifying the Far East, deciding that his destiny is to lead Russia.
• Simple, yet Opulent: Subverted. In preparation for a state visit, Mikhail wants to wear a modest suit, but the hardline White Army officers refuse this request and Shepunov forces him to wear a more elaborate outfit.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Before the start of the game, Mikhail had been kidnapped away from his family in Australia to act as the figurehead for the tyrannical White Army, who mostly only care about securing power for themselves. The nation introduces us to him sadly writing a letter recounting his situation to his father. Things may take a turn for the better depending on the Principality's path.
  • If the Principality manages to unite the Far East, Mikhail will accept the idea of reuniting all of Russia as Tsar and try to break free from the White Army's control. His success will lead to him fulfilling his mission under a constitutional monarchy.
  • If the Principality is conquered by a more merciful warlord, they will recognize his plight and spare Mikhail, exiling him back to Australia to be with his family again.
• Took a Level in Badass: After reuniting the Far East, Mikhail comes to the conclusion that it's his destiny to lead Russia and that he needs to stand up to the corrupt generals who imprisoned him.
• Unexpected Successor: Michael is Nicholas II's nephew, but he has no claim to the throne because his parents' marriage was morganatic. The Whites didn't care and forcibly crowned him anyway.
• The Unintelligible: Not usually, but Mikhail is terrible at public speaking and his speeches are often hard to understand due to his nervousness. When he begins making moves against Shepunov, Mikhail gets much better at this practice, a sign of his growing confidence in becoming Tsar.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Mikhail desperately wishes to return home to Australia, and to the wife he has left behind, but no matter how hard he tries, he cannot succeed, unless Sablin, Matkovsky, WerBell (in return for a ransom) or Alexander Men defeat him and subsequently allow him to leave Russia or the Principality unifies the Far East, in which case he comes to understand that his destiny is to lead Russia, and his problems are not with the place, but with the White Army high command keeping him as a puppet. If Mikhail fails to break free of the White Army generals, he is returned to Australia, but after his failure to reform Russia he can't bring himself to feel happy about it.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Once he decides to take control of his own destiny, Mikhail will make more public appearances so that the people can know their Tsar, opening his quarters to guests and organizing nationwide visits.
• Wrong Line of Work: Subverted. Not being a legitimate claimant to the throne, Mikhail II is initially shown to be far more familiar with British military protocol and aeronautics engineering than being a Tsar. He makes an effort to overcome his shortcomings, however, and if he succeeds in usurping power from the White Army, proves to be a competent leader. His British and Australian ties, meanwhile, also open up potential connections to the OFN.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: With the growing tensions between Mikhail's loyalists and Shepunov's supporters, the latter prepares to move against the Tsar and install Nikita in his place, citing that Mikhail is no longer useful to their cause.

Grigory Semyonov

Role: Military Commander, Ataman of the Transbaikal Cossack Host^note Head of Government (Puppet Mikhail II cabinet)

Party: Rossiyskaya Tsarskaya Liga^note Russian Royal League

Ideology: Military Junta^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Grigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov, the infamous Ataman of the Transbaikal Cossack Host, has spent nearly his entire life fighting the forces of Bolshevism, and he sees no reason to stop any time soon. Born in Transbaikal, Semyonov was once viewed with some skepticism thanks to his mixed Buryat heritage. After giving a good account of himself in World War 1, Semyonov was sent back to his homeland to put together a division of Buryat volunteers. It wasn't long, however, before he was facing down the barrel of the October Revolution. Semyonov wasted no time rallying his forces for rebellion against the Bolshevik regime, and what followed was years of brutal guerrilla warfare against the Red Army in the Far East. In the end, Semyonov was forced to retreat to the city of Harbin, a haven for Russian exiles with nowhere else to go.

When the Soviet Union finally collapsed under the pressure of German invasion, Semyonov and his White allies saw their chance. They lured Mikhail Andreevich to Harbin in the hopes they could use him as a source of legitimacy, and marched beyond the Amur to reclaim what they perceived to be rightfully theirs. Now Semyonov and his ragtag force of Cossacks and White paramilitaries find themselves isolated in their old stronghold in Chita. The old Ataman still hopes to one day finish his herculean quest to take Russia back from the brink, but his advanced age has begun to creep up on him...

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• The Determinator: During the Russian Civil War, Semyonov was one of the most dedicated anti-communist generals of the White Army, holding out in Transbaikal far longer than the rest of the movement. Even when he was eventually defeated and forced to flee, Semyonov did not give up his dream of a White Russia and he now leads the nascent loyalists to reunite the nation under their banner.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Semyonov was willing to work with both the Japanese and Rodzevsky's Russian Fascist Party if it meant getting a chance to reclaim the Motherland from the crumbling Soviet Union.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When the Soviet Union collapsed after World War II, Semyonov and his White Army allies seized the opportunity to kidnap Mikhail and fortify themselves in Transbaikal, beginning their journey to restore the Tsar some day.
• Minor Major Character: Semyonov is by far the most important character in the Principality's background, having led the White Army clique since the original Russian Civil War in 1919 through World War II, and being responsible for inviting Prince Michael Andreevich to Harbin and forcibly crowning him. However, he plays a very small role in the game itself, dying only a few months after game start.
• Passing the Torch: Before he dies, he invites his most loyal friend, Shepunov, to declare his succession, requesting that he carry on his dream to unite Russia and cleanse it of the "red menace".
• Universally Beloved Leader: Though some have quibbled about his more controversial actions, all of the Principality acknowledges him as an inspiring leader who led the White Army in its darkest times. When he dies and is buried in his home village of Kuranzha, thousands of people visit to pay respects to the fallen general.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The old Ataman Semyonov dies less than a year after the game begins, leaving Boris Shepunov to succeed him as Tsar Mikhail's puppet master.

Boris Shepunov

Role: Military Commander, Security Minister (Puppet Mikhail II cabinet), Head of Government (Semyonov succession), Head of State (Mikhail II exiled)

Party: Rossiyskaya Tsarskaya Liga^note Russian Royal League

Ideology: Reactionary Nationalism^note Ultranationalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)} Boris Nikolayevich Shepunov is, and has always been, an uncompromising man.

A stringent anti-Bolshevik ever since the term had meaning, he fought with Grigory Semyonov during the Civil War, becoming a lifelong confederate and protegé of the great Ataman, and followed him into exile in Harbin following the fall of the Transbaikal. There, searching for both logistical and political support for the White movement, he aligned himself closely with Japanese interests, accepting a position within the Japanese-sponsored Bureau of Russian Émigrés. There, he worked to organize training courses on the capabilities of the Soviet Union, hoping to find something to assist in defeating them.

With the collapse of the Union, and the triumph of both Germany and his Japanese backers in the Second World War, he thought that chance had arrived. He was wrong, but it was not long before he, together with Semyonov and some of his former students, devised a plot to lure a Romanov princeling to Harbin. The success of the plot and the installation of Mikhail II as the 'Puppet Tsar' of the Far east did much to advance and legitimize the White cause, but the collapse of the alliance of convenience with the fascists shattered his dream of a glorious advance, and left him little more than yet another Russian warlord.

In the wake of the consolidation of the Far East and the Ataman's death, however, he has finally managed to rise to become the most important military official in Eastern Siberia, and with the collapse of the Loyalist plot to empower Mikhail has secured political power as well. Though he knows that another figurehead must be found to keep the illusion of empire alive, for now he is content to rule as Regent, and let the many people who have underestimated and dismissed him understand the folly of their actions.

In-Game Biography (Security Minister) ^{Click to Show}Boris Nikolayevich Shepunov was once a name spoken with a certain degree of both fear and resentment throughout the Russian émigré groups that inhabited the Manchurian city of Harbin, and now, as Semyonov's informal minister of internal security, his reputation for brutal decisiveness and fervent anti-bolshevism has followed him north of the Amur.

Once a soldier in Semyonov's roughshod army in the Russian Civil War, Semyonov followed his defeated comrades to Harbin, a place where he was quick to find himself right at home. In his efforts to reestablish influence for the battered Whites, Shepunov was able to establish close ties with the pro-Japanese regime, and started to train local forces for a hypothetical invasion of the Soviet Union. In the meantime, Shepunov put together a group of like minded individuals willing to do both his bidding, and the bidding of local Japanese security forces. Together, Shepunov's "vigilantes" stalked the streets of Harbin, carrying out reprisals against other émigré groups they deemed to be hostile to their vision of a renewed White Russia.

When the Soviet Union collapsed and his old superior Semyonov marched beyond the Amur, Shepunov and his gang were among the first to follow him into the fray. Despite his protests about Semyonov's choice of allies in the RFP and his annoyance with the Ataman's crowning of Mikhail Andreevich rather than a more legitimate heir, Shepunov remains a close ally to the Ataman; using what he learned in Harbin to ensure that the White Army's iron grip over Chita remains firm.

In-Game Biography (Head of Government) ^{Click to Show}Boris Nikolayevich Shepunov was once a name spoken with a certain degree of both fear and resentment throughout the Russian émigré groups that inhabited the Manchurian city of Harbin, and now, as the new supreme commander of the White Army, his reputation for brutal decisiveness and fervent anti-bolshevism has followed him north of the Amur.

Once a soldier in Semyonov's roughshod army in the Russian Civil War, Semyonov followed his defeated comrades to Harbin, a place where he was quick to find himself right at home. In his efforts to reestablish influence for the battered Whites, Shepunov was able to establish close ties with the pro-Japanese regime, and started to train local forces for a hypothetical invasion of the Soviet Union. In the meantime, Shepunov was able to put together a group of like minded individuals willing to do both his bidding, and the bidding of local Japanese security forces. Together, Shepunov's "vigilantes" stalked the streets of Harbin, carrying out reprisals against other émigré groups they deemed to be hostile to their vision of a renewed White Russia.

When the Soviet Union collapsed and his old superior Semyonov marched beyond the Amur, Shepunov and his gang were among the first to follow him into the fray. Now that Semyonov has passed on, Shepunov has taken the reins as the true power behind Mikhail Andreevich. His personal dislike of the Tsar is an open secret, and there is no telling how long he will continue to tolerate the man he perceives to be both illegitimate and incompatible with his goals...

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• Berserk Button: Being interrupted, which irritates him even when it's Mikhail who does it. After the Tsar makes this mistake, Shepunov isn't any more endeared to honor his request about being released to his family.
• Blatant Lies: When installing himself as head of both the civilian administration and military hierarchy, Shepunov denies accusations that he's turning the country into a stratocracy, claiming that it will help him appoint trusted ministers who will best assist him. In actuality, it's just a thinly veiled excuse for him to solidify his power.
• Blood Knight: He doesn't enjoy the task of rooting out hidden insurgents, preferring the old days when he rode out with Semyonov and the Cossacks to face the enemy head on.
• Broken Pedestal: Should Mikhail overthrow Shepunov, the Tsar will have his name demonized and blacklisted from ever getting into politics again, breaking down his reputation as head of the White Movement.
• Cincinnatus: Subverted. He's legally an interim prime minister who is supposed to cede his power back to the Tsar or a civilian politician in the near future. However, Shepunov is reluctant to give away his authority and reverse the White Army's political dominance, which can lead him to permanently appoint himself in office.
• Corrupt Politician: Shepunov can sell out Russia to the Japanese zaibatsu, insisting that "Japan only wants what is best for both our peoples" and dismissing any claims to the contrary. That being said, how far he goes is not set in stone. He remains willing to ask his subordinates for opinion on sensitive subjects, and can draw the line regarding Zaibatsu economic influence by sending delegation to renegotiate more favorable terms.
• Cruel Mercy: He inflicts this in Mikhail if Mikhail does not manage to shed his status as a figurehead. Mikhail gets sent back to Australia and replaced with his uncle, after Mikhail gains the motivation to lead Russia.
• Dragon Ascendant: A long-time confidant of Grigory Semyonov, Shepunov succeeds the old Ataman as leader of the White Army clique and Tsar Mikhail's puppet master when he dies of old age. He even gets a humanizing moment with the Ataman as he passes away, despite being indisputably villainous otherwise.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Shepunov is nominally subordinate to the Tsar, but it's obvious that he's the one pulling the strings over the meek Mikhail. If Mikhail's attempted coup fails, Shepunov resumes this role under Nikita.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In the loyalist path, Shepunov is betrayed by his subordinate General Volkogonov, who refuses his order to attack the Tsar's dacha and turns his guns on Shepunov himself. He's reduced to the reply, "You too, Volkogonov? No... This can't be..."
• Evil Chancellor: As head of the White Army clique following Semyonov's death and Mikhail's Prime Minister, Shepunov's concern for the Tsar as anything more than a political pawn is less than sincere. If Mikhail fails to assert control over the government, Shepunov imprisons the hapless Tsar and becomes his Regent.
• Evil Reactionary: Shepunov opposes any kind of restraint on the political status quo and the military's control, believing that his own clique of loyalists should control the country over civilian governors. While willing to make concessions in modernizing the nation's industry and military, he also believes in turning the clock back to before the Revolution in almost every way, viewing even liberal and non-Bolshevik reforms as degenerate.
• The Exile: If he loses the power struggle to Mikhail and his loyalists, Shepunov will be exiled to Harbin once more, never to return again.
• Faux Affably Evil: He appears calm and polite in conversation, but at the slightest hint of frustration or opposition, Shepunov turns sour.
• The Generalissimo: If he successfully consolidates his power, Shepunov becomes a de facto dictator, imposing nationwide martial law, overseeing the militarization of Russian society and ensuring that the government is permanently under the White Army's control.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: The real Shepunov was a pro-Japanese collaborator, successor of Semyonov as head of a Russian émigré organization in Manchuria, and a warlord competitor of the Russian Fascist Party. All of these connections feature in TNO, but his manipulative Evil Chancellor persona and plans to militarize Russian society are fictional additions.
• Hitler Ate Sugar: To him, anyone who doesn't appreciate his style of ruling is a Bolshevik trying to sabotage the state and must be imprisoned. It gets even more ridiculous when he accuses rich factory owners of being communist.
• Laser-Guided Karma: As pointed out by Mikhail if he takes power and imprisons him, it's ironically poetic that Shepunov will be reduced to the same powerless position that he inflicted onto Mikhail. Shepunov is hardly fazed by this statement though, keeping what little dignity he has left.
• Man Behind the Man: Outwardly, Mikhail and possibly Nikita later lead the White Army, but it's really Shepunov running the country and guiding their agenda.
• Meet the New Boss:
  • When he succeeds Semyonov after his mentor's death, little changes about the Principality and the military junta that rules it.
  • In the superregional stage where Shepunov outmanuevers Mikhail, the workers of Novosibirsk are ordered to once more work in the factories, but now to benefit the military-industrial complex than some rich executive. One worker even notes the lack of change in working for either the old Novosibirsk regime or the White Army.
• Older Is Better: On a tour through Harbin's Airbase, Shepunov pays no attention to the modern aircraft he sees and is far more interested in the J7W3 Shinden, an old interceptor that's over a decade out-of-date.
• Order Is Not Good: His ultimate dream is for the Imperial law to enforce order and peace across all of Russia, except that his zealous ideals lead him to establishing a reactionary military junta that has no care for its people's needs.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Despite recognizing Tsarist loyalists who are seeking to dispel the White Army's iron clad control on the country, Shepunov can't directly go after them because it would enrage the citizens, especially after the PR nightmare of White Army officers violently putting down a protest in Irkutsk. Instead, he'll have to make some quiet moves in preparation for getting rid of Mikhail.
  • Shepunov isn't blind to the fact that relying too much on the Japanese zaibatsu will sully Russia's independence, so he can take some efforts to scale it down to a more manageable level.
• Propaganda Machine: Under him, massive propaganda campaigns are conducted to promote the White Army's supremacy and promote conscription in the fight against Bolshevism and fascism.
• The Purge: If allowed to cement his power, Shepunov carries out some quiet purges to ensure that he is never forced to give up his position.
• The Quisling: During World War II, Shepunov's White Army clique collaborated with the Japanese against the USSR. If Shepunov does not lose power to Tsar Mikhail, he all but guarantees Russia becoming a glorified playground for the Co-Prosperity Sphere and the Japanese zaibatsu. That said, he can opt to scale back some of the more overt exploitation.
• Repressive, but Efficient: His rule is dictatorial, but he's also smart enough to modernize the state's industry and military, using Japanese investments to do so. Notably, he's one of the few senior officers who acknowledges the valuable counsel of younger officers and forces their older peers to be taught their tactics.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Shepunov is all too willing to leverage his connections in Manchukuo and the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere to strengthen Russia (and especially his own position), at the expense of potentially turning the country into a glorified Japanese puppet.
• Taking Up the Mantle: Shepunov and his White Army supporters in many respects carry on the legacy of the autocratic and reactionary Black Hundreds movement, especially in their efforts to undo the Revolution.
• Ungrateful Bastard: After Mikhail wrests power from him, he'll spare Shepunov and merely sentence him to exile in Harbin. Shepunov himself remarks that he should feel glad about this show of mercy, but doesn't, still bitter about having been reduced to irrelevancy.
• Villain Has a Point: His decision to invite and court Manchurian Reform Bureaucrats was a sound idea to modernize the Principality's economy. When Mikhail rises to power, he invites White émigré economists who will continue many of the same policies advocated by the Reform Bureaucrats and Shepunov.
• Villainous Breakdown: Upon discovering Mikhail's plot to seize power from the White Army, Shepunov mobilizes his supporters to the Tsar's dacha to force the loyalists to stand down. If the loyalists have sufficient influence, Shepunov's own men will turn on him instead, leaving him flabbergasted that the tables have turned so quickly.
• Villainous Friendship: Shepunov has close friendships with many of the other White Army generals like Grigory Semyonov and Vissarion Mustafin, in which they interact with each other more casually in private settings.
• With Us or Against Us: If someone has even one disagreement about his vision, then they are considered enemies and traitors by Shepunov. If he retains power from Mikhail's failed coup, he will quell any further uprising by mandating vows of loyalty in the White Army.
• You Can't Go Home Again: If Shepunov fails to maintain his hold over Tsar Mikhail, he is sent to Harbin and forbidden from returning to Russia for the rest of his life.

Nikita I

Role: Head of Government (Shepunov succession)

Party: Rossiyskaya Tsarskaya Liga^note Russian Royal League

Ideology: Aristocratic Conservatism^note Despotism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show (Warning: Unmarked Spoilers)} Nikita Alexandrovich Romanov, uncle of Mikhail II and enthroned as Nikita I, Tsar of all the Russias, is a puppet.

He knows this. His ministers know it. His generals, who hold his strings tightly, most certainly know it.

And yet, he is content. Born in the waning days of the old Empire, he well remembers, as a young man, only narrowly escaping the fate of many of his relatives. Initially settling in Paris, he continued his education at Oxford, married and had children, and continued his life as best as he was able. But he never forgot the land that he considered his family's birthright, and during the 1920s and 1930s was very active in émigré monarchist circles. During the Second World War, he initially watched the collapse of the Soviet Union with glee, but the establishment of the Reichkommissariats and the brutal infighting amongst the Russian statelets that followed, he was sure that monarchism in Russia was dead and gone.

But then he received an invitation to Chita. He had heard that his nephew, Mikhail, had been installed as 'Tsar' by a clique of old White Army officers, and hoping for a political appointment he accepted, flying himself and his family to the frigid Siberian city. There he found two things: disappointment, and a 'friend' in Boris Shepunov, the most powerful member of the clique following the old Ataman's death. All of that changed, however, when Mikhail overplayed his hand. Nikita does not know the specifics, but he knows that Mikhail is gone for good, exiled back to Australia, and that Shepunov selected him to be the Army's figurehead Tsar.

In truth, Nikita would like to have power. But he saw what happened to Mikhail, and if signing whatever Shepunov and the military put in front of him allows him to re-establish even illusory Romanov control over Russia, then he is content to do so.

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• Allohistorical Allusion: In OTL, Prince Nikita Alexandrovich maintained his claim to the throne until his death, while continually rejecting the legitimacy of Prince Vladimir. If Mikhail II is deposed, he finally gets his chance of being Tsar, albeit as a puppet.
• The Exile: When the Romanov family was overthrown in Russia, Nikita settled in Paris and joined several émigré monarchist circles before he can be invited to power if Mikhail is dropped by the White Army.
• Happiness in Slavery: Downplayed. He ends up replacing Mikhail II as the figurehead for the White Army, and while he'd love to have power of his own, he wishes to avoid experiencing what happened to Mikhail. At least, he's content with providing the Romanovs some surface-level influence to their government.
• Heroic Russian Émigré: Averted. After seeing what happened to Mikhail II, Nikita doesn't dare try to defy Shepunov, making no efforts against the White Army clique that are really in charge.
• Hidden Backup Prince: Nikita Alexandrovich is another backup prince that Shepunov's White Army clique will invite to the Far East to serve as their puppet if Mikhail II fails to outmanoeuvre Shepunov.
• Irony: Unlike Mikhail II, Nikita actually does have a claim to the throne. But unlike Mikhail II or even Vladimir III in Vyatka, he has no shot of actually asserting that authority, at least for the immediate future.
• Puppet King: Prince Nikita Alexandrovich, Mikhail's uncle, ultimately replaces his nephew as the White Army clique's puppet Tsar if Shepunov foils Mikhail's attempt to assert control.
• The Starscream: Downplayed. He's shown to be content with playing Puppet King for the White Army, if it means guaranteeing that the Romanovs could retain even an illusory sense of control...for the moment.
• Unexpected Successor: After Mikhail's unexpected, attempted coup, the White Army will promote Nikita as the new Tsar, something that surprises even himself.
• Walking Spoiler: As having Nikita I on the throne for the Principality means that Mikhail II failed to curb Shepunov's power, it's unsurprising.

Anatoly Sobchak

Role: Head of Government (Loyalist Mikhail II cabinet), Vice President^note Head of Government (WerBell cabinet)

Party: Rossiyskaya Tsarskaya Liga^note Russian Royal League

Ideology: National Liberalism^note Liberalism

In-Game Biography ^{Click to Show} Two words perfectly encapsulate who Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak is: youthful, and pragmatic. In his early 30's by the time that he was appointed prime minister of the resurgent Russian Empire, Sobchak was formerly the young and quite successful mayor of Chita before being spirited away to his now much more important post.

Sobchak's political career had already bloomed during his time in Chita, where he earned a reputation for getting what he wanted - though, unlike many others in Russia, he did so through handshakes, smiles, cordial relations, and back-door dealings. Finding himself on the side of Ivan Mikhailov's anti-army group, he was rewarded soon after with the post of prime minister. While none are quite sure what Sobchak truly stands for, they know that, whatever it may be, he'll find a way to get it.

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• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Much like how Sobchak helped write the Russian Federation's constitution, he is tasked with assembling democratic institutions after Mikhail overthrows the White Army junta.
  • While not an outright monarchist, OTL Sobchak was also connected to the Romanov dynasty. It was him who invited Prince Vladimir Kirillovich^note aka Vladimir III of Vyatka in TNO into Saint Petersburg, and, after his death, organised his burial in the Peter and Paul Fortress, with his family. There were even rumours that he dreamed of marrying off his daughter to George Mikhailovich Romanov, Vladimir's grandson, and reforming Russia into a constitutional monarchy with himself as Prime Minister - which is exactly what he ends up becoming in TNO.
• Les Collaborateurs: If the Russian Far East is unified by WerBell, Sobchak works for his mercenary government, remaining as mayor of Chita.
• Early-Bird Cameo: As mayor of Chita, Sobchak appears in one of the Principality's first events, concerned about the high taxes levied by the White Army on the citizenry. A few years later, Sobchak can find himself playing a much more important role, either as Prime Minister of Russia if Tsar Mikhail successfully removes Boris Shepunov and replaces his junta with Sobchak's civilian government, or as the leader of the Amur Refugee Zone if Russia is unified by Sergey Taboritsky.
• Emergency Authority: After becoming Prime Minister of Russia, in contrast to Dmitry Volkogonov who wants to reinstitute democracy immediately, Sobchak proposes a provisional government to prepare the people and solidify democratic institutions, since even after Boris Shepunov is removed, an election is still impossible without political parties, political media, or many people prepared to run. In the end, Tsar Mikhail chooses Sobchak's proposition over Volkogonov's.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Sobchak was one of the first independents elected to the Congress of the People's Deputies of the Soviet Union in 1989, a co-author of the constitution of the Russian Federation, the mayor of Saint Petersburg amid allegations of corruption, and a mentor to Vladimir Putin, dying in 2000 under suspicious circumstances. If Mikhail succeeds in installing a constitutional monarchy, Sobchak helps put together a new government. If Sergey Taboritsky unifies Russia, he becomes a humanitarian trying to help the victims of the Holy Russian Empire's atrocities and collapse.
• The Lancer: If Mikhail seizes power from Shepunov, he'll enlist Sobchak as his prime minister, permitting him to begin liberalizing the country and implementing a proper civilian government.
• Necessarily Evil: Though he remains one of the few non-corrupt men in WerBell's regime, Sobchak acknowledges that he'll be hated as a collaborator abetting to a foreign dictatorship. As far as he's concerned, working with them is the best he can make out of the terrible situation.
• Sole Survivor: In a post-Midnight Russia, Sobchak is the last man standing from the Transbaikal Principality's government.
• Young and in Charge: Born in 1937, he is not even 25 before becoming mayor of Chita, and can come to national office decades before OTL.

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