History Characters / RedSparrow

* ReassignedToAntarctica: A near-miss in Moscow prompts the COS (Chief of Station) to unceremoniously kick Nate out of Moscow Station. He manages to get a transfer to Helsinki Station afterward, saving him from an embarrassingly early retirement.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: In her teenage years, she learned to explore her sexual side, which she calls her "secret self," with the help of a brush that she inherited from her ''Prababushka'' (great-grandmother) which she uses to masturbate on several occasions.

* DeathBySex: The marks she seduces are eventually arrested by the SVR. Played straight in her first assignment under her uncle, where a rival of Putin's is killed ''while he was having sex with her''.

* [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]]: It's hinted that she set her mother up to be killed by her own father.

* TheSociopath: Noted to be utterly ruthless.

* KnifeNut: Wields a two-foot-long Khyber knife.

* BiggerBad: Whatever the other villains do, they're still underlings to him.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: One has to wonder what the real-life Vladimir Putin would think of being fictionalized this way.

* {{Protagonist}}: The novel's title itself is an allusion to her being a Russian-trained seductress. Within the story, she's the one who clearly has the most plot agency, and whose decisions have the greatest impact.

!!Dominika Vasilyevna Egorova | Доминика Василйевна Эгорова

!!General Vladimir Andreiyevich Korchnoi | Владимир Андреийевич Корчнои

!!Ivan Dimitrevich Egorov | Иван Димитревич Эгоров

* ShoutOut: Theater/{{Uncle Vanya}} is one of the most well-known Russian plays in the theater world.

* CountryMatters: His list of "singular pleasures in life" include "eating breakfast in bed with cunty fingers."

!!Dominika Vasilyevna Egorova (Cyrillic: Доминика Василевна Эгорова)

!!General Vladimir Andreiyevich Korchnoi (Cyrillic: Владимир Андреийевич Корчнои)

!!Ivan Dimitrevich Egorov (Cyrillic: Иван Димитревич Эгоров)

!!Sergey Matorin (Cyrillic: Сергей Маторин)

!![[UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin]] (Cyrillic: Владимир Владимирович Путин)

!!Alexei Ivanovich Zyuganov (Cyrillic: Алексеи Иванович Зюганов)

!!Marta Yelenova (Cyrillic: Марта Еленова)

->Nate is a CIA officer initially stationed in Moscow, tasked with handling the CIA's penetration of the SVR, codenamed MARBLE. He is forced to find another assignment after the Moscow Chief of Station kicks him out, and comes under the leadership of Tom Forsyth and Marty Gable in Helsinki Station. When the SVR starts to realize that Nash may be the key to finding the mole among them, they call on the newly-minted Sparrow Dominika Egorova to follow him to Finland, find out who the mole is by seducing him, and destroy him.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: [[spoiler:After Benford and Korchnoi initiate their succession plan by using Dominika to expose Korchnoi to the SVR, Nate is deliberately left in the dark, along with Dominika. Once Dominika's call to the SVR springs the trap for Korchnoi, he berates her for it, neither of them knowing at the time that the whole thing was planned. After Dominika is left to decide for herself whether to continue Korchnoi's work or leave the spying behind, Nate is kept away from her until right before the spy exchange is arranged, as his superiors decided that his involvement might complicate the important decision she had to make]].

!!Dominika Vasilyevna Egorova (Доминика Василевна Эгорова)

->Dominika is the daughter of Vassily Egorov, a university professor, and Nina Egorova, a concert violinist. At the age of 5, a doctor discovered that she had synesthesia, wherein she was able to perceive sounds as visible colors. Remarkably, it turned out she was also able to see colors when looking at people, giving her an uncanny intuition for reading people's intentions and motives. However, her parents made her swear to keep her talent a secret from everybody.

->Her synesthesia made music and dance come naturally to her, allowing her to enter ballet school and excel effortlessly. A jealous rival, however, conspired against her, resulting in a broken foot and a permanent end to her dancing career. Right after her dismissal from the ballet academy, her father dies, and during the funeral, she is approached by her uncle Ivan and recruited for an SVR operation.

* ItRunsInTheFamily: She inherited her volatile temper from her equally tempestuous mother Nina.

!!General Vladimir Andreiyevich Korchnoi (Владимир Андреийевич Корчнои)

!!Ivan Dimitrevich Egorov (Иван Димитревич Эгоров)

->Ivan (referred to throughout the novel as Vanya) is the First Deputy Director of the SVR, as well as Dominika's uncle. When his brother Vassily died, he took the opportunity to recruit his niece Dominika to work for him in the SVR, using her to entrap a Putin rival, and eventually sending her to the SVR Academy, and later Sparrow School. When he hears of a mole within the SVR, and that an American officer named Nash appears to be the traitor's handler, he decides to send his niece to use her Sparrow skills to find the mole and eliminate him.

* BadBoss: The fact that he thinks nothing of using even his own niece for his own purposes says enough about his leadership.
* CreateYourOwnHero: His poor treatment of Dominika made her start to entertain thoughts of committing treason against Russia, not to mention that he gave her all the opportunities for her to antagonize her country in the most insidious possible manner.

* PutOnABus: As of ''Palace of Treason'', he has been put into forced retirement after [[spoiler:Dominika succeeds where he failed in catching the mole]].

!!Sergey Matorin (Сергей Маторин)

->Matorin is a veteran of the Afghan War, nicknamed "Khyber." He gained a reputation for being a monstrous, sadistic killer after he gutted an Afghan girl that he and his fellow soldiers took hostage using a two-foot knife, the memory of which he recalls fondly. He is employed by the SVR as a "mechanic," an executioner. Occasionally, he still uses the Khyber knife he once wielded back in Afghanistan, which he still maintains and trains with, for his assignments.

* TheBrute: He does most of the assassinations for the other villains in the story.

!![[UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin]] (Владимир Владимирович Путин)

* BiggerBad: Whatever the other villains do, they're still subordinate to him.

* GreaterScopeVillain: His reputation is at stake with whatever his subordinates do.

* {{Sadist}}: [[spoiler:In a very uncomfortable scene in ''Palace of Treason'', Dominika attempts to initiate sexual contact with him when he enters her bedroom. Her efforts seem to have no effect on him until he starts giving her orders to assassinate someone, after which she notes that he got aroused immediately. Fortunately for her, he leaves her room before things went any further]].

!!Alexei Ivanovich Zyuganov (Алексеи Иванович Зюганов)

!!Marta Yelenova (Марта Еленова)

* TheConfidant: To Dominika. She eventually tells her everything about her life, and Marta, having been a Sparrow herself, understands what she's going through.
* IWasQuiteALooker: She was a former Sparrow, and was even regarded as the "Queen Sparrow" in her prime.
* SacrificialLamb[=/=][[HeKnowsTooMuch She Knows Too Much]]: [[spoiler:Vanya has her killed after she invokes Ustinov when arguing with her superior, not knowing that Dominika was strictly sworn to secrecy about that incident. Her disappearance seals Dominika's resolve to spite Russia and the cruel institution that killed her]].

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:After asking the Russians for a cyanide pill, she is instead given a poisoned needle, which she immediately uses when the FBI attempts to arrest her in her home]].

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: In accordance with her synesthesia, certain colors on people indicate certain character traits for her. It's never elaborated on how her synesthetic perception works this way; possibly a subconscious awareness of facial micro-expressions.

->Nate is a CIA officer initially stationed in Moscow, tasked with handling the CIA's penetration of the SVR, codenamed MARBLE. He is forced to find another assignment after the Moscow Chief of Station kicks him out, and comes under the leadership of Tom Forsyth and Marty Gable in Helsinki Station. When the SVR starts to realize that Nash may be the key to finding the mole among them, they follow him to Finland and assign Dominika Egorova to find out what he knows and destroy him.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: [[spoiler:After Benford and Korchnoi initiate their succession plan by using Dominika to expose Korchnoi to the SVR, Nate only learns bits and pieces, and is outraged to learn that Dominika's call to the SVR was what blew Korchnoi's cover. After Dominika is left to decide for herself whether to continue Korchnoi's work or leave the spying behind, Nate is kept away from her until right before the spy exchange is arranged]].
* ReassignedToAntarctica: A near-miss in Moscow prompts the COS (Chief of Station) to unceremoniously kick Nate out of Moscow Station. He manages to get a transfer to Helsinki Station afterward.

!!Dominika Vasilyevna Egorova

->During her formal training at SVR, she is reassigned to Sparrow School to learn how to become a seductress. After becoming a full-fledged Sparrow, she is later assigned to track down the SVR mole by seducing Nate Nash, an American CIA officer stationed in Helsinki suspected of being the handler for the mole.

* CulturedBadass: A ballerina in her teens before she became an intelligence officer. In ''Palace of Treason'', though, she mistakenly refers to the classic American movie as [[Film/GoneWithTheWind "Blown in the Wind."]]

* HiddenDepths: ''Palace of Treason'' reveals she's actually particular about her shoes, even having the SVR make her steel-toed boots. Nate's awkward reaction to said boots annoys her at one point.

* HotBlooded: She is described as having a temper problem several times throughout the novel.

!!General Vladimir Andreiyevich Korchnoi

->Korchnoi is the head of the Americas Department of the SVR. The CIA recognizes him as MARBLE, their most significant penetration of the SVR, having been spying for them for over a decade. As the SVR begins to hunt down the traitor in their midst, namely himself, he sees a potential way for his work to continue in the form of Dominika Egorova and her continued interaction with CIA officer Nate Nash, who happens to be his handler.

!!Ivan Dimitrevich Egorov

->Ivan (referred to throughout the novel as [[UsefulNotes/RussianNamingConvention Vanya]]) is the First Deputy Director of the SVR, as well as Dominika's uncle. When his brother Vassily died, he took the opportunity to recruit his niece Dominika to work for him in the SVR, using her to entrap a Putin rival, and eventually sending her to the SVR Academy, and later Sparrow School. When he hears of a mole within the SVR, and that an American officer named Nash appears to be the traitor's handler, he decides to send his niece to use her Sparrow skills to find the mole and eliminate him.

* AffablyEvil: He always acts like the concerned uncle toward Dominika when he's not making decisions for her against her will.

* InSeriesNickname: Vanya, the diminutive form of his given name. Even in the narration, he is almost never called Ivan.

!!Sergey Matorin

* AxCrazy: His fondest memory is of a girl that he killed in Afghanistan, and his assassinations are a means for him to relive that again in his mind.
* TheBrute: He does most of the killing for the other villains in the story.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:He is killed by the very injections he was supposed to use on Dominika to interrogate and kill her]].

!![[UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin]]

!!Alexei Ivanovich Zyuganov

->Zyuganov is the head of the counterintelligence division of the SVR (Line KR). He first started his career as a torturer in the Lubyanka prisons before landing his current job in the SVR, where he employs the same paranoia, ruthlessness, and sadism he started with in the torture cells to the effort to hunt down the mole within the agency.

->Forsyth is the Helsinki Chief of Station (COS) when Nate Nash is kicked out of Moscow and reassigned under his employ. He mentors Nate while he's struggling to recover from the blow to his career, and eventually provides assistance in dealing with Dominika and her decision to spy for them.

!!Marta Yelenova

->Marta is an SVR veteran officer stationed in Helsinki. She befriends Dominika when the latter gets assigned there.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Her reputation among many former KGB officials made sure she was untouchable no matter what she did with her job.

* BigGood: The highest-ranked officer among the protagonists.

->Dominika is the daughter of Vassily Egorov, a university professor and Nina Egorova, a concert violinist. At the age of 5, a doctor discovered that she had synesthesia, wherein she was able to perceive sounds as visible colors. Remarkably, it turned out she was also able to see colors when looking at people, giving her an uncanny intuition for reading people's intentions and motives. However, her parents made her swear to keep her talent a secret from everybody. Her synesthesia made music and dance come naturally to her, allowing her to enter ballet school and excel effortlessly. A jealous rival, however, conspired against her, resulting in a broken foot and a permanent end to her dancing career. Right after her dismissal from the ballet academy, her father dies, and during the funeral, she is approached by her uncle Ivan and recruited for an SVR operation.

->Dominika is the daughter of a university professor and a concert violinist. At the age of 5, a doctor discovered that she had synesthesia, wherein she was able to perceive sounds as visible colors. Remarkably, it turned out she was also able to see colors when looking at people, giving her an uncanny intuition for reading people's intentions and motives. However, her parents made her swear to keep her talent a secret from everybody. Her synesthesia made music and dance come naturally to her, allowing her to enter ballet school and excel effortlessly. A jealous rival, however, conspired against her, resulting in a broken foot and a permanent end to her dancing career. Right after her dismissal from the ballet academy, her father dies, and during the funeral, she is approached by her uncle Ivan and recruited for an SVR operation.

->Matorin is a veteran of the Afghan War, nicknamed "Khyber." He gained a reputation for being a monstrous, sadistic killer after he gutted an Afghan girl that he and his fellow soldiers took hostage with a two-foot knife, the memory of which he recalls fondly. He is employed by the SVR as a "mechanic," an executioner. Occasionally, he still uses the Khyber knife he once wielded back in Afghanistan, which he still maintains and trains with, for his assignments.

* {{Sadist}}: [[spoiler:In a very uncomfortable scene in ''Palace of Treason'', Dominika attempts to initiate sexual contact with him when he enters her bedroom. Her efforts seem to have no effect on him until he starts giving her orders to assassinate someone, after which she notes that he got aroused immediately after that. Fortunately for her, he leaves her room before things went any further]].

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:After asking the Russians for a cyanide pill, she is instead given a poisoned needle, which she immediately uses when the FBI attempt to arrest her in her home]].

* TheHandler: Of MARBLE, then later of DIVA. In ''Palace of Treason'', he is given another case to handle in Athens, codenamed LYRIC.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: A near-miss in Moscow prompts the COS (Chief of Station) to impulsively kick Nate out of Moscow Station. He manages to get a transfer to Helsinki Station afterward.

* SupportingProtagonist: However big of a part he plays in the story, Dominika is the character that most prominently keeps the plot going.

->Dominika is the daughter of a university professor and a concert violinist. At the age of 5, it was discovered that she had synesthesia, that she was able to perceive sounds as colors that she could see. Remarkably, it turned out she was also able to see colors when looking at people, giving her an uncanny intuition for reading people's intentions and motives. Her parents, however, made her swear to keep her talent a secret from everybody. Her synesthesia made music and dance come naturally to her, allowing her to enter ballet school and excel effortlessly. A jealous rival, however, conspired against her, resulting in a broken foot and a permanent end to her dancing career. Right after her dismissal from the ballet academy, her father dies, and during the funeral, she is approached by her uncle Ivan and recruited for an SVR operation.

->During her formal training at SVR, she is reassigned to Sparrow School to learn how to become a seductress. After becoming a full-fledged Sparrow, she is later assigned to track down the SVR mole by seducing Nate Nash, an American stationed in Helsinki and suspected of being the handler for the mole.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: A very dark version; her Sparrow training has taught her to use her body language to manipulate anybody she interacts with (even outside the bedroom), making her aware of when she's using her skills against others. Though when she develops feelings for Nate, she uses them solely for their pleasure.

* BondOneLiner: While she and Gable are in Greece, [[spoiler:him trying to convince her to return to Moscow and continue Korchnoi's work for the Americans]], he advises her on her return to "be bitchy," which Dominika translates in Russian as ''zlobnyj''. Two Georgian agents make an attempt to kidnap her, and after she kills both agents, she looks at Gable and says:

* CulturedBadass: A ballerina in her teens before she became an intelligence officer.

* DeathBySex: Inverted as a Sparrow; those she seduces are eventually arrested by the SVR. Played straight in her first assignment under her uncle, where a rival of Putin's is killed ''while he was having sex with her''.

* HauntedHeroine: Starting in ''Palace of Treason'', she begins seeing visions of the dead women in her past, including her late mother, [[spoiler:Marta Yelenova, and her Sparrow School classmate Marte (possibly the real name of the girl referred to as Anya in ''Red Sparrow''). They are later joined by Udranka and Hannah Archer]].

* InLoveWithTheMark: To be fair, this is only one of many factors in her decision to help him.

* KnightInSourArmor: The more she works for the SVR, the more she comes to realize how little Russia actually cared for its people and those that devote their lives to the ''Rodina''.

* SuperSenses: Her synesthesia somehow allows her to judge the intentions of people with implausible accuracy.

* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Benford and Korchnoi's plan to have her become the new CIA penetration of SVR hinges on her being the one to expose Korchnoi as the mole and, more importantly, her not being aware of doing so. After their plan works, she is enraged to find out how she was used to betray her beloved mentor]].

* CreateYourOwnHero: His poor treatment of his niece made her start to entertain thoughts of committing treason against Russia, not to mention that he gave her all the opportunities for her to antagonize her country in the most insidious possible manner.

->Putin is the Prime Minister of Russia. As the SVR remains unable to unmask the traitor among them, he secretly employs several other people to involve themselves in the hunt in other ways. Under his leadership, the most unforgivable crime anybody can do in his Russia is to embarrass him in front of the rest of the world, and he will make sure that never happens, by any means necessary.

* {{Sadist}}: [[spoiler:In a very uncomfortable scene in ''Palace of Treason'', Dominika attempts to initiate sexual contact with him when he enters her bedroom. Her efforts seem to have no effect on him until he starts giving her orders to assassinate someone, after which she notes that he got aroused immediately after that. Fortunately for her, he leaves before things went any further]].

->Forsyth is the Helsinki Chief of Station (COS) when Nate Nash is kicked out of Moscow and reassigned under his employ. He offers a lot of guidance to Nate while he's struggling to recover from the blow to his career, and eventually provides assistance in dealing with Dominika and her decision to spy for them.

* LoveMakesYouDumb: In sympathizing with Nate's plight, he tells him a story of how one of the assets he recruited in Rome was a woman that he had a sexual relationship with. The woman became a little too overeager to steal intelligence for him, and she was eventually caught.

* SacrificialLamb[=/=][[HeKnowsTooMuch She Knows Too Much]]: [[spoiler:Vanya has her killed after she invokes Ustinov when arguing with her superior, not knowing that Dominika was strictly sworn to secrecy about that incident. Her death seals Dominika's resolve to spite Russia and the cruel institution that killed her]].

* EvilCounterpart: Of Korchnoi. He is driven by contempt for his country; she despises everything that doesn't serve her needs. He is deeply concerned for other people; she cares for no one else but herself.

* BlackSheep: Coming from a family with at least three generations of Southern lawyers, and with his brothers following the same legacy, he broke from tradition by studying Russian and later applying for the CIA. He is deathly afraid of failing as a case officer and having to return home with his tail between his legs.

->Nate is a CIA officer initially stationed in Moscow, tasked with handling the CIA's penetration of the SVR, codenamed MARBLE. He is forced to find another assignment in Helsinki after the Moscow Chief of Station kicks him out, and comes under the leadership of Tom Forsyth and Marty Gable in Helsinki. When the SVR starts to realize that Nash may be the key to finding the mole among them, they follow him to Finland and assign Dominika Egorova to find out what he knows and destroy him.

->Nate is a CIA officer initially stationed in Moscow, tasked with handling the CIA's penetration of the SVR, codenamed MARBLE. He gets reassigned to Helsinki by the Moscow Chief of Station, and comes under the leadership of Tom Forsyth and Marty Gable in Helsinki. When the SVR starts to realize that Nash may be the key to finding the mole among them, they follow him to Finland and assign Dominika Egorova to find out what he knows and destroy him.

* AngerBornOfWorry: When Dominika initially agrees to spy for the Americans, she brazenly makes a lot of risky efforts to give them intelligence she knows they're after. Nate angrily calls her out for endangering herself needlessly and for her thrill-seeking tendencies in general. Dominika, although offended at Nate's anger being directed at her, recognizes that he's only doing so out of fear for her safety.
* BlackSheep: Coming from a long line of Southern lawyers, and with his brothers following the same legacy, he broke from the family tradition by studying Russian and later applying for the CIA. He is deathly afraid of failing as a case officer and having to return home with his tail between his legs.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: A very dark version; her Sparrow training has taught her to use her body language to manipulate anybody she interacts with (even outside the bedroom), making her aware of when she's using her skills to manipulate others. Though when she develops feelings for Nate, she uses them solely for their pleasure.

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: In ''Palace of Treason'', after having been advised by the CIA to use Red Route Two as an exfiltration plan for herself if she needed it, [[spoiler:she uses it to save LYRIC instead, refusing to let another colleague die on her watch]].

* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler:After perceiving that Nate has a peculiar relationship with Hannah, her Moscow handler, she is plagued with jealousy all the way up to their first meeting. She even flaunts her seduction of Yevgeny because of this]].

* ItRunsInTheFamily: She inherited her volatile temper from her equally tempestuous mother.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Dominika regards him as a father-figure; in fact, to her synesthetic eye, he has the same purple aura as her father (and Nate). [[spoiler:She is later assigned under his leadership, allowing him to introduce himself as the SVR mole their agency has been hunting all throughout the story]].

* AffablyEvil: He always acts like the concerned uncle in front of Dominika when he's not making decisions for her against her will.

* CreateYourOwnHero: His poor treatment of his niece made her start to entertain thoughts of committing treason against Russia.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:He is killed by the very injections he was tasked with using on Dominika to interrogate her before eliminating her]].

* HiddenDepths: To Nate's surprise, he actually knows what it's like to be too emotionally invested in somebody while working as a spy.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: He is noted several times to be as eccentric as he is efficient.

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: In ''Palace of Treason, after having been advised by the CIA to use Red Route Two as an exfiltration plan for herself if she needed it, [[spoiler:she uses it to save LYRIC instead, refusing to let another colleague die on her watch]].

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: To his slight consternation, nobody in the CID (Counterintelligence Division) knows who Pat Benatar is when he tries using the name in a metaphor.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: A very dark version; her Sparrow training has taught her to use her body language to manipulate anybody she interacts with (even outside the bedroom), making aware when she's using her skills to manipulate others. Though when she develops feelings for Nate, she uses them solely for their pleasure.

->Nate is a CIA officer initially stationed in Moscow, tasked with handling the CIA's penetration of the SVR, codenamed MARBLE. He gets reassigned to Helsinki by the Moscow Chief of Station, and comes under the leadership of Tom Forsyth and Marty Gable. When the SVR starts to realize that Nash may be the key to finding the mole among them, they follow him to Helsinki and assign Dominika Egorova to find out what he knows and destroy him.

* AngerBornOfWorry: When Dominika initially agrees to spy for the Americans, she brazenly makes a lot of risky efforts to give them intelligence she knows they're after. Nate angrily calls her out for her thrill-seeking tendencies, endangering herself needlessly. Dominika, although offended at Nate's anger being directed at her, recognizes that he's only doing so out of fear for her safety.

* ChivalrousPervert: Sleeps with Dominika after recruiting her, and later in the sequel, with Hannah in the middle of her training.

->Dominika is the daughter of a university professor and a concert violinist. At the age of 5, it was discovered that she had synesthesia, that she was able to perceive sounds as colors that she could see. Remarkably, it turned out she was also able to see colors when looking at people, giving her an uncanny intuition on people's intentions and motives. Her parents, however, made her swear to keep her talent a secret from everybody. Her synesthesia made music and dance come naturally to her, allowing her to enter ballet school and excel effortlessly. A jealous rival, however, conspired against her, resulting in a broken foot and a permanent end to her dancing career. Right after her dismissal from the ballet academy, her father dies, and during the funeral, she is approached by her uncle Ivan and recruited for an SVR operation.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: A male classmate in the ballet academy viciously kicked at her right foot while she was ''en pointe'' (standing on her toes), severely fracturing her foot and permanently ending her dancing career. Her foot eventually healed and she was able to walk again, but from then on, she would have a slight limp on her right side whenever she walked.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: A very dark version; her Sparrow training has taught her to use her body language to manipulate anybody she interacts with (even outside the bedroom), boiling her movements down to very specific instructions and results. However, once she develops feelings for Nate, she doesn't think this way whenever they're together.

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: After having been trained to use Red Route Two as an exfiltration plan for herself if she needed it, [[spoiler:she uses it to save LYRIC instead, refusing to let another colleague die on her watch]].

* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler:After perceiving that Nate has a peculiar relationship with Hannah, her Moscow handler, she is plagued with jealousy all the way up to their first meeting. She even flaunts her use of her Sparrow skills to turn Yevgeny because of this]].

* KnightInSourArmor: The more she works with the SVR, the more she comes to realize how little Russia actually cared for its people and those that devote their lives to the ''Rodina''.

* TheMole: After Nate recruits her.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Dominika regards him as a father-figure; in fact, to her synesthetic eye, he has the same color aura as her father (and Nate). [[spoiler:She is later assigned under his leadership, allowing him to introduce himself as the SVR mole their agency has been hunting all throughout the story]].

* TheHeavy: The most prominent villainous conspirator throughout the novel.

* PutOnABus: In ''Palace of Treason'', he has been put into forced retirement after [[spoiler:Dominika succeeds where he failed in catching the mole]].

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: His mother is probably the only other person (next to Putin) that he holds in high regard. [[spoiler:And yet when she tries to convince her son to turn himself in, he doesn't hesitate to kill her]].

!!Chief of Station Tom Forsyth

->Forsyth is the Helsinki Chief of Station (COS) when Nate Nash is reassigned under his employ. He offers a lot of guidance to Nate while he's struggling to recover from the blow to his career, and eventually provides assistance in dealing with Dominika and her decision to spy for them.

!!Deputy Chief of Station Marty Gable

->Marta is an SVR veteran stationed in Helsinki. She befriends Dominika when the latter gets assigned there.

* SacrificialLamb: [[spoiler:Her death seals Dominika's resolve to spite Russia and the cruel institution that killed her]].

Trope page for the characters in Jason Matthews's novel ''Red Sparrow''.

* AngerBornOfWorry: When Dominika initially agrees to spy for the Americans, she brazenly makes a lot of risky efforts to give them intelligence she knows they're after. Nate angrily calls her out for unnecessarily endangering herself, as well as her thrill-seeking tendencies. Dominika, although offended at Nate's anger being directed at her, recognizes that he's only doing so out of fear for her safety.

!!Dominika Vassilyevna Egorova

** MeaningfulName: She chose her signature after Olga Prekrasna (Olga the Beauty), a medieval Slavic princess who once burned down an enemy's capital by tying sulfur to the feet of hundreds of sparrows that landed on the city square and ignited.
* CynicismCatalyst[=/=]ILetGwenStacyDie: [[spoiler:The death of her only friend in Helsinki, Marta, pushes her to go through with her idea to commit treason and expose her true mission to Nate]].
* ADateWithRosiePalms: In her teenage years, she learned to explore her sexual side, which she calls her "secret self," with the help of a brush that she inherited from her great-grandmother which she uses to masturbate on several occasions.

* SensualSlavs: A very attractive Russian woman.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: His mother is probably the only other person (next to Putin) that he holds in high regard.

* {{Sadist}}: He enjoys torturing people so much, he even has a special coat just for the occasion.
* {{Schemer}}: He sets things up to make things as hard for Dominika as possible in the sequel.
* TheSociopath: His sole pleasure in life is torturing people. From Dominika's synesthetic point-of-view, he has a black aura in the shape of bat-like wings, similar to the equally unhinged Matorin.

* ReallyGetsAround: Had this reputation during her teens.

* PopCultureOsmosisFailure: To his slight consternation, nobody in the CID (Counterintelligence Division) knows who Pat Benatar is when he tries using the name in a metaphor.

->Ivan (referred to throughout the novel as [[UsefulNotes/RussianNamingConvention Vanya]]) is the First Deputy Director of the SVR, as well as Dominika's uncle. When his brother Vassily died, he took the opportunity to recruit his niece Dominika to work for him in the SVR, using her to entrap a Putin rival, and eventually sending her to the SVR Academy, and later Sparrow School. When he hears of a mole within the SVR, and that an American officer named Nash appears to be the traitor's handler, he sent his niece to use her Sparrow skills to find the mole and eliminate him.

!!Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin

* TortureTechnician: A very meticulous one, noting the efficacy of particular striking points.

->Gable is Forsyth's second-in-command. When Nate Nash arrives at their Station, he steps in to keep Nate from acting too rashly and teaches him what he knows about handling agents, and making them first priority.

* BigGood: The highest-ranked official among the protagonists.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: [[spoiler:He doesn't bother justifying himself to Dominika once she finds out what she inadvertently did to expose Korchnoi. Instead, he simply lays out the plans that they both made, and tells Dominika that it falls to her to honor the sacrifice he made]].

** ReassignmentBackfire: Not only did he gain better mentors with Forsyth and Gable, but his actions starting from Helsinki onward have made a bigger impact on Moscow than if he never left the Station.

!!Dominika Vasilyevna Egorova

* TheAce: Her synesthesia gives her a practically unfair advantage in almost everything she does, whether dancing, being an SVR officer, using her Sparrow training to seduce targets, and even navigating the treacherous political waters within the SVR.

* DoubleAgent: A Russian operative spying for the CIA, codenamed DIVA.

* HauntedHeroine: Starting in ''Palace of Treason'', she begins seeing visions of the dead women in her past, including her late mother, [[spoiler:Marta Yelenova, and her Sparrow School classmate Marte (possibly the real name of the girl referred to as Anya in ''Red Sparrow'')]].

* {{Protagonist}}: The novel's title itself is an allusion to her being a Russian-trained seductress. Within the story, she clearly has the most plot agency, and whose decisions have the greatest impact.

* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Benford and Korchnoi's plan to have her become the new CIA penetration of SVR hinges on her being the one to expose Korchnoi as the mole and her not being aware of doing so. After their plan works, she is enraged to find out how she was used to betray her beloved mentor]].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Dominika regards him as a father-figure; in fact, to her synesthetic eye, he has the same aura as her father. [[spoiler:She is later assigned under his leadership, allowing him to introduce himself as the SVR mole their agency has been hunting all throughout the story]].

->Ivan (referred to throughout the novel as [[UsefulNotes/RussianNamingConvention Vanya]]) is the First Deputy Director of the SVR, as well as Dominika's uncle. When his brother Vassily died, he took the opportunity to recruit his niece Dominika to work for him in the SVR, using her to entrap a Putin rival, and eventually sending her to the SVR Academy, and later Sparrow School. When he hears of a mole within the SVR, and that an American officer named Nash was the handler for the traitor, he sent his niece to use her Sparrow skills to find the mole and eliminate him.

->Matorin is a veteran of the Afghan War, nicknamed "Khyber." He gained a reputation for being a monstrous, sadistic killer after he gutted an Afghan girl that they took hostage with a two-foot knife, the memory of which he recalls fondly. He is employed by the SVR as a "mechanic," an executioner. Occasionally, he still uses the Khyber knife he once wielded back in Afghanistan, which he still maintains and trains with, for his assignments.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: One has to wonder what the real-life Vladimir Putin thinks of being fictionalized this way.

->Forsyth is the Helsinki Chief of Station (COS) when Nate Nash is reassigned under his employ. He offers a lot of guidance to Nate while he's struggling to recover from the blow to his career, and eventually provides assistance in dealing with Dominika and her eventual decision to spy for them.

* LoveMakesYouStupid: In sympathizing with Nate's plight, he tells him a story of how one of the assets he recruited in Rome was a woman that he had a sexual relationship with. The woman became a little too overeager to steal intelligence for him, and she was eventually caught.

->Gable is Forsyth's second-in-command. When Nate Nash arrives at their Station, he steps in to keep Nate from acting too rashly and teach him what he knows about handling agents, and making them first priority.

* AffectionateNickname: Dominika calls him ''Bratok'', dear brother.

->Benford is the chief of the CIA's Counterintelligence Division. He has been monitoring the MARBLE case throughout its 14 years, and closely monitors the handling of said case.

->Boucher is a Democratic senator who has secretly been spying for the Russians. The SVR had codenamed her LEBED (SWAN in English), and her position allowed her to send very sensitive military secrets to Moscow. She has no allegiance to anything or anyone but herself, and is simply concerned with doing what she wants when she wants to.

* EvilCounterpart: Of Korchnoi. He is driven by contempt for his country; she despises everything that doesn't serve her needs. He is deeply concerned for other people; she cares for no one but herself.