Here is a list of characters appearing in Strugatsky Brothers' novel Monday Begins on Saturday and its sequel, Tale of the Troika.
Note: All character images on the page are the beloved "canon" illustrations by Evgeny Migunov, who illustrated the Soviet edition of the book in 1965 and reworked and updated some of the illustrations in 1979.
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Main Characters
Aleksandr Ivanovich "Sasha" Privalov
The protagonist and narrator. A young, erudite and curious programmer from Leningrad, he went on vacation to the northern town of Solovets, unaware that this trip would change his life forever.
- Jumped at the Call: He muses on the tendency of heroes in fiction (and his fellow scientists in real life) to shy away from the unexpected and wonderful; he himself prefers to embrace the rules of the peculiar setting he finds himself in.
- Nerd Glasses: Sports these on Migunov's illustrations, giving him a strong resemblance to Soviet cinema's number one nerd, Shurik.
- Unfazed Everyman: At one point he just gives up being astonished by the strange happenings around him, but remains fascinated and eager to learn more.
Roman Petrovich Oira-Oira
mathemagician. Editor-in-chief of the wall newspaper.
A young but already prominent - Big Brother Mentor: To Sasha Privalov.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has some caustic words to say about the state of the Soviet press, the stifling bureaucracy at the Institute and other things, and isn't afraid to speak up. He also directs some seriously Armor Piercing Questions at Vybegallo during his presentation of the gastrally unsatisfied cadaver.
- The Nicknamer: Calls Vitka Korneev the "museum property squanderer" once, and calls Sasha "sorcerer's apprentice" while watching him fail at mundane magic.
Viktor Pavlovich "Vitka" Korneev
- Genius Bruiser: No slouch in a fight (or looks like it), and a valuable researcher.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is often referred to as "the rude Korneev", but even at his worst he's just fond of banter and irreverent, and has a definite sense of fairness and decency.
Eduard "Edik" Amperian
Friendly, polite and optimistic young Armenian scientist from the Department of Linear Happiness.
- Nice Guy: That is his chief character trait - which gets lampshaded in the afterword allegedly written by A.A.Privalov himself.
- Humanity Is Superior: A self-proclaimed anthropocentrist.
Grandmasters of NITWiT
Fyodor Simeonovich Kivrin
Head of the Department of Linear Happiness, famous for his turbulent past and optimistic outlook on life. Edik Amperian's boss.
- Big Fun: Quite corpulent, and always cheerful and optimistic.
- Beware the Nice Ones: In his anger, he can be just as terrifying as his associate Junta.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Has caught all sorts of flak for his work in Tsarist Russia over the centuries — apparently, the idea that happiness is not to be found in material wealth was too alien for them.
- For Happiness: His job, and his chief motivation.
- Large Ham: Dominates whatever room he's in.
- Odd Friendship: With Cristobal Joseevich Junta.
- Speech Impediment: He has a slight stutter that doesn't bother him or anybody else at all.
- The 1993 English translation replaces the stutter with an Accent On The Wrong Syllable.
- Trademark Favourite Food: Has much appreciation for fresh apples.
- Tranquil Fury: When he reaches this stage and Janus is not around to defuse the situation... better watch out.
Cristobal Joseevich Junta
Head of the Department of the Meaning of Life and a remarkable individual indeed — transgression master, accomplished taxidermist, duelist and a simple ex- Grand Inquisitor.
- Commander Contrarian: Junta's chief scientific modus operandi seems to be militant skepticism. He has a "Do we need ourselves?" poster in the wall on his floor, "infects" the Aldan with denialism of the law of excluded middle, and constantly tries to solve problems for which no solution can exist. Questioning the validity of this approach to his face is a failsafe Berserk Button.
- Creepy Good: Even his own laborants and apprentices are afraid of him — but when their professional prestige and safety is threatened, he's got their back.
- Dashing Hispanic
- Deadpan Snarker
- The Dreaded: Legends are told about Junta's swashbuckling duelist tendencies, his exploits as the ruthless Grand Inquisitor and Charlemagne's headstrong military advisor, and suchlike.
- Duel to the Death: Has a habit of challenging people whose comments or behaviour he finds insulting to this. It usually resolves peacefully anyway.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Calls Kivrin and Privalov by Spanish versions of their names (Teodoro and Alejandro, respectively). Also, at one point he mockingly calls himself pobrecitonote at math, and wishes the main characters Buenaventuranote at the start of Tale of the Troika.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Despite his fearsome reputation, he has his moments. He and Fyodor Simeonovich get along swimmingly, and he seems to harbor genuine respect for Sasha Privalov, too.
- The Napoleon: The narration describes him as quite short, and he's most definitely not going to just stand there when his deepest principles get trodden on (or even looked at funny).
- Odd Friendship: With Fyodor Simeonovich Kivrin.
- Patronymic: Notably, he is one of Institute's only two "ex-foreigners of honor" with a Russified patronymic — as a sign of great respect and acceptance by his colleagues, as well as the omnipotence of Soviet bureaucracy.
- Spanish Inquisition: He was the Grand Inquisitor of Spain once. Some of the old habits survive to this day.
- Taxidermy Is Creepy/Taxidermy Terror: Played for Laughs with the rumors of a stuffed Nazi officer in his study.
- Teleportation: Junta's skill at various types of transgression is unsurpassed at the Institute.
- Tranquil Fury: Almost never raises his voice when he's mad — but watch out for that glove landing at your feet...
Gian Giacomo
The exquisitely urbane and elegant Head of the Department of Universal Transformations, and Vitka Korneev's boss.
- Benevolent Boss: Is unfailingly supportive of his protégé Korneev's work, despite the latter's personal flaws.
- Compelling Voice: Uses it on Sasha to make him feel sleepy, cutting short their conversation in the Hut on Chicken Legs.
- Master of Illusion: The narration refers to him as "the great prestidigitator". He is seen conjuring himself up a quick illusion of an elegant suit after the all-consuming cadaver catastrophe.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The way he talks to Privalov on their first meeting, being as ceremoniously courteous as possible. Privalov responds in kind, to their mutual delight.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Never a wrinkle on his suit, always an air of expensive cologne around him.
Sabaoth Bhaalovich Odin
Head of the Department of Technical Service. Yes, the name is not a coincidence.
- Almighty Janitor: He is the actual God, working as head of maintenance at the Institute.
- The Archmage: Can do anything. At all. Unfortunately, due to a tricky condition in the omnipotence equation, that means he can really do nothing.
- Patronymic: Notably, he is one of Institute's only two "ex-foreigners of honor" with a Russified patronymic — as a sign of great respect and acceptance by his colleagues, as well as the omnipotence of Soviet bureaucracy.
- Physical God: Himself.
- Really 700 Years Old: Older Than Feudalism, at the very least.
- Reality Warper: His mere presence is said to make clocks tick faster and straighten out the treks of elementary particles caught in a magnetic field.
Administration of NITWiT
Janus Poluektovich Nevstruev (2 of.)
- Absent-Minded Professor: S-Janus gives this impression, having trouble remembering recent events. Future events, on the other hand, are no problem...
- Einstein Hair: Migunov's 1979 illustrations give him this, completing the image.
- Benevolent Boss/Reasonable Authority Figure: Extremely supportive of the younger staff, and even prepared to sidestep the regulations when the situation requires it. His S-instance is especially attentive and understanding.
- Catchphrase: "Right." (Cue respectful silence from everyone present.)
- Large and in Charge: Is described as very tall on his first appearance, dwarfing the group of humans around him; and is the director of NITWiT.
- Merlin Sickness: S-Janus is A-Janus from the far future, who will have subjected himself to an experiment turning himself into a "contramotus" — a creature living backwards in time. Every midnight S-Janus leaps not into the morning of the next day, but into the morning of the day before. Thus, the far future has no Janus in it, but the past and present has two of them at once, living in opposite directions in time.
- Multiple-Choice Future: Despite his situation, he hints at the possibility of this trope in his final conversation with Sasha in part 3 of Monday.
- Really 700 Years Old: Was born in 1841, and will prosper for at least a century to come... and then the same amount of time in the opposite direction, if not longer.
Modest Matveevich Kamnoyedov
The deputy director for the administration of buildings and contents of NITWiT. Will not let anyone disobey the regulations like the stability on the Universe depends upon it.
- Catchphrase: "You will desist!"/"That's enough of that!", depending on the translation.
- Delusions of Eloquence: Being a bureaucrat working in a magical institute, he fails to get the local Techno Babble but still tries to use it. For example, he pronounces the word homunculus as "hum-moonkles".
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: All the power of science and magic combined cannot stop Modest when he's dead-set on obeying the rules.
Other Staff
Naina Kievna Gorynych
A sly and cranky old witch, groundskeeper of NITWiT's Log Hut on Chicken Legs museum.
- Baba Yaga: Quite possibly, herself.
- Creepy Housekeeper
- Greed: She's a complete miser when it comes to cash, and tries to get some out of everything and everyone she comes across while not spending a single kopeck.
Vasily the cat
A moody talking cat, and Naina's familiar. Knows stories and songs from all over the world, but never more than partially.
- All Witches Have Cats
- Cats Are Snarkers
- Forgetful Jones: This ridiculously erudite storyteller is unfortunately (and hilariously) plagued by amnesia.
- Funny Animals
- One-Scene Wonder: Most of his memetic factor comes from the storytelling scene by the oak.
- The Storyteller: Parody of the wise cat from Pushkin's Ruslan and Ludmilla prologue.
- Verbal Tic: It doesn't come through that well in English, but try saying "mneeeeh" to any Russian sci-fi geek — and they'll instantly know who you're referring to.
Ambrosi Ambroisovich Vybegallo
A cynic and a fool, he exploits the public's erroneous idea of fundamental science to promote his own insane, unscientific and dangerous experiments and ideas.
- Bad Boss: Won't let Stella transfer to any other department, however disgusted and terrified she is of her workplace.
- Con Man: A painfully recognizable caricature of a classic pseudoscience hack. Uses people's flashy expectations from science for his own gain, buzz-talks and grovels his way out of any trouble.
- Fame Through Infamy: Despite Vybegallo's scandalous reputation, he's better known outside the Institute than any of the other, more reasonable and scrupulous scientists.
- Feigning Intelligence: Talks exclusively in flowery, politicaly charged buzzwords, trying to convince his audience he at least has a point — and at most, is a misunderstood genius. Unfortunately, the general public and influential paper-pushers fall for it.
- Gratuitous French: All taken from War and Peace and inserted into his speech, not always appropriately.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo/Take That!: Of Trofim Lysenko, the infamous Soviet quack agriculturist and geneticist.
- Mad Scientist: Downplayed. No, he's quite mad - in his own self-serving, calculating way. But a scientist he is not.
- Verbal Tic: "er..." and "that is", marking him firmly as an illiterate fraud (especially in Russian).
Magnus Fyodorovich Redkin
- High Hopes, Zero Talent: He hasn't progressed past bachelor in three hundred years, despite being as determined to crack the secret to human happiness as the Institute's best.
- Magnum Opus: The invisibility pants. They were his bachelor thesis, and he has been perfecting and debugging them for the last three hundred years.
- More recently, his obsessive search for the White Thesis, putting him at odds with Vitka Korneev.
- Magnus Means Mage
Merlin
A vain and unscrupulous old relic from the Department of Forecasts and Prophecies.
- Public Domain Character: It's worth mentioning that Merlin's personality is based on the Merlin from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, not on Arthurian Legends Merlin.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Tells everyone's favourite story of his adventure with the head of the local municipal council in this manner. Roman mocks his manner of speech, and Merlin seems to be none the wiser.
Stella the witch
- Screaming Woman: In her very first appearance, observing Vybegallo's insatiable humanoid, her role boils down to basically this. (Not that most of the male scientists at the scene are much better, though.)
- Smurfette Principle: The only female in Sasha's immediate friend circle.
Aleksandr Ivanovich "Sanya" Drozd
A movie technician who somehow ended up at NITWiT. Artist and designer for the wall newspaper.
- Never Lend to a Friend: He never has any money, so constantly asks his friends to lend him some. One time he even asked Janus Poluektovich. And then forgot how much Janus had given him. And had no idea what to do.
- Ridiculous Procrastinator: Whines about his life and plays around with a tape recorder instead of doing work. Oira-Oira's presence is the only thing that finally gets him to start working on the masthead.
Photon the parrot
A small green bird which the main characters meet in part 3, and whose fate is intricately linked to that of Janus Poluektovich.
- Merlin Sickness: Just like his master, he lives his days in the opposite order to the ones of everybody else's.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: Obligingly responds to mentions of the scientists' names with what he remembers about them (provided the name has an R in it).
- Sweet Tooth: "Sugar-r-r!".
- Team Pet: On his way to this for the main characters (but from his own perspective, he has been this until his dying day).
Aldan-3
The computer Sasha works on. Sentient and animate.
- Benevolent A.I.: Aldan's obliging, industrious, playful personality is a joy to work with.
- Butt-Monkey: Something always goes awry when people connect alien peripherals or their own minds to it.
- Grow Beyond Their Programming: Became animate after Fyodor Simeonovich put someone's immortal soul into it.
- Logic Bomb: Is subjected to one every other night when Cristobal Junta connects his mind to the poor machine to discuss yet another impossible problem.
Other Characters
The Solovets militia (Lieutenant Sergienko and Sergeant Kovalyov)
Two servants of the law Sasha Privalov runs into while experimenting with the unchangeable coin.
- Hello Again, Officer: Sasha bumps into Kovalyov while exploring the town, and is then apprehended by him in the middle of experimenting with the unchangeable five-kopeck piece (which technically became an instrument of petty theft in his hands). Then, after the commotion over the sofa seems to be over, Kovalyov returns again to investigate how the coin came to escape the museum, and Sasha has to avoid the hypervigilant militiaman.
- Meddlesome Patrolman: However petty the problem at hand is, Kovalyov will try to get to the bottom of it — just in case. He has his orders, you know. Unfortunately (for him, that is), Modest Matveevich is just as stubborn.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: They're not evil, they're just upholding the law and don't wish Sasha any real harm.
G. Pronitsatelny & B. Pitomnik
Two science journalists who make a name for themselves and Vybegallo by reporting his discoveries (and misreporting everybody else's).
- Author Avatar/Self-Deprecation: Arguably.
- Tagalong Reporters: They always follow Vybegallo around in his publicity stunts.
- Those Two Guys: They appear together in every scene they're in.