The Price of Dreams: Named Characters and Glossary
| ALAVIDZA Tengiz Alavidza, a colonel in the KGB. |
| ALEXANDER MINGRELSKY A leading figure in the Ksord-Akhtarian Communist Party and father of Vakhtan Mingrelsky. |
| ARSLAN Arslan Maqashveli, university instructor, friend of Ruslan and Nina. |
| ASMAT Asmat Shalikov, post-graduate student, friend of Ruslan and Nina. |
| BABUSHKA Russian for used old woman or grandmother. |
| BLAT Russian for influence, the most important commodity in the Soviet Union. |
| DISSIDENT An opponent of the Communist dictatorship. |
| FATIMA Fatima Dzemileva, a Tatar drama student befriended by Ruslan in the summer of 1978. |
| GIORGI Giorgi Shanidza, Ruslan’s half-brother, who is more than 20 years older than him. |
| GLASNOST AND PERESTROIKA ‘Openness and reconstruction’ – the twin pillars of Gorbachev’s attempts to reform Soviet Communism in the late 1980s. |
| GOSKOMSPORT The Soviet State Committee of Sports |
| GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR The Soviet name for World War Two |
| IYA Iya Cristavi, university instructor, friend of Ruslan and Nina. |
| IZABELLA Izabella Jibotian, a young Armenian girl who lived near Ruslan in Azerbaijan. |
| JIBOTIAN, MRS. Armenian near-neighbour of Ruslan and Tamara. |
| JOSEP Josep Machutadza, Ruslan’s best friend at university. |
| KETEVAN Giorgi and Venera’s son, Ruslan’s nephew. |
| KGB The Soviet secret police and intelligence service. |
| KORGAY Shakman Korgay, a leading figure in the Ksord-Akhtarian Communist Party. |
| LANA A friend of Tamara. |
| LEILA Leila Meipariani, a singer and friend of Fatima Dzemileva. |
| LIONIDZA Sergo Lionidza, a leading figure in the Ksord-Akhtarian Communist Party. |
| MANAMA Manama Sidamon, post-graduate student, friend of Ruslan and Nina. |
| MARTA Marta Bovin, artist, wife of Yakub, close friend of Nina. |
| MASHA Masha Guriis, lawyer, friend of Ruslan and Nina. |
| MINGRELSKY Vakhtan Mingrelsky, the wayward son of leading Communist Aleksander Mingrelsky. |
| MUALLIM A respectful term used to address a man in Soviet Azerbaijan. |
| MURAD Murad Akchurin, Tatar a drama student befriended by Ruslan in the summer of 1978. |
| NINA Nina Begishveli, dissident university instructor. |
| NODAR Nodar Lodjanadza, postgraduate student, friend of Ruslan and Nina. |
| ORBELIANI Zourab Orbeliani, human rights lawyer. |
| OSMAN Muallim Osman, Ruslan’s neighbour in Azerbaijan. Yasmin’s husband. |
| PARTIZANS Soviet fighters operating behind enemy lines during the Great Patriotic War. |
| PROPISKA Soviet internal passport, which had details of the holder’s ethnicity. |
| REBELS A derogatory term for Akhtarians used by many Ksords. It refers to pro-Nazi Akhtarian fascists who launched a campaign of genocide against the Ksords in Akhtaria and Central Kubania. |
| SAMIZDAT Clandestine journals or literature produced without being submitted to censorship by the Communist authorities. |
| SERGEI Russian journalist at Literaturnaya Gazeta. |
| SOLIDARITY Workers’ union independent of Communist control, formed by Polish workers in 1980. |
| SPARTAKIAD An Olympic-style sports competition within the Soviet Union. |
| TAMARA Tamara Dadianova, a 16-year-old Akhtarian secondary polytechnic student and Ruslan’s girlfriend in the summer of 1978. |
| TSATSA Tsatsa Chavchavadza, piano teacher, wife of Uta, friend of Ruslan and Nina. |
| UTA Uta Chavchavadza, Orthodox priest, friend of Ruslan and Nina. |
| VENERA Giorgi Shanidza’s wife. |
| YAKUB Yakub Bovin, Tatar university instructor, husband of Marta, close friend of Nina. |
| YASEMIN Babushka Yasemin, Ruslan’s neighbour in Azerbaijan. Osman’s wife. |
| ZIKLADZA Comrade Besiki Zikladza, Communist ruler of Ksordia-Akhtaria. |
Paul Clark 