A Long Night of Chaos: Named Characters and Glossary
| ALAVIDZA Tengiz Alavidza, Korgay’s Minister of the Interior, a former colonel in the KGB. |
| BLAT Russian for influence, the most important commodity in the Soviet Union. |
| BOGIANI Mataa Bogiani, leader of the North Ksord insurrection. |
| CHIKRADZA Colonel Bebur Chikradza, commander of the Ksordian Second Motor Rifle Regiment. |
| ERISTOV Baykan Eristov, President of Akhtaria. |
| FATIMA Fatima Dzemileva, a Tatar singer and close friend of Ruslan. Murad’s wife. |
| GIORGI Giorgi Shanidza, Ruslan’s half-brother, who is more than 20 years older than him. |
| GLASNOST Russian for openness, one of the pillars of Gorbachev’s attempts to reform Soviet Communism in the late 1980s. |
| GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR The Soviet name for World War Two. |
| JELTKOV Schebet Jeltkov, Lionidza’s elderly former secretary. |
| KGB The Soviet secret police and intelligence service. |
| KORGAY Shakman Korgay, Ksordia’s would-be strongman ruler, a former Communist who has reinvented himself as a nationalist. |
| LAZAREV Akakide Lazarev, leader of the Akhtarian community in Central Kubania. |
| LEILA Leila Meipariani, a singer and friend of Fatima Dzemileva. |
| LIONIDZA Sergo Lionidza, a leading Communist and Ruslan’s patron during the Soviet era. |
| MARTA Marta Bovin, artist, wife of Yakub, close friend of Nina. |
| MIKHEL Mikhel Inalipa, Ruslan’s friend and former coach. |
| MINGRELSKY Vakhtan Mingrelsky, a gangster and Ksordian paramilitary commander. |
| MURAD Murad Akchurin, a Tatar TV producer and impresario and close friend of Ruslan. Fatima’s husband. |
| MUSTAFAYEV Selim Mustafayev, one of Sultanov’s assistants. |
| NINA Nina Begishveli, leader of the radical democrats. Ruslan’s former lover. |
| ORBELIANI Zourab Orbeliani, former human rights lawyer and leader of a moderate Ksordian nationalist party. |
| PARTIZANS Soviet fighters operating behind enemy lines during the Great Patriotic War. |
| PERESTROIKA Russian for reconstruction: one of the pillars of Gorbachev’s attempt to reform the Soviet system in the 1980s. |
| 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. |
| RUSLAN Ruslan Shanidza, an athlete turned peace activist. Married to Tamara. |
| SERGEI Sergei Ivanov, Russian TV reporter and an old contact of Ruslan’s. |
| SULKAVIDZA Nartshu Sulkavidza, Akhtaria’s ultra-nationalist Defence Minister and the son of a Rebel leader from the Great Patriotic War. |
| SULTANOV Timur Sultanov, Tatar entrepreneur and politician. |
| TAMARA Tamara Shanidza, Akhtarian doctor and Ruslan’s wife. |
| TETRADZA Dawa Tetradza, police chief in Dzap, who supported Ruslan’s peace mission. |
| YAKUB Yakub Bovin, leader of the largest Tatar party and Central Kuban regional president. An old friend of Ruslan’s. |
| ZIKLADZA Comrade Besiki Zikladza, former Communist ruler of Ksordia-Akhtaria. |
Paul Clark 