Leo is a 30-year-old decorated war hero and MGB officer working in Moscow. He is a highly effective investigator who sincerely believes in the Soviet state, accepting its harsh methods as necessary to protect a socialist utopia. When he encounters a child's death that the state insists on categorizing as an accident, his uncritical belief in the regime begins to crack. He possesses a strong sense of duty that eventually brings him into dangerous conflict with the very system he serves.

Raisa is a secondary school teacher whose subject, political studies, requires her to teach state propaganda and avoid scrutiny. Married to Leo, she lives in a state of quiet terror, viewing their relationship as a product of coercion rather than romantic affection. She possesses a sharp intellect and a pragmatic instinct for self-preservation, having learned early in life that personal attachments can be dangerous liabilities in an authoritarian regime.

Andrei is a survivor of the devastating 1933 Ukrainian famine, introduced as a clumsy and severely nearsighted boy who relies heavily on his older brother. The severe deprivation and trauma he experiences during the Holodomor leave deep psychological scars. His early exposure to extreme violence and starvation fundamentally shapes his understanding of the world as a ruthless environment of predators and prey.

Vasili is an ambitious and ruthless deputy officer in the MGB who serves directly under Leo. Lacking his superior's underlying idealism, Vasili is a pragmatic opportunist who uses cruelty, intimidation, and arbitrary executions to advance his own career. He actively resents Leo and looks for any opportunity to expose his commander's moral hesitation as a political weakness.

General Nesterov is the militia chief in the provincial factory town of Voualsk. He is a pragmatic bureaucrat who understands the unwritten rules of maintaining order under the Soviet regime. He often prioritizes politically convenient narratives over factual truth, knowing that acknowledging certain types of crimes can draw lethal scrutiny from Moscow.

Fyodor is a low-ranking MGB officer and subordinate to Leo. When his four-year-old son Arkady is found dead on the train tracks under suspicious circumstances, Fyodor insists the boy was murdered. This insistence puts him at dangerous odds with a state that officially denies the existence of serious crime, forcing him to choose between the truth of his son's death and his family's safety.

Pavel is a ten-year-old boy living in the Ukrainian village of Chervoy during the 1933 Holodomor. Capable and protective, he attempts to secure food for his starving family by teaching his younger brother how to set snares in the frozen woods. His desperate actions in the forest establish the harsh reality of a world defined by predators and prey.

Major Kuzmin is a senior officer at the Lubyanka MGB headquarters and serves as a mentor figure to Leo. He enforces state policy with cold efficiency and regularly orchestrates tests of loyalty for his agents. He prioritizes ideological compliance and institutional power above human lives.

Stepan is Leo's aging father, living in a cramped Moscow apartment. He cares deeply for his son but maintains a strictly pragmatic view of life under Stalin. He advises Leo to prioritize his own survival, even if it requires making morally devastating choices regarding loved ones.

Anna is Leo's mother, sharing a modest life with her husband Stepan in Moscow. She takes immense pride in her son's status as a decorated war hero and MGB officer, finding comfort in his professional success despite the pervasive fear that defines their society.

Oksana is a mother living in the Ukrainian village of Chervoy during the 1933 famine. Driven to the brink by starvation, she makes desperate decisions to keep her children alive, illustrating the extreme suffering inflicted upon the peasantry by agricultural collectivization.

Anatoly is a veterinarian whose professional interactions with foreign diplomats make him a target of MGB suspicion. Exhausted and terrified, his desperate attempt to escape capture triggers a violent pursuit through a winter blizzard, highlighting the lethal consequences of mere suspicion in Soviet society.

Mikhail is a farmer living in the village of Kimov. He is an old friend of Anatoly Brodsky, whose life Brodsky saved during the war. Despite this debt, the intense fear of state reprisal makes Mikhail hesitant to offer shelter, demonstrating how the police state destroys basic human loyalty.

Ivan is a language and literature teacher who works at the same secondary school as Raisa. He cultivates an air of quiet rebellion by sharing censored or foreign books with her, establishing what appears to be a rare intellectual safe haven in a heavily monitored society.

Arkady is the four-year-old son of Fyodor Andreev. His sudden and brutal death on the railway tracks serves as the catalyst for the novel's central conflict, as the state's refusal to acknowledge his murder forces the characters to confront the violent reality hiding beneath Soviet propaganda.

Doctor Zarubin is an MGB-affiliated physician dispatched to verify Leo's claim of illness. He uses his modest authority to prey upon vulnerable citizens, attempting to leverage his medical testimony in exchange for sexual favors from Raisa.