The first chapter of the Dark Heresy WWII-themed roleplaying game wrapped up this past weekend. For the next chapter, I am rolling up a new character, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to explore a new class, set of skills, etc.
A couple people have expressed interest in the "cheat sheet" document I had with me when playing Feodor, the original character. Rather than putting together an in-depth character origin story, I opted for an outline of notes I could refer to when I needed to provide flavour, context, background, etc. All info I cribbed off Wikipedia, with some creative liberties to fit our game's plot and world.
This provided me with the flexibility, allowing me flesh out the character to fit the game's setting and story. It also gave me something to refer to when I needed to name-drop a place, person, or event.
Below are those notes, for those who were or are curious. Enjoy…
Feodor Alexeyevich
- unseelie elf, three-hundred-plus years old
- unseelie prefer order, structure, entropy, controlled death, patterns
- ideals line up with socialism/communism, the removal of class warfare and a level playing field for all people
- followed Marx (reading only), Lenin, Trotsky (fanatically until disagreement), Stalin
- assassination of Trotsky, beginning to lose faith
History
1917
- Feodor joins bolsheviks with Trotsky, joins Red Guard, participates in October Revolution
- Vladimir Lenin formed Cheka to defend the October Revolution and the nascent Bolshevik state from its enemies
1918-1920
- Russian Civil War, fighting between Bolshevik Red Army and anti-Bolshevik White Army
- Polish-Soviet War, 1919–1921
1922
- Lenin's regime renamed the Cheka as the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU)
1924
- Lenin dies
1924-1927
- Trotsky leads "Left Opposition" faction within Bolshevik Party, opposed to the theories of Stalinism
- Feodor breaks with Trotsky
1928-1932
- Stalin pursue's policy of "socialism in one country" , incites first Five Year Plan
- Stalinism, attempting to fast track socialism, stabilize Soviet Union domestically through military and infrastructure in order to be prepared to face-off against capitalism, rather than directly finance and support an international socialist revolution as advocated by Lenin
- Feodor supports Stalin's plans, pushing forward socialism
1934
- OGPU becomes Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB), part of NKVD
- Feodor transfers from army to GUGB-NKVD
1936-1938
- General Mikhail Tukhachevsky arrested May 1937 and charged, along with seven other Red Army commanders, with creation of a "right-wing-Trotskyist" military conspiracy and espionage for Nazi Germany
- Great Purge, series of campaigns of political repression and murder in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin
- Feodor survives Purge thanks to abandoning Trotsky and joining GUGB, participates in Stalin's mass Army arrests
1938
- USSR entered non-aggression pact with Nazi germany, known as the "Moltov-Ribbentrop Pact" due to societ cosigner Vyacheslav Molotov
1940
- Trotsky assassinated in Mexico under Stalin's orders
- Feodor starts to lose faith
1941
- Germany violates non-aggression pact
- Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) from NKVD, calling it NKGB
- Feodor part of NKGB (run by Vsevolod Merkulov) under Department Four (technical and operational, run by Evgeny Lapshin)
1941-1943
- NKGB rejoins NKVD as GUGB after Axis invasion in 1941
- separates back into NKGB in 1943; SMERSH formed under Viktor Abakumov
Phrases
- privet, hi, hello
- poke, so long, goodbye
- da, yes
- net, no
- spasibo, thank you
TERMS
bolsheviks
- literally means "majority"
- original faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, founded by Lenin
- split apart from the Menshevik faction, ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
bourgeoisie
- owners of capital, the wealthy, factory and industry owners, the "1%" of today
- own all the property and land and capital, exploits proletariat, mass production
- exploit workers, expand into new markets, unable or uninterested in helping lower classes
captain
- highest Army rank can have and still serve in field
chekist
- Soviet secret police throughout the Soviet period, despite official name changes over time
GKO
- State Defense Committee, holds complete state power during WWII
- Stalin as chairman, Vyascheslav Molotov as deputy chairman, Beria as a member
great patriotic war
- world war II, as known in russia
GULAG
- abbreviation for Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies
- name of government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems
- camp names that after WWII became cities: Norilsk, Vorkuta, and Magadan
leninsim
- the Russian application of Marxist economics and political philosophies
- interpretation of marxist theory for practical application to socio-political conditions of agrarian Russian Empire
marxism
- critique of capitalism, sees "mode of production" as basis for all other social phenomena and relations and politics
- manifests as class struggle, rich/powerful minority (bourgeoisie) owning means of production and exploiting majority of wage slave population (proletariat) who own no property
- theory concludes capitalist oppression will inevitably lead to proletarian revolution
- capitalism can no longer sustain the living standards of the population due to its need to compensate for falling rates of profit by driving down wages, cutting social benefits and pursuing military aggression
- a socialist economy would not base production on the creation of private profits, but would instead base production and economic activity on the criteria of satisfying human needs
- socialism would give way to a communist stage of history: a classless, stateless system based on common ownership and free-access, superabundance and maximum freedom for individuals to develop their own capacities and talents
menshevik
- literally mean "minority"
- tended to be more moderate, seen as anti-war and internationalists
muscovites
- people living in Moscow
Narkomindel
- the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, the ministry of foreign affairs
- run by Vyacheslav Molotov
NKGB
- external counter intelligence, "special services", think CIA
- the People's Commissariat for State Security, the soviet secret police
- separated from NKVD , the People's Commisariat for Internal Affairs
- goals were:
- Conducting intelligence activities abroad.
- Battling espionage (on both front, counter and offensive), sabotage and terrorist acts organized by foreign Special Services on USSR territory.
- Penetration and liquidation of anti-Soviet partys and counter-revolutionary organizations.
- Overseeing ideology in Soviet society.
- Protection of high party and government officials.
- headed by Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov
- first directorate, foreign intelligence (INU), Pavel Fitin
- second directorate, counter intelligence (KRU), Pyotr Fedotov
- third directorate, transport, Solomon Milshtein
- forth directorate, sabotage behind enemy lines, Pavel Sudoplatov
- fifth directorate, codes and ciphers, Ivan Schevielev
- department A, statistics and archive, Arkady Gercovsky
- department B, technical and operational, Evgeny Lapshin
- department W, censure, ?
NKVD
- internal security, think "gestapo"
- the People's Commisariat for Internal Affairs
- originally known as "Cheka" until 1922
- used for rear area security, including the deterrence of desertion, sometimes used in the front-lines
proletariat
- the working class, factory and industrial workers, general urban labor, wage labourers
- no property, no wealth, exploited as a resource by bourgeois
red army
- The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, RKKA
- started as Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during Russian Civil War of 1918 to 1922
- grew into national army of the Soviet Union, largest armies in history by 19302
red guard
- paramilitary volunteer formations consisting majorly of factory workers (proletariat)
- formed in Russian Revolution of 191, reorganized into Red Army in 1918
RKKA
- abbreviation, red army
RKKF
- abbreviation, red navy
skazka
- literally means "story", but used to mean "fairy tale"
SMERSH
- Smert' Shpionam or "Death to Spies"
- agency in red army, concerned about the loyalty of the Red Army's own servicemen and commanders
- headed by Viktor Abakumov
Key People
Viktor Abakumov
- chief of SMERSH, subordinate of Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
- chief of NKVD
- lots of influence with Stalin, administered the vast expansion of the Gulag labor
- in charge of atomic bomb project as of 1944
Evgeny Lapshin
- department head of NKGB, "Dept B", technical and operational
Vsevolod Merkulov, aka "Boris"
- head of NKGB
Pavel Sudoplatov
- department head of NKGB, "4th Directorate", sabotage behind enemy lines
Famous People
Igor Kurchatov (1903 - 1960)
- soviet nuclear physicist, director of atomic bomb project
- worked with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, physicists
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870 - 1924)
- Russian Marxist revolutionary, communist politician, led the October Revolution of 1917
- leader of the Bolsheviks, headed the Soviet state during initial years, 1917–1924
- developed Leninism, the Russian application of Marxist economics and political philosophies
Karl Heinrich Marx (1818 - 1883)
- Prussian philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist
- wrote Communist Manifesto in 1848
Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov (1895 - 1953)
- nickname "Boris"
- head of NKGB from February to July 1941, and again from April 1943 to March 1946
- member of the so-called "Georgian mafia" of Lavrenti Beria, head of the NKVD
Nicholas II
- Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov, last Tsar of Russia
Joseph Stalin (1878 - 1953)
- Premier of Soviet Union, 1941 to 1953
Leon Trotsky (1879 - 1940)
- originally Menshevik Internationaists, joined Bolsheviks immediately prior October Revolution 1917
- first leader of Red Army; founder and commander of the Red Army as People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs
- Trotsky exiled to Alma Ata in Kazakhstan on 31 January 1928
- expelled from the Soviet Union to Turkey in February 1929, accompanied by his wife Natalia Sedova and his son Lev Sedov
- assassinated in Mexico, Aug 1940, under Stalin's orders
Vyacheslav Molotov (1890 - 1986), aka Stone Arse
- runs the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, aka Narkomindel
- officially second in charge after Stalin, Deputy Chairman of GKO
- diplomat, administrator, would be person negotiating with Germany (until 1941), UK, and USA
- in charge of atomic bomb project until 1944, replaced by Beria because was moving too slowly
Famous PLaces
Arzamas-16
- city named Sarov, Russian center for nuclear research, renamed and erased off all maps
- under direction of nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov
Leningrad
- founded as "St Petersburg" in 1703 by Tsar Peter The Great, named for Apostle Peter
- capital of Russia until 1918, moved to Moscow
- renamed to more Russian sounding "Petrograd" in 1914 by Tsar Nicholas II, named after Tsar Peter The Great, because "St Petersburg" sounded to German
- renamed to "Leningrad" in 1924, after Vladimir Lenin's death
- besieged by German forces Sept 1941 to Jan 1944
Stalingrad
- named Tsaritsyn until 1925
- renamed Stalingrad in 1925, recognizing Joseph Stalin's role in defence against White Army (anti-communists, Russian Civil war)
- under siege by German forces, led by Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus, from Aug 1942 to Jan 1943
Sevastopol
- withstood bombardment by Germans, 1941 to 1942
- fell before siege Jul 1942
- liberated by red Army on May 1944
Odessa
- sieged by Romanian forces, lead by General Antonescu, on Jul 1914
- city fell and run by Romanians on Sep 1941
- liberated by Red Army on Apr 1944
Kiev
- occupied by Germany from Sept 1941 to Nov 1943
- shortly after occupation, hidden NKVD officers dynamited on Khreshchatyk (main street of city), killing German military and civil authorities; in retaliation, Germains rounded up and killed 34,000 Jews at Babi Yar
Moscow
- local citizens known as "muscovites"
- Mar 1918, after Russian Revolution, city became capital of Soviet Union
- during WWII (Great Patriotic War), home of the Soviet State Defence Committee (GKO) and General Staff Of The Red Army
- Germans laid siege to Moscow from Oct 1941 to Jan 1942, named Operation Typhoon
Semipalatinsk-21
- Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS), primary testing venue for nuclear weapons
Misc Last Name
- Agranov
- Akhmatova
- Annensky
- Bukharin
- Bulatovich
- Bulganin
- Chukovsky
- Gumilev
- Kamenev
- Kirov
- Kosygin
- Kuybyshev
- Leontiev
- Malenkov
- Punin
- Rodionov
- Saburov
- Tukhachevsky
- Voloshin
- Zhdanov
- Zinoviev
Misc First Names
- Alexi
- Andrei
- Georgy
- Grigory
- Iakov
- Korney
- Leon
- Lev
- Maximilian
- Mikhail
- Nikolai
- Rykov
- Sergei
- Sergo
- Vladimir
- Vyacheslav
- Yakov