Name: Alexander Vereshchagin
Generation: 9th
Clan: Brujah
Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Appearance:
Personality: Alexander is a driven and determined man, known for his loyalty and explosive personality. A rebel at heart, even before he became a Kindred, Alex was always loud and outspoken - if he disagrees with something, he’ll be sure to let
everyone know about it.
He’s loyal - to the point of stupidity - and will never betray those that he considers to be his comrades: one of the few remaining parts of the mortal who was committed to communism before he was turned. On the other hand, he holds grudges, and is quick to anger - a combination of his Russian heritage and the blood he now shares with the Brujah Clan.
Charismatic and friendly, with quick wit and a silver tongue, Alex is easily able to win over the loyalty of mortal men; and even some of the weaker-willed immortals who he encounters. Alex is an idealist, and always has to have something to fight for: even if it’s just an idea in his head. He doesn’t have much of a moral code, and will do whatever he has to in order to achieve his goals and the goals of those above him.
Biography: Born in 1897, in Petrograd, one of the largest cities of the Russian Imperial Empire, Alexander had a tough childhood. He was the fifth child of nine children, and two of his older siblings had died before he reached his fifth birthday. His father was a senior worker in one of the cities’ many factories, and despite working a sixty-hour week, struggled to provide for his family, in a country that was oppressed by the aristocracy.
Alexander’s older siblings - and, later, the boy himself, at the tender age of seven - were forced out of necessity to work from a young age, simply so that his family could earn enough money to get by. He grew up in a very small house in one of the poorer parts of the city, and was exposed to Bolshevism from a young age - a Political ideology which his father supported with an almost religious fervor.
He was eight years old when a wave of protests and military mutinies swept through the Russian Empire - a result of dissent towards the Tsar, his family, and the aristocracy who ruled over the Empire alongside him, when they had shot down a large crowd of protesters demanding a constitutional monarchy on a day that became known as Bloody Sunday. This resulted in a limited constitutional monarchy and the multi-party system being created in 1905, and proved - for the first time - the power of the people to the Russians, and made those who had been oppressed and struggled to survive for years finally realise their true potential:
they were the People, and they held the power in their hands - they only had to reach out and take it.
As the Bolsheviks were now a legally recognised political party, Alexander’s father quickly joined them, and became a member of Petrograd Worker’s Council, alongside Lenin himself. Alexander’s quality of life improved significantly and rapidly as a result of his father’s new position, and he was finally able to attend school, and to learn how to read and write.
In 1914, World War I broke out, and the Russian Empire leapt to the aid of their fellow Slavs in Serbia, in a wave of patriotic enthusiasm. The Russian People supported the war effort for the first few years, but, as the war progressed and Russia’s position began to worsen, dissent against the Tsarist Regime began to ferment, spearheaded by the Soviet Committee of Petrograd - a result of the lack of food in Russian Cities.
This feeling of discontentment against the government came to a head in the February Revolution of 1917, in which symbols of Tsarist Authority were torn down all around Petrograd, and Tsar Nicholas was forced to abdicate. A Provisional Government was set up, which the Bolsheviks tolerated for a time - but, Alexander was told by his father, these men were not much better than the Tsarists, and Capitalists themselves.
In October 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provincial Government in Petrograd, led by Lenin and the Workers’ Unions - who had been transformed into the Red Army - as the Provincial Government refused to stop fighting Germany, even though the conflict was causing Russian suffering. This sparked the start of the Russian Civil War, with the “Red” Bolsheviks fighting against the “White” Russians - supporters of the Provincial Government, anti-Communists and the remnants of the Tsarist Regime.
Alexander was 20 at this stage, and a fervent communist. He believed in the rights of the Working Class, and had a deep-seated loathing for capitalists and the aristocracy. With his father’s permission, he joined the Red Army, and fought in the Russian Civil War against the White Russians. It was during this conflict that Alexander saw the brutality of war for the first time, and the darker side of human nature: he was changed from an innocent boy to a hardened man, and committed a number of atrocities in the name of ‘socialism’.
By 1919, the Red Army had all but won the war against the White Russians, and they had grown overconfident. During a skirmish with a few of the remaining White Forces, Alexander and a number of the young men in his unit grew overconfident: charging from the safety of cover, with a great shout; almost immediately cut down by the White Russian’s guns.
It was later that day, in the dark of night, as Alexander lay dying - forgotten by his comrades, who had ran past his head, thinking him dead, as they pursued their enemies - that he was visited by a creature who he could only describe at that time as an Angel of Death. He discovered later that the dark being was in fact a Brujah - a Kindred - and was one of those responsible for the Russian Civil War and the rise of the Bolsheviks. The Kindred asked Alexander if he wanted to live, and if he wanted to have the power to fight his people’s enemies and champion their cause: of course, he said yes, and was turned by the vampire.
Alexander never learned the name of his sire, but he came to respect the man: over a period of 20 years, which went extremely quickly as he was always busy, the newly-born undead was taught, alongside several over Brujah-turned Russians, what it meant to be a Kindred, and how they could serve their Clan - and the country to which they had belonged when they had been mortals.
During these 20 years, Alexander was taught all manner of things - from advanced mathematics to hand-to-hand fighting. He was also taught how to master his Brujah-inherited disciplines, and it was found that he had a gift for manipulating mortals - a result of his Presence Discipline. Once he was considered ready, Alexander was placed in charge of a number of the Red Army’s generals, and was responsible for manipulating and controlling them - and the men beneath them - during World War II.
Once the Russians had defeated the Third Reich and had Berlin within their grasp, Alexander was visited again by his sire; and congratulated for his success - in the year of 1956. He was then told that he would be sent to America with a group of KGB sleeper agents, and would be responsible for overseeing them. Ever the loyal soldier, Alexander agreed, and taught himself to be fluent in English before heading to America with a group of some of the KGB’s most gifted young agents - who he easily controlled through mental manipulation.
Alexander spent the next few years in America, occasionally checking back in on the KBG for whom he was responsible, but found himself spending more and more time in LA: attracted by the lights, glamour and, above all, the sheer amount of other Kindred who were there. When the Soviet Union fell, Alexander was in LA, and fell into a deep rage upon hearing the news: going on a violent spree throughout the city over the course of two weeks, making little effort to conceal his actions and to uphold the Masquerade.
An order was put out by the Prince of the city to bring this apparently unknown and violent young Brujah to heel, but before the powerful man’s agents could get to Alexander, he was reached by a beautiful woman named Eva, who soon revealed herself as a fellow Kindred: offering Alexander a place to belong, and a cause to fight for: that the Kindred may be free in LA. The pro-Russian Undead, having lost everything he had spent his life and undeath fighting for, was broken and confused; but near immediately felt a connection with this kind and unreasonably attractive woman. He accepted her offer, and has been a member of her coterie ever since.