Between Shades of Gray characters

Appears from the start

A fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl preparing for art school when Soviet security officers invade her family's home. Lina is observant, strong-willed, and devoted to drawing. During deportation she records people and events in pictures, hoping that coded images can travel back to her missing father and preserve evidence of what is happening.

Appears from the start

Lina and Jonas's mother, a poised and resourceful Lithuanian woman who speaks Russian. Elena meets the officers at the door with composure and uses courtesy, practical judgment, and small acts of generosity to protect her children and steady other prisoners.

Appears from the start

Lina's ten-year-old brother. Jonas is frightened by the sudden arrest but tries to follow his mother and sister without complaint. His youth makes him especially vulnerable to hunger and illness, while his kindness helps the family retain a sense of ordinary human decency.

First appears in chapter 2

Lina's father, a university administrator who is absent when the NKVD takes the family. His unexplained disappearance makes finding him the family's first concern, and Lina tries to send him clues through the drawings she passes to strangers.

First appears in chapter 8

A librarian deported with the Vilkas family. Mrs. Rimas is educated, practical, and willing to share information and scarce supplies. She becomes one of Elena's closest companions among the prisoners.

First appears in chapter 10

A distraught young Lithuanian mother forced onto the deportation train with her infant. Exhausted and disoriented, Ona shows the immediate human cost of the arrests and depends on help from the other women in the wagon.

Also known as the bald man

First appears in chapter 10

A bald, middle-aged prisoner in the same railway car as Lina's family. Bitter and confrontational, he predicts the worst and resists the group's attempts at reassurance, yet remains part of the small community forced to survive together.

First appears in chapter 15

A Lithuanian boy traveling in the same deportation convoy with his mother. Andrius is guarded, capable, and quick to challenge Lina, but he also helps prisoners weaker than himself and is fiercely protective of his mother.

First appears in chapter 18

Andrius's elegant mother, deported with her son. She keeps herself carefully groomed despite the conditions and remains reserved around the other prisoners. Andrius stays intensely concerned for her safety.

First appears in chapter 20

A young girl among the deportees who carries a doll and struggles to understand the losses around her. Her childhood games and questions persist inside circumstances that repeatedly expose her to death.

First appears in chapter 25

A young blond NKVD officer assigned to the deportation convoy. Kretzsky wears the same uniform as the other guards and enforces Soviet orders, though he appears uneasy with some of the cruelty inflicted on the prisoners.

First appears in chapter 25

A senior NKVD officer who controls the prisoners through threats, punishment, and arbitrary demands. Ivanov treats the deportees as criminals and expects obedience regardless of hunger, illness, or dangerous working conditions.

First appears in chapter 40

The Altai woman whose cramped hut is assigned to Lina, Jonas, and Elena. Ulyushka resents having deportees placed in her home and guards her food and possessions closely, creating another source of tension for the newly arrived family.

First appears in chapter 85

A physician who reaches the Arctic settlement after disease and starvation have devastated the prisoners. Dr. Samodurov immediately organizes treatment, distributes what medicine and food he can obtain, and gives the survivors their first effective medical help.