2. Originally, Alexei Mikhailov was going to have name Alexander... until I browsing Russian names and intrigued with Alexei name. For the surname... I thought Ukrainians can have Russian surnames too, till learning that Ukrainian surnames should have been looked like what Vitaly had - Bodenko. So I made the lore that Alexei's father is adopted Russian kid in an Ukrainian cathedral.
Later. Alexei originally doesn't have DID at all. He was just... boring Ukrainian tubist. Later when I learned tuba was not the official section until late 1935, I decided to change him as trumpeter. Besides it's easier to draw trumpet than a tuba lol. And the reason why I added DID, because my friend suggest that he shall become Dmitry's rival in getting Darya. I know my friend's suggestion means well because at least there is interesting stake between two friends. But... I feel the cheap love triangle was not suitable. At the same time, I think that was the same time being curious with films/comics/novels; trend to put a character with DID. I research a lot to make sure it's not vilified, not romanticised and not generalised.
Alas, Alexei's fate is still died in 1944 (both in old concept and this offical concept). The difference is, old Alexei died from gunshot while he let out the poem that he cannot find love yet until the war is over. Ew lol.
3. Originally, Vadim Oktyuchev will be named as Vladimir, and the surname was going to be just something so plain like Ivanov or Nikolaev. But after reading Anna Karenina, I was thinking noble surnames should sounded so ridiculous. So I combine between Oktyabr and -chev.
Then his original birthplace was at Ryazan, just because I heard one ensemble song that mentioned that city. But to think again... Vadim's family will be exiled during Revolution, so I need some remoted city. Therefore, I pick Usolye-Sibirskoye.
Lastly... originally, Vadim was still contacting his mother and sister at Usolye-Sibirskoye. He will always argued with his father whenever he went back home. And so, I feel Vadim's ending that he reconcile with his father forced. But after time passed and learned about "grey contact" and "no contact" terms, I decided that Vadim and Mark ran away forever and never look back. Then at first I only applied Vadim to have nyctophobia because his father always locked him inside closet. But as I wrote the monologue of Vadim and Mark inside their closet... it was become the ramblings, and more to audio hallucinations... So yeah, I changed both of them to have schizophrenia than nyctophobia.
4. Originally, Vasily is inspired from Vasya-Vasilyok song, but I want to make the depressed Vasya in song into a chaotic. But of course... at the end old concept of Vasily was just a loud guy who boast to withstand of any alcohol, drugs, and won't get caught by Militsia. He never mention about the family at all or even doing anything heroic. I remembered that I started to develop Vasily's lore after learning at university about transnational crime... specifically about trafficking in Romania.
And for his surname... originally, he was going to have surname Adenandov. But because it feels too rhyme with Alexandrov surname, I decided to finally use 2-syllables. And I want it to be so unique that if nobody cannot find it in google, I can say to them "the surname has gone extinct till not recorded by the state anymore". So... it ended up with either Nandov or Nandev surname. And I picked Nandev because the vibe is just right.