Special School No. 9

During the Civil War of 1917–1921, Soviet banknotes (sovznaks) rapidly depreciated. Banknotes in denominations of 1, 5, and 10 million rubles appeared. These were ironically nicknamed "lemons." The "million-ruble" period ended with the reform of 1922–1924, when the rubles were denominated and the hard chervonets was introduced.
Between 1917 and 1921, money had almost no meaning. A cigarette, bread, sugar, or salt were more reliable than any piece of paper.

Before (1915) After (1917–1921)
The Tsarist ruble = 100 kopecks. The Soviet currency = "candy wrapper." The price changes daily.
"1 cigarette = 1 service" "1 cigarette = 1 service"
"A knife = 5-10 cigarettes" "A knife = 10-20 cigarettes"
"Bread = 1 cigarette" "Bread = 5-10 cigarettes"
"Soap = 3-5 cigarettes" "Soap = 10+ cigarettes"
"Watches = 20+ cigarettes" "Watches = 50+ cigarettes"

Between 1917 and 1921, money had almost no meaning. A cigarette, bread, sugar, or salt were more reliable than any piece of paper.

Age: 16 years
Nickname: "Saw" (for his sharp tongue and ability to nag until he gets his way). Cut.
Specialty: Pickpocket (but also works as a thief and as a killer when necessary)
Status: Runaway from "school." Leader of a four-girl gang.
Appearance:
Height: 168 cm, strong, with broad shoulders - “not a young lady”.
Face: round, with a stubborn chin. Brown eyes with a bold look.
·Hair: black, cropped in a short style with bangs.
•Clothing: men's sweatshirt, knee-length skirt, boots. Brass knuckles on the belt.
· Sign: there is a scratch from a knife on the right cheek. “Memory of the first fight
Character:
Bold: says what she thinks. "Silence is for cowards."
• Faithful: she doesn’t abandon her girls. “We are sisters. Blood.”
•Cunning: knows how to set traps. “Strength is not the main thing. The main thing is who can outplay whom.”
•Vulnerable: under the armor is fear. “Everyone abandoned me. Everyone. I won’t allow it anymore.”
•Dreams: about “freedom” – without wars, without the rich, without “schools”.
Previous story:
Masha lived with her mother and father in a working-class neighborhood of Kyiv. Her father was a mechanic, her mother a laundress. Masha was "inconvenient": she fought with boys, disobeyed, and spoke her mind. Her father laughed: "You'll either be good or bad." Her mother sighed: "She won't make a good young lady."
My father was taken to the front. He wrote letters: "Alive, fighting." Then the letters stopped. Then came: "Shot for incitement." My mother broke down. She died that winter. Masha was fourteen.

Age: 15 years
Nickname: "Whisper" (he spoke so quietly that no one heard him—and then they found his body). Cut.
Specialty: Assassin
Status: School escapee. A loner. Works "on order"—but only by "his" rules.
Appearance:
Height: 175 cm, thin, inconspicuous. "Nobody remembers me."
~Face: pale, calm. Eyes light gray, "like water."
~Hair: light, long, covers the ears.
~Clothing: gray coat, gray pants, gray boots. "Gray is the color of the invisible."
~Sign: a thin scar on the neck. "First time. Failed. I won't try again."
Character:
•Patient: can wait for days. “Time is my friend.”
• Observant: remembers the victim's daily routine for two days.
• Detached: Doesn't get attached. "People die. It's normal."
•Broken: Can't remember what happened before "school." "Was there something... Mom? I don't remember."
Previous story:
Lyova doesn't remember his father. His mother was a seamstress and worked from home. They lived in a room in a communal apartment. Lyova was quiet, obedient, and "inconspicuous." His mother used to say, "You're like a mouse. It's good—mice don't get killed." He loved watches—he took them apart, put them back together, and repaired them. "You'll be a watchmaker. A quiet profession."
His mother went to the market and never returned. Later, Lyova learned: there was a crush, she fell, and was trampled. He was fifteen. He sat in his room for three days, listening to the ticking of his disassembled clock. Then he went down the "crooked path."

Officially, they're "labor re-education institutions for homeless children." In reality, they're closed camps outside the city, surrounded by fences, with guards and "regulations."
Not everyone can be held back. Schools aren't prisons; security isn't all-powerful. Those who escape gather together. But not in the cities, where the police are, but far away from ordinary people: in the forests, on abandoned farms, in the basements of burned-out factories, in ravines. No, of course not everyone; most rob warehouses, houses, and so on.
There they live by their own laws. And there their "specialties" find application.

Age: 16.5 years
Nickname in the unit: "Quiet One" - first for his silence, then with respect, because "he's quiet, but he keeps a low profile with the Germans."
Status: Sapper team alumnus / demolition assistant
Originally from: Vyatka province, family of a forester
Appearance:
~Height: 176 cm - has grown taller over the past year, but his shoulders are still narrow, making him look like a "teenager in someone else's overcoat."
Build: stooped, with long arms—a "teddy bear." Hands covered in calluses and small scars from wire.
~Face: high cheekbones, pale (rarely exposed to the sun—sappers work at night). Gray-green eyes, slanted.
~Hair: dark blond, straight, always falls into his eyes - he cuts it himself, with a knife, which makes the bangs uneven.
~Clothing: a borrowed engineer's tunic, over which lies a leather apron (homemade, from a captured saddle). On the belt is a tool pouch: wire cutters, a coil of wire, and a "hellish machine" (a homemade fuse).
~Special feature: half of the nail on the index finger of the right palm is missing - “the wire bit it off.”
Character:
~Patient: he can lie motionless in a shell hole for an hour, until a German patrol passes. Sappers say: "Tikhon will grow into the ground, and he'll get what he deserves."
~Observant: notices things that others miss - "look, that tree has a branch that's not positioned correctly, there's probably a tripwire there."
~He's hot-tempered—but rarely: if someone touches his instrument without asking, he might silently punch him in the jaw. Then he'll have to make peace with a lump of sugar.
~Superstitious: believes in "sapper luck." Before every mission, he buries a button in the ground—"so a mine won't find it."
~He's homesick: nostalgic for the forest, for his father. In his letters home, he writes the same thing: "Alive. Serving. Don't worry."

Fears:
He can't swim—he's terrified of water. When his unit crosses the river, he looks for a way around it.
~He's afraid of horses after being kicked by a mare as a child. Sappers have to drive the wagon train for him.
~Extremely suggestible - if someone says "it's a bad omen," Vladimir will walk around like he's not himself until he "removes" the curse (usually by smoking a pipe with a sapper guy).
Speaks:
~He speaks slowly, with pauses, as if weighing each word. His voice is low, "with a hoarseness."
~Habit: when thinking, he twirls a coil of wire in his fingers.
Habit: Checks his instrument before bed. Always. Even if he's exhausted.
Habit: doesn't drink alcohol—"dad told me not to." Instead of vodka, asks for tea, even in the bitter cold.
~Officers are addressed as "vashbrod", soldiers as "uncle" or by their first name and patronymic.
Before the story:
His father, a forester, was mobilized in 1914, leaving Tikhon in charge. Six months later, refugees arrived in the village and told him his father had died near Avgustov. Tikhon went to the district town, joined a supply train, and from there, a sapper unit. He said he was an orphan, "but I have a trade—I can chop wood and lay wire." They took him.

Age: 14 years
Nickname in the unit: "Swallow" - for his fast running and habit of appearing suddenly, "out of nowhere"
Status: Communications Team Trainee / "Telephone Operator" (Pretends to be a Young Man)
Originally from: Petrograd, high school student (dropout)
Appearance:
~Height: 164 cm - not tall, but slim.
~Physique: fragile in appearance, but sinewy - after six months at the front, she gained muscles that she herself is surprised by.
~Face: thin, with a pointed chin. Brown eyes, lively, with a sparkle. When she's nervous, she blushes in spots, which gives her away.
~Hair: brown, cut short like a boy's hair, but still sticking out from under her cap, and she hides it behind her collar.
~Clothing: soldier's tunic (altered), riding breeches, boots. A bandage is tied around the chest for camouflage. A reel of wire and a telephone receiver are on the belt.
Character:
Distinguishing feature: two earring holes on her left ear—"civilian" ones—that never healed. For a long time, soldiers thought they were shrapnel.
~Indefatigable: the first to jump into any adventure. Communication established? So, we need to bring in intelligence, too. "At the same time."
~Artistic: she knows how to play "one of the guys"—a hoarse voice, sweeping gestures, jokes. But sometimes a schoolboy's "Oh, leave me alone!" breaks through—and then everyone turns around.
~Amorous: with one of the squad, She doesn't tell anyone. She writes him poems in a notebook and hides them.
~Brave to the point of recklessness: she lays wire under fire, not bowing to bullets. "A bullet is a fool, but I am Anya."
Fears:
~Cries at night—quietly, into her pillow, so no one can hear. Misses her mother and her room with its books.
~She can't cook—she tried to make porridge, but it turned out to be a "sticky bomb." The soldiers laugh, but they eat it.
~She's afraid of rats—at the sight of one, she squeals and jumps on anything. She once climbed onto a box of grenades and nearly blew everyone up.

Speaks:
Speaks quickly, incoherently, and jumps from topic to topic. When nervous, he starts chattering.
·Habit: when he lies, he touches his earlobe (the holes from his earrings).
·Habit: humming French songs under her breath (she learned this in high school) - the soldiers think it’s “some kind of prayer.”
Habit: Writes poetry in a notebook. Hides it in his boot.
Habit: Before going to bed, he prays—not in the church way, but in his own words: “Lord, please make sure that no one dies tomorrow. Well, at least not one of our own.”
Before history
Anya was a high school student in Petrograd. When the war began, her older brother volunteered for the front. A year later, news arrived: "Missing in action." Anya couldn't believe it. She cut her hair, dressed in her brother's clothes, bought a cap at the market, and ran off to the front. At the station, she joined a convoy, introduced herself as "Anton Kovalev," and said she was "expelled from high school for freethinking and wanted to serve." They recruited her as a signalman—"a smart, literate boy, capable of pulling wire."

Age: 13 years (as of 1915)
Nickname in the unit: "Nightingale" - for his ringing voice and habit of whistling signals
Status: “Son of the regiment” / student of the machine gun team
Appearance:
Height: 145
~Physique: thin, but wiry - grew and strengthened in the six months he spent in the unit.
~Face: freckled, with a stubbornly upturned nose. His left eyebrow is cut—a mark from a piece of shrapnel, which he still considers a "medal."
~Hair: light brown, always tousled, shaggy, cut unevenly - cut by his own soldiers with horse scissors.
~Clothing: a repurposed soldier's tunic (the sleeves rolled up three times), boots two sizes too big—stuffed with newspapers. A rope around his waist instead of a belt.
~Special sign: on the left wrist a homemade bracelet made from machine gun belt - "for good luck".
Personality traits:
Resourceful: A quick learner. Already knows how to take apart a Maxim and put it back together (though sometimes there are "extra" parts left over).
~Brash-tongued: He can be rude, but only if he's sure he won't get beaten. He's respectful with officers and equal with soldiers.
~Secretly sentimental: He hides a small locket with a photograph of his mother under his tunic. He doesn't show it to anyone.
Dreams: To return home a hero, so that the neighbor boy Kolka, who teased him, would "burst with envy." But whether he's still alive is unknown.
Fears of experience:
~He can’t read (he confuses letters), but he hides it - he asks the scribe to “read the letter”, pretending that he already knows.
~He is terrified of injections - after he was injured, four people had to hold him.
~Has a habit of taking other people's things without asking, if it's "for business" - he stole a jar of jam from the cook for a wounded comrade.
~Afraid of the dark: But he'll never admit it. In the trenches, he sleeps by the fire, with his back to the wall. He justifies it by saying he keeps watch while he sleeps.
before history:
His father went to the front in 1914, and his mother died of typhus that winter. Sasha fled the village, made his way to the train station, and hid in a hay car. Soldiers from the 12th Grenadier Regiment found him while he was trying to steal a biscuit.

During the First World War in 1915, many units of the Russian Imperial Army retained or enlisted children and teenagers (often called volunteers, pupils, or drummers).
Most performed auxiliary tasks (carrying ammunition, courier communications, caring for the wounded), but some became full-fledged fighters.
Intelligence: Children aroused less suspicion among the enemy.

A window thief isn't just a thief. They're specialists in breaking into closed spaces (barracks, warehouses) through windows and ventilation. In the camp, they're used to steal from "their own" or to carry out sabotage outside the camp.
A shchepač (from "shchepat'"—to tear, to cut) is a specialist in working with wood and bone. But in the context of a camp, he's a medic or executioner. He makes "knives" and performs "silent" executions (strikes to the heart or carotid artery).
~A thief is a generalist. In the camp, he's the "supply man." He steals anything that's lying around, including food and medicine.
A killer isn't just someone who kills. He's a "cleaner." These are usually "children," feared even by adult guards. They walk quietly, aren't afraid of blood, and leave no trace.

There is (almost) no "friendship" within the camp or groups. There is a hierarchy.

"Old Men" (or "Grandpas"): Those who survived a year or two. They are the elite. They have the best knives, the best "mazy" (caches).
"Chulha" (or "Novye"): Freshly arrived. They are "registered" through cruelty (confiscation of belongings, beatings, "dark").

The main conflict: The camp administration/authorities encourage cruelty but fear rebellion. So they pit the groups against each other.

Not a soldier. A soldier needs an oath, faith, and a homeland. These kids don't trust anyone.
·Not workers. A worker must be free. These are not.
·And the "specialists." People without names, without pasts, without attachments. Those who can be sent where you wouldn't send an ordinary person. Those who don't ask questions. Those who "do it" and then disappear.

1. No connections. No one will come to avenge them or write complaints to the Central Committee.
2. Psychology. They're already broken. It doesn't take much breaking to mold them into fighters. They have no moral compunctions against killing.
3. The ideal "clay." If you give them a purpose and a "place of their own" (even if it's illusory), they will be loyal to the one who gave them food and the "right to life."