Anzhela Sokolova

> *"There is one golden rule for determining a commander's competence. Anyone can beat the enemy, but only the most talented leaders know how to defeat themselves."*
> ~ Sokolova, to Drakolich.
>
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## Introduction

**Anzhela Sokolova**, nicknamed 'the White Falcon', is the supreme commander of the Mecharussian Red Army, replacing Gordon Kravchenko in both canons, and is one of Mechanocratic Russia's most talented military officers. A key ally of first General and then Grand Curatrix Elena Trotskaya as her main advisor on military affairs, Sokolova – as a Heroine of the Mechanocracy – bears the honorific title of Supreme Marshal.

Sokolova also assists Trotskaya in her ascendancy to Grand Curatrix, coordinating the purge of the National People's Senate alongside Drakolich.

## Personality

Sokolova is highly intelligent, charming and objectively beautiful in terms of physical appearance, yet her friendly outlook masks an intellect with the calculating capacity of a supercomputer. She can almost immediately determine strengths and weaknesses to use to her own advantage, and be ruthless and utterly amoral at times, but this is largely as a means to an end – defeating the enemy – rather than as any display of sociopathy or sadism, traits which she lacks in the absolute.

Calm and collected at all times, Sokolova is nearly a polar opposite of Grand Curatrix Trotskaya, who educates that the five main negative emotions (pain, anger, terror, sorrow and hatred) should be overpowered and harnessed for use as weapons. She firmly believes that the mightiest weapon is the intellect, rather than any gun or blade, on the simple account that it is the most adaptable of all weapons, whereas firearms and melee weapons typically have a singular purpose, and it can adapt to face new threats and concoct methods to defeat said threats. Additionally, she is a brilliant strategist, but merely a competent tactician – the reverse of Trotskaya.

Sokolova is also a prolific art collector and historian. Her most prized artwork – the real *The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich*, painted by Adolf Hitler in 1914 – hangs behind her office desk in Gatchina Command Centre.

### Sokolova Doctrine

Sokolova's style of command is defined by a belief that defeating a nation's army in a war is simply not enough: if one is to defeat the nation itself, then it is necessary to grasp a comprehensive understanding of that nation's history, politics and culture – in her own words, *"what defines a nation"*. If that is achieved, then the nation's weaknesses can be ascertained and used to defeat it in total war. This line of military philosophy, bearing her name as the Sokolova Doctrine, has been adopted as the official strategic doctrine of the reformed MAF and is applied particularly to strategies for dealing with the Imperium of Sidhae in the event of hypothetical war between the two superpowers.

In the Main Canon, Sokolova Doctrine is applied instead to the New Solar Coalition when war breaks out between it and Mechanocratic Russia in the 2160s. It is also applied in the conception of Project Fobos, it originally being her idea to match and outperform Colonel Fred Harrigan with Volkov to defeat him.

## Notable appearances

* Sokolova makes her debut in *Operation Fobos*.

## Trivia

* Sokolova takes considerable influence and inspiration from Grand Admiral Thrawn in the *Star Wars* universe, especially in regards to her style of command, an almost exact mimic of Thrawn's.
* Sokolova is so far the only human character in the Frencoverse to have pure white eyes.