Katyusha Braginskaya

Lin Yi Ling (Sister-in-law)

**Katyusha Braginskaya** is Ivan Braginski's older sister in the manga/anime series *Hetalia* and the *Tea Leaves* series. She is the personification of Ukraine.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

She has short blonde hair (which she keeps held back with a blue or green headband and clips), blue eyes, and wears a long-sleeved white blouse and blue overalls. Her most notable physical feature, however, is her large breast size, representing Ukraine's status as a major agricultural nation ("large tracts of land").  She can also be seen carrying a pitchfork at times.

In a sketch by Hidekaz Himaruya, she is shown to wear a long brown coat, pants, boots, and hat as her military uniform.

### Personality

Katyusha is the oldest of the three siblings and is constantly getting dragged into some sort of mess. She is described by her brother as being very warm-hearted and motherly, having taken care of him and Natalia when they were little. He also notes that she's a bit of a cry-baby, yet with a big heart. She apparently has chest and back pains due to her assets. She was the one who gave Ivan his scarf, which he continues to wear today. He told Kiku that it is part of his body, therefore he cannot take it off.

## Back Story

Katyusha makes her debut anime appearance in Episode 42, which adapts Russia's Big And Little Sisters from volume 2 of the published manga. In the episode, she is unable to come up with payment for gas due to her poverty situation, and is later forbidden from sharing milk with her brother by her boss because of the gas conflict. She wears a different hairstyle as a child in Episode 43.

In the anime adaptation, her headband was changed to yellow while her hair became more of a platinum shade. Sound effects were also added to her movement for further elaboration on her large breast size.

## Storyline History

### Tea Leaves and Silver Rings

Katyusha is first seen helping pick out Lin Yi Ling's wedding dress in a bridal store. She is disappointed when the bride acts sad and helps her try on the dress. Afterwards, the dress is purchased for the wedding.

Later on, Kayusha goes to Ivan's house to deliver her sister-in-law treats when she overhears her brother in a private meeting. She freaks out when she hears Ivan mention the Woman in Red. Toris then joins her to listen in on the meeting to get more details.

### Tea Leaves and Black Lipstick

Ivan left Katyusha to look after Li Yi while he was gone.

## Relationships

### Ivan Braginski

*Main Article: Ivan Braginski*

Kayusha is Ivan's older sister, and acted as a mother to both him and Natalia when they were younger. She was the one who gave him his scarf. Though she wishes to be with him again, she either winds up running away at the chance due to the issues that arisen between them (such as paying for gas), or due to being blocked from seeing him in some way (such as her boss prohibiting her from giving him anything). However, Ivan does still care deeply about her.

### Natalia Arlovskaya

*Main Article: Natalia Arlovskaya*

Natalia is shown to be jealous of Kayusha for Ivan's attention to her; however, they have been known to get along with each other, such as Natalia offering to massage Kayusha's back and breasts, and sharing an image song.

### Lin Yi Ling

*Main Article: Lin Yi Ling*

Lin Yi becomes Kayusha's sister-in-law after she marries Ivan. Kayusha is doing her best to try and cheer up the young girl due to her situation cause by Yao Wang.

## Trivia

* Katyusha's birthday correspondes with the date of its independence from the Soviet Union, August 24th (shortly before its complete dissolution in December 1991).
* She appears in a concept sketch for Gakuen Hetalia.
* The "desktop mascot" of Latvia reveals that Ukraine is known for its surreal "guro" horror games.
* Although her breast size is one of her notable characteristics, early draft sketches of Katyusha depicted her with a more average bust. In the special edition booklet included with Hetalia: Axis Powers volume 3, Himaruya stated that though she was always intended to be a crybaby, she was originally more unlucky and put-upon along with her chest being smaller.
* In a recent blog post, Himaruya stated her possible names to be Irunya Chernenko, Maria, and Sofia.

## Source

* Basic Information: http://hetalia.kitawiki.net/index.php?title=Ukraine