Ivan "Russki" Lysenko

This Kindred spent most of his mortal life in prison or was once incarcerated for a severe crime. Such a past conveys a reputation and a jaded attitude toward authority leavened with a desperate taste for freedom and opportunity to exercise liberties formerly denied them.

**Time Line**

**1980** – Lysenko is born. Lives in typical post World War II Russian squalor and poverty. He is one of the youths who buys into the Stalinist nationalism and so indoctrinated that he turns his own mother (father killed during exile to Siberia having ticked off a Political Officer during the occupation of Germany) into the state for punishment for selling extra vegetables on the black market to make ends meet for the tiny family.

**1997** – Ivan serves as a conscript in Russian army. Sent to Chechnya to quell rebellion. He becomes disenfranchised about totalitarian authority participating in the massacre of many Chechen Civilians.

**1998-**  He Immigrates to the USA as a war refugee by assuming the identity of a Chechen.

**1999-**  Then he is Incarcerated for 10 years for running assault weapons, wounding a LAPD officer while resisting arrest. His time in prison does not change his troubled mind, it only provided him with more contacts and rep.

**2009** – After serving his maximum sentence, (no good behavior rewards for Lysenko), he is released and like most violent felons returns to previous behaviors. He is smuggling weapons again, this time he is smarter and wiser having learned from others in prison and the mafia.

**2010** – From 2010 to 2020, Lysenko rose in the mafia ranks very quickly, garnering more and more respect as he completed each task better than the last. Long gone were the days of getting caught by the police. In spite of his new alias being laughable to some other gang members, Russki made damn sure to show everyone he completed his work no matter what. Need muscle? Call Russki. Need backup? Call Russki. Need to ice a fool? Call Russki. If there was a task that needed doing, and done quickly, you call Russki. From that point on, Russki always referred to himself in the third person. With a new name, Russki felt bulletproof. He could not help but feel as if the world was his to take with every successful hijack, robbery, theft, and, eventually, murder he performed. This newfound attitude brought him to the attention of a Ventrue.  Lysenko is ghouled by the Ventrue. The Russian works for 10 long years of running operations and participating in criminal activities on a tactical level for the Rook Gang. These years are worse on him than prison. The vitae is addictive and the love for the Ventrue dominates him during these oppressive years.

**2020-** Embraced by a Gangrel Motorcycle Gang member, who fancies himself an alpha of the tribe. The embrace is motivated by stealing a prized possession from the Ventrue while liberating a blood bonded slave of a rival.

**Vignette**

To turn ordinary children into enemies of their own parents. Putin’s new Children’s Law was very clear, though. Any child who discovered counter-revolutionary tendencies in either of its parents – that child should report them.

His mother had known. It was a look in the boy’s eyes that had told her. She had been working at the kitchen table one afternoon and suddenly seen little Ivan gazing at her with a steady, accusing stare. Then, when she had instinctively drawn the boy to her, and put her arm round him, she had felt Ivan suddenly draw back, then look at her guiltily and in evident confusion. She had known at once, and understood. And the boy guessed she knew.

And neither had said a word.

It was a pity, though.

Midnight passed. One o’clock

A knock on the door.

The knocks at the door grew louder. There was shouting. “NKVD! Open at once!”

She noted her son, looking pale as a ghost and shaking a little at each shout and knock on the door.

The men were hammering on the door now. Their voices echoed angrily. Little Ivan was turning into the hall. In a moment he would let them in.

His mother turned to face them, imagining herself being strong like her husband, who had been sent to Siberia as well. There were three of the secret police.

They let her kiss little Ivan.

They turned to go.

The little boy was there in the hall. Whatever they had told him at school had not been enough. Now, seeing his mother being taken away, he had suddenly broken down.

His mother picked him up in her arms and held him. She hugged him close.

‘It’s all right,’ she whispered. ‘You understand? I knew, but it’s all right.’

Then she, too, went out into a colder, darker night.

To never return.