The Russians in Stranger Things: Starcourt, Kamchatka, and every Soviet character
Universe · Cold War · Seasons 3 and 4
The Soviets enter the show in season 3, under an Indiana mall, and stay until the end: a secret base, a machine to reopen the gate, a prison in Kamchatka, a Demogorgon in a cage. Here is what they are looking for, and who the Russian characters of the show are.
The essentials
- 1985: a base under Starcourt to reopen the gate
- 1986: the Kamchatka prison where Hopper is held
- Goal: master the Upside Down as a weapon
- Characters: Alexei, Grigori, Dmitri “Enzo”, Yuri
Contents
What the Soviets want
In 1985, in the middle of the Cold War, the USSR has understood that the Americans opened a gate to another dimension in Hawkins. It wants the same thing: a weapon. After failing to pierce the barrier between worlds on its own soil, it comes where the fabric is already weakened, to Hawkins, and builds under the Starcourt mall a base capable of forcing the passage.
Season 4 shows the rest of the program: in a Kamchatka prison, the Soviets keep a live Demogorgon, demodogs in tanks, and a lab gate they are studying. They have not understood that the creatures obey a master; they treat them as war animals.
The Hopper T-shirt, gulag period.
In the shopMen's Chief Hopper Hawkins Police T-shirt39,90 €See the product
1985: the base under Starcourt
Mayor Kline sold the town's basement against the financing of the mall. Under Starcourt, dozens of soldiers and scientists run a machine that causes magnetic disturbances all over Hawkins: that is the first clue, the magnets falling off Joyce's fridges. Two plots converge: Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Erica enter by a delivery elevator; Hopper and Joyce kidnap a scientist, Alexei, who explains to them how to cut the machine.
On July 4, Hopper and Joyce turn the two keys, the gate closes, the base is destroyed with the mall. The killer Grigori dies in the machine's gears. Hopper disappears in the explosion.
| Character | Role | Fate |
|---|---|---|
| Alexei | Kidnapped scientist, translated by Murray | Shot by Grigori at the fair |
| Grigori | Killer sent to eliminate the witnesses | Killed by Hopper in the machine |
| General Ozerov | Base commander | Killed by Grigori for his failures |
| Mayor Kline | American accomplice | Arrested at the end of the season |
1986: the Kamchatka prison
Hopper is not dead: captured, he is sent to a labor camp in Kamchatka, at the far east of the USSR. There he meets Dmitri Antonov, a guard nicknamed “Enzo,” who agrees to help him for money, and contacts Joyce. The deal goes through Yuri, an Alaska smuggler who betrays everyone.
In the prison, Hopper discovers the arena where a Demogorgon executes the prisoners, then the lab where the Russians keep creatures in tanks. Joyce and Murray get him out of there, with Enzo, after turning Yuri. On the way back, the small group kills the creatures kept in tanks, and the one in the arena, to weaken Vecna, thousands of kilometers from Hawkins.
A shoot in LithuaniaThe prison scenes were shot in the former Lukiškės prison, in Vilnius, closed in 2019. The cold was not simulated.
The Russian characters, in brief
| Character | Played by | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Alexei | Alec Utgoff | 3 |
| Grigori | Andrey Ivchenko | 3 |
| Dmitri “Enzo” Antonov | Tom Wlaschiha | 4 |
| Yuri Ismaylov | Nikola Đuričko | 4 |
Alexei and Enzo each have their page on the site. Yuri and Grigori have a file in our dossier on the secondary characters.
And after?
Season 5 does not go back to Russia: Enzo is free, Yuri too, and the plot concentrates on Hawkins and on the American army, which has taken the lab back. The Soviets will have served one purpose: to show that the gate is not a local accident but a matter of war, and that both sides played with it.
The Hopper figure, beard and coat included.
In the shopLego Jim Hopper mini figure14,90 €See the product
Every Russian character, in one table
| Character | Season | Role | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexei | 3 | Scientist from the Starcourt base, kidnapped by Hopper, translated by Murray | Shot by Grigori at the fair |
| Grigori | 3 | The killer, the base's armed right hand | Crushed in the turbine by Hopper |
| General Ozerov | 3 | Commands the base under Starcourt | Disappears with the base |
| Dmitri “Enzo” Antonov | 4 | Guard at the Kamchatka prison, Hopper's ally for pay | Escapes with the Americans |
| Yuri Ismaylov | 4 | Smuggler and pilot, traitor then escape pilot | Escapes; absent after that |
| The Russians' Demogorgon | 4 | Captured and held to serve as an executioner | Burned by Hopper, Joyce, and Murray |
Why the Russians, and why those years
The show is set at the heart of the second Cold War, between 1983, the year of Red Dawn and the Euromissile crisis, and 1987, that of the first disarmament accords. The Duffers chose 1983 precisely for that paranoia, a year before the release of the film where American high-schoolers resist a Soviet invasion. The Russians arrive in the show when it leaves Hawkins for the scale of the world: under a mall in 1985, in a Kamchatka prison in 1986.
Brenner's first lab was already spying on the Soviets: in 1983, Eleven is sent into the tank to listen to a Russian spy. It is therefore not a late intrusion but the logical sequel: both sides of the Cold War sought, each on their own, to open the same gate.
The end of the Russians, and what replaces them
After the escape from Kamchatka, the show drops the Soviet thread. The last season has no Russian: the human opponent of 1987 is the American army itself, with Dr. Kay, Lieutenant Akers and Lieutenant Colonel Sullivan, who lock down Hawkins and hunt Eleven. The reversal is deliberate: after showing the enemy on the other side of the curtain, the show shows what its own side does with a teenager it fears.
Dmitri, the only Russian the show has made fully sympathetic, disappears with season 4, like Yuri. What is left of Russia in 1987 is Hopper's memory: a year in prison, a Demogorgon in a pit, and the certainty that gates have no nationality.
One last pass through the shop before Alaska.
In the shopChibi Jim Hopper hat keychain12,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
Why are there Russians in Stranger Things?
Because in the middle of the Cold War, the USSR wants in turn to open a gate to the Upside Down to make a weapon of it. They build a base under Starcourt in 1985.
Who are the Russian characters?
Alexei, the kidnapped scientist (season 3), Grigori the killer (season 3), Dmitri “Enzo,” the guard who helps Hopper (season 4), and Yuri, the smuggler (season 4).
Where is Hopper's prison?
In Kamchatka, at the far east of Russia. The scenes were shot in a former prison in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Do the Russians come back in Season 5?
No. The last season focuses on Hawkins and on the American army.
Are there Russians in season 5?
No. The human adversary of 1987 is the American army, with Dr. Kay, Akers and Sullivan, who hunt Eleven under the quarantine.
Why was Eleven listening to a Russian spy in 1983?
Because Brenner's lab used it to spy on the Soviets at a distance, in a sensory bath, even before the Russians opened their own gate in 1985.
Who is General Ozerov?
The commander of the Soviet base under Starcourt in 1985, who oversees the machine and has Alexei executed by Grigori.
How does Hopper survive the prison Demogorgon?
With fire: in the Kamchatka arena, he discovers that the creature fears flames, which saves his life with Dmitri and the other inmates.