Who is Sascha from Night Soldiers and what is their importance? Night_Soldiers English & Literature Sascha | Night Soldiers

Sascha is a Soviet agent who is assigned Khristo as his partner in the Spanish Civil War. He has been an agent for some time, and one of the village women in San Ximine who observes Sascha when he comes to see Andres, describes him best when she says he has snakes in his brain and they bite him. Sascha drinks heavily and has lost his edge in the field work assigned. He is recalled to Moscow, tortured and beaten, then sent to Siberia to serve a thirty-year prison sentence. He bides his time, gathering information from the incoming political prisoners at the gulag, and when the moment is right, threatens Goldman to transfer him to another prison where he can escape and trade the information to the Americans in return for their sanctuary. Sascha makes good on his plan, accidentally shooting Khristo in the process, but manages to get the young man to safety and they both escape.