Chernov

"Are we to shoot them in the back?"

- Chernov to Reznov in Their Land, Their Blood

Private Chernov is a Red Army soldier in Call of Duty: World at War. He is one of the main characters that follows you most of the way through the Russian campaign.

Biography
First appearing in Their Land, Their Blood as one of the soldiers under Sergeant Reznov's command and with the latter rescues Dimitri Petrenko from 3 Germans. When ordered to execute the dying Nazis, he displays a pacifist nature by refusing to shoot fatally wounded German soldiers that were already on the ground writhing in pain, using an excuse that they were already bleeding to death. Reznov responds by handing Dimitri Petrenko a Mosin-Nagant rifle, saying the latter will help the Germans bleed faster. After rescuing Dimitri, Chernov and the others push into the German countryside, clearing a barn and a nearby German camp. He and the others then board the commandeered train bound to Berlin and push the Germans further into the German Capital and eventually reach the city itself. After ferocious close quarter fighting in a building, and after battling the disparate German troops on the city streets, the squad reaches a metro in which three surviving German troops plead not to be killed. Reznov will give you a choice, kill them fast or slow. You can shoot or knife them, which will lead to Reznov giving you a compliment; or you can wait for your comrads to burn them. Then you will enter the metro, and fight your way to the end. Chernov, Reznov, and Dimitri barely escape with their lives when the metro they were in is flooded in an attempt to kill the advancing Soviets. After surviving the tunnel flood, Chernov is seen writing in his diary. Reznov then grabs his diary and says to Chernov "If you lack the stomach to kill for your country, at least show me you are willing to die for it!" Chernov then takes the Red Army flag with him and fights through German infantry defending the Reichstag. When Chernov reaches the stairway leading to the Reichstag entrance, he is killed by a flamethrower-wielding German and falls to the ground coughing and burned. Reznov sympathetically takes his diary saying that someone will read it someday. At the beginning of the level Downfall, Chernov (in a voice-over) reads a portion of his diary, discussing Dimitri. Depending on the player's actions through the game, Chernov either disdains Dimitri or views him in a more conflicted light. It is unknown if Chernov survives but it is most likely he was dead after a few minutes of entering the Reichstag. When he is blasted by a flamethrower his name was still displayed possibly indicating that he might have survived.

Personality and Traits
Although Chernov is loyal to his country and a good soldier, he is a pacifist by nature and is dismayed by Reznov's and Dimitri Petrenko's cruel and unmerciful methods of waging war, whose cold-blooded attitude towards the Germans he does not understand. He appears to be nearly an opposite to Sergeant Reznov, shown by how he is against the unjust slaughter of the Germans (exemplified when he shouts in protest to the cruel execution of a German soldier) which in contrast, Reznov seems to relish in. Due to his pacifist nature, he is somewhat disliked by Sergeant Reznov, whereas he favors Dimitri Petrenko for being unmerciful towards the Germans whom he loathes although Reznov shows sympathy towards him by taking his diary when he presumably died saying that someone will read it. His clothing is somewhat a Red Army uniform and wears blanket covering his entire head but not his face. He used a Mosin-Nagant exclusively, even on levels in which the weapon is not readily available or not even available at all (this is true for Pvt. Polonsky as he uses an M1 Garand rifle on certain levels where it is not available).