Lyokha

Lyokha (Russian: Лёха), his full name being Aleksei Zvonariov (Алексей Звонарёв), is a ranger recruit and companion of Artyom in the novel Metro 2035. He is a supporting character, with a generally likeable if somewhat silly personality. He was a relatively young citizen of Riga station in the post-apocalyptic Moscow metro, born just a few years after World War III.

History
When Lyokha turned twenty, he began to look for work in Riga's slums, but he found nothing but brokerage. Due to the fact that in the partnership that arose in November with the neighboring Exhibition and Alekseevskaya with the capital in the first, the profession of a broker began to be appreciated very well. The second reason for this was a large amount of pig manure, which the inhabitants of Riga appreciated by their weight in gold. Lyokha worked as a broker until September 2035, until fate brought him together with Artyom and Homer.

Metro 2033
For the first time, a Riga broker is described in the first novel of the trilogy, but he never appears in the novel. Collaboration with Hansa benefited Lyokha and, trading with shuttles, he began to learn various stories and legends in the Big Metro and beyond. Lyokha himself tells the information received to his friends and colleagues in the rest of the Commonwealth.

Metro 2035
After Artyom and Homer met Lyokha, the trio go to Prospect Mira, where they are allowed to go to the Hansa. However, on the Ring Line, the heroes are caught by the Hansa Security Council, a Hanseatic major, Boris Svinolup, meet the trio and lead them to his office for interrogation. After solving the problem, Svinolup gives the heroes a guide, and Lyokha, Artyom, Homer with a guide get to Novoslobodskaya, from there they go to Mendeleevskaya, Mendeleevskaya is in a half-flooded state, there are many begging children on it. Homer, Artyom and Lyokha get acquainted with a local farmer - Oleg, and buy a raw egg for two rounds. Oleg insists Lyokha drinks the egg in front of him and returns the shell, since he needs to feed it to his chicken so she'd produce another egg. Lyokha tries to give the farmer some business advice, but is rebuffed, much to his frustration. When Lyokha drops his MGR's and cuts himself trying to pick them up, Oleg mocks him, causing the latter to angrily toss the egg. Oleg is devastated by this and attacks Lyokha, but is easily defeated. Artyom tries to compensate the farmer and goes to pull the clip out from his AK, but Oleg misinterprets this as Artyom attempting to kill him and grabs a hold of the barrel, causing Artyom to accidentally shoot Oleg. Artyom carries the wounded Oleg to the Hansa, but they are not allowed in because of the lack of a visa from the farmer. They notice that a raft on Tsvetnoy Bulvar floats through the station. Since there is a medical center on the station, the three take Oleg and his chicken and go to Tsvetnoy Bulvar, together with a group of volunteers sailing on a raft through Mendeleevskaya who want to join the Iron Legion in the Fourth Reich.

Upon arrival, non-commissioned officer Dietmar sent everyone for a physical examination at Chekhovskaya. During the inspection, Lyokha was sent to the left door, according to Dietmar - "for an additional inspection." Homer and Artyom were sent to the right door - to Tverskaya.

As it turned out later, Lyokha was sent to Pushkinskaya, which allegedly was "under reconstruction". In fact, he was identified as a freak and forced, along with others of the same "freaks" to rake the rubble at the station and make it bigger. Later, Homer was identified here, and even later - Artyom, who arrived with his comrades from Polis with an urgent letter for the Fuhrer.

Homer was released, thanks to Ilya Stepanovich - a friend of Artyom and Homer, who was appointed, in connection with general mobilization - to the headquarters of Dietmar, to write a new story. Ilya took Homer as an assistant. During the announcement of the capture of the Kuznetsky Bridge by the Reds and the subsequent attack on Pushkinskaya, the Nazis drove all the prisoners to the red so that the Nazis managed to mine the tunnel and blow it up. In the dark, no one was visible and the prisoners from Pushkinskaya clashed with the Reds, which also turned out to be prisoners from Lubyanka. The Reds also blew up the tunnel. Artyom discovered the hole to the surface and called the others behind him. No one dared. When Artyom crawled to the surface and fell to the ground, another man crawled out after him. It turned out to be Lyokha.

The broker himself brings the exhausted Artyom to Tsvetnoy Bulvar to a doctor. At the station, Artyom meets a prostitute whom he met in his first appearance. She turns out to be Sasha  - the girl who was saved by Homer and Hunter a year ago from Kolomenskaya station and who Homer considered to have died after the events at Tulskaya station. He shares with her information about the radio center. Among the clients of Sasha is an elderly stalker named Saveliy, who agrees to take Lyokha and Artyom with him to the surface and promises to deliver them to Balashikha.

There they find multiple wind turbines and a mass grave of Red Line workers. Nearby is a building surrounded by what appears to be a dozen radio towers. Artyom and his companions kill several unidentified soldiers guarding the building. Artyom tries to get a signal, but can only get static. In frustration, he smashes a console, and suddenly multiple signals come through: Paris, Berlin, Vladivostok, and more. The towers at the complex were in fact radio jammers.

After Saveliy leaves, then Artyom tries to get in touch with the survivors. At this time, three people came to the radio center, claiming that they were residents of Murom, 300 kilometers east of Moscow, led by a man named Arseniy. and they were sent to Moscow, to search for survivors and to help them. Just as multiple armored vehicles are spotted heading towards them from the direction of Moscow, Saveliy comes back to help Artyom. They plan to use an old excavator to knock down the jamming towers.

The armored vehicles arrive and dozens of soldiers in grey uniforms exit and open fire on the complex. Saveliy, in the excavator, knocks down a jamming tower and while moving to a second, Artyom gets a radio message from Letyaga, a Ranger from the Order, one of Artyom's best friends. He tells Artyom to stop knocking down the jamming towers or he won't be able to stop the grey-uniformed men from attacking. The attack ceases and Letyaga enters the complex to talk. As soon as Artyom is distracted, Letyaga shoots the three men from Murom, claiming they're NATO spies, that World War III is still ongoing, and that the jamming towers were designed to keep Moscow hidden from the West.

When they arrive, Letyaga orders them to keep their flashlights off and use infrared goggles only. As men arrive to take the bullets, Artyom recognizes a voice and turns on his flashlight and discovers the men are Reds, led by Svinolup. The unnamed Rangers drag Artyom off, saying they were ordered by Miller to kill him if he found out the truth of who they were giving the bullets to. Letyaga shoots at them and runs off with Artyom, Saveliy, and Lyokha, pursued by Miller's men. They flee into the nearest station, Komsomolskaya, where a crowd of hundreds of starving Red Line citizens are begging for food due to a mushroom blight that's ravaging the Metro. Svinolup uses the bullets Artyom just brought to open fire on the crowd, but the civilians charge the Red Army lines and tear the soldiers apart. The crowd moves on to Hanza, where a line of Hanza soldiers open fire but are overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Artyom and his companions have been forced to follow the crowd to escape Miller's men, and Saveliy is killed during the confusion.

Artyom, Letyaga, and Lyokha make their way to Trubnaya station, and discover lots of Reich refugees there. Apparently a flood caused by the Nazis blowing up the tunnel between Lubyanka and Schiller has devastated all three Reich stations, and the Führer no where in site. Artyom finds Homer alive and well, and the two go to Tsvetnoy Bulvar to find Sasha. She argues with Homer over her choice to be a prostitute, and Artyom pledges to kill Sasha's pimp, Bessolov. While hiding in her room for the pimp, Artyom loses consciousness from his deteriorating radiation poisoning.

Artyom is put in a jail cell along with Homer, Lyokha, and Letyaga, who are being held prisoner awaiting trial for "deserting the Order". Artyom comes up with a plan to use printing presses to distribute leaflets with the truth about the Invisible Watchers, and capture Bessolov when he goes to visit Sasha. When the trial begins Letyaga begins telling the Order the  truth about Miller sending them to arm the Reds, which provokes outrage among the Rangers who survived the battle at D6 . One of Miller's men kills Letyaga, and the Order starts to fight each other hand-to-hand as most were unarmed at the trial. Some of Miller's loyalists capture Anna and threaten to kill her if Artyom doesn't surrender to them, which he does.

Artyom is brought to Arbat station, and he hopes Lyokha can capture Bessolov in time. Later Artyom then notices Bessolov with Lyokha, only to discover Lyokha has betrayed him and is working for Bessolov now. He then finds that Homer refused to make the leaflets, and has been offered a job at Polis to write a book about Artyom's fight with the Dark Ones, and Homer agreed. Feeling betrayed, Artyom flees Polis with Anna and a Ranger named Timurchik.

Although he tries to convince the people of Exhibition to leave the Metro with him, only Anna agrees, the rest of the station calling him crazy. Things get worse when two men from Hanza arrive and demand Sukhoi turn Artyom over to them under threat of a blockade of the station. Artyom and Anna load up Saveliy's car with as much food, water, filters, and diesel as it can carry. After saying goodbye to Sukhoi, Artyom and Anna start driving east to Vladivostok, some 9 000 kilometers distant.

In the book's epilogue, Lyokha is spying on the two with a pair of binoculars as they drive east, reporting to Bessolov via radio that if they should go after them. Bessolov tells him to let them go, as they aren't a threat to him anymore.

Алексей Звонарёв