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CW AND OPT-OUT.
Vasiliy comes with some major content warnings: mentions/depictions of the Soviet Yezhovshchina, violence, and flashbacks to psychological manipulation (his entire role in the NKVD was to approach subjects as a sympathetic figure to talk them into signing false confessions). He's still unlearning Stalinism, so his inner thoughts aren't completely in line with reality. He drinks and smokes to a maladaptive degree, so depictions of borderline alcoholism and smoking both go with the territory, and he's also pretty much always carrying a gun.
In particular, any flashbacks and recollections Vasiliy may have are likely to include mentions of violence, interrogation, and torture. He was a contemporary of multiple mass-murders, which may also come up. I understand that not everyone's comfortable with that, so if you'd prefer me to steer clear, please don't hesitate to drop a quick note of that in the (screened) comments of this post.
Vasiliy's understanding of gender and sexuality is very different than that of your average person in the 21st century. He has some degree of internalized homophobia, doesn't 'get' identity politics or understand the desire to be loud and proud, and if he's pressed on it, he will get standoffish on that point. He's on the level of acknowledging traditionally presenting trans men and women as men and women, but Vasiliy's still transphobic in other ways - for instance, he doesn't believe in nonbinary genders, and how seriously he takes transgender people relies upon whether he feels that they're "trying" (read: shaving, hair length, binding, etc when applicable) to present as their given gender.
Russian ethnocentrism is also an issue with him - he's not on the level of openly voicing his opinions on the matter, but he sees people from the former satellite states, especially Caucasians, in a less positive light than his fellow ethnic Russians. He refers to Ukraine as The Ukraine, believes that the dissolution of the Soviet Union and individual independence movements were a mistake, etc etc.
In particular, any flashbacks and recollections Vasiliy may have are likely to include mentions of violence, interrogation, and torture. He was a contemporary of multiple mass-murders, which may also come up. I understand that not everyone's comfortable with that, so if you'd prefer me to steer clear, please don't hesitate to drop a quick note of that in the (screened) comments of this post.
Vasiliy's understanding of gender and sexuality is very different than that of your average person in the 21st century. He has some degree of internalized homophobia, doesn't 'get' identity politics or understand the desire to be loud and proud, and if he's pressed on it, he will get standoffish on that point. He's on the level of acknowledging traditionally presenting trans men and women as men and women, but Vasiliy's still transphobic in other ways - for instance, he doesn't believe in nonbinary genders, and how seriously he takes transgender people relies upon whether he feels that they're "trying" (read: shaving, hair length, binding, etc when applicable) to present as their given gender.
Russian ethnocentrism is also an issue with him - he's not on the level of openly voicing his opinions on the matter, but he sees people from the former satellite states, especially Caucasians, in a less positive light than his fellow ethnic Russians. He refers to Ukraine as The Ukraine, believes that the dissolution of the Soviet Union and individual independence movements were a mistake, etc etc.