A Tear in the Curtain by John Symons

Author:John Symons
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780856833908
Publisher: Shepheard-Walwyn

Russia

DAY by day in Moscow Andrei followed the events of the Prague Spring. Early in the morning and late in the evening after work he tuned in to the BBC’s Russian Service and the American station, Radio Liberty.

In those years Soviet factories still produced huge numbers of short wave radio sets so that people could receive Radio Moscow’s broadcasts from end to end of their vast country. In the 1970s, as the repression of all independent or dissident thought got even worse, fewer sets were manufactured. Television took over in Russia. The fewer the short wave sets there were, the less the population was able to hear news from the West.

Despite the noisy interference broadcast by Soviet transmitters to jam foreign wavelengths, Andrei often managed to hear the news from London about what was happening in Czechoslovakia. Occasionally he heard short reports by Giori. Even on the short wave radio, Andrei could detect that Giori’s fluent Russian was delivered with a slight Hungarian and slighter English accent. He had no idea that Giori was Helena’s brother, although they shared the same surname. Although the Durhams had adopted them, Giori used his old Hungarian surname for his broadcasts.

Andrei liked Giori’s reports. He could tell that he was only a few years older than him. What Giori said was sharp and realistic, but not cynical or worldweary. He felt that Giori was speaking for those who were not carried away by foolish optimism or dreams, for those who knew how little could be achieved. He guessed that this must owe a lot to what had happened in Hungary in 1956.

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