The Leonardo Gulag by Kevin Doherty

Author:Kevin Doherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Published: 2020-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

THE NIGHT IS uneasy for Bolotsov as well, but for reasons other than the death of an artist—even one as pretty as the little green-eyed girl.

His suspicions begin as he listens to his wireless in the privacy of his quarters. He is tuned to All-Union First, the Moscow home service. Under normal circumstances, no man in his right mind could listen to All-Union First for any length of time, allowing his brain to be pummeled by its droning political announcements and reports on successful economic plans. But tonight, for some reason, normal programs are not being broadcast. Instead, there is only solemn music and a news bulletin with nothing of note in it. The bulletin is repeated through the evening.

Something is wrong. But what?

By one in the morning he can take it no longer. He turns the tuning dial slowly and carefully. The music is replaced by the crackle and hiss of static. But here and there this becomes the squeaks and buzzes of Soviet jamming transmissions—meaning that he has found a Western station. He turns the dial with extra care, past the spot and then back again, because he knows that there are occasional windows of clarity and he might just find one.

At last he hears what he is seeking—a voice whose tone and delivery suggest a news bulletin. A foreign voice. He does not know what language it is speaking, nor does he have any idea what it is saying, but he stays there, listening for clues, for several minutes. Then he gives up and turns the dial some more.

It is a frustrating process. He can never lose the jamming noise completely. He spends over an hour searching and switching between wavebands. Finally, just as he is about to give up, he picks out a word that he recognizes. Yes, there it is again, behind the buzz and crackle. Not merely a word, but a name. An unmistakable one.

Stalin. Not once, but repeated several times.

But what about Stalin? Obviously he has announced something or done something—but what? Changes in the Praesidium? Another atomic bomb test? It is clear that the foreign broadcasters know something that the Soviet people are not being told—and not for the first time.

Some minutes before three he retunes to All-Union First and lets the doleful orchestral music play while he fortifies himself with a snack of cold meats. Without warning, the music stops. For a moment there is nothing, then bells ring out, as if the station is broadcasting from within a cathedral. The bells cease and the strains of the national anthem emerge. It, too, fades and a somber male voice comes on air.

“The Central Committee of the Communist Party, the Council of Ministers, and the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announce with deep grief to the Party and all workers that on the fifth of March at nine fifty in the evening, Josef Vissarionovich Stalin, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, died after a serious illness.

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