The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte
Author:Steven Conte
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 4th Estate
Published: 2020-07-27T00:00:00+00:00
TWELVE
Helsinki
7 May 1967
Dear Paul,
How extraordinary it was to hear from you, and from such an unexpected source. I had thought you were probably dead. It was last September that Irina Petrovna came to me in Moscow and passed on news of your visit to Yasnaya Polyana. She had to work hard to convince me she had met you and not your ghost. Had I been able to, believe me, I would have written to you straight away, but as I will explain, it is something of a miracle I can write to you at all.
Paul Bauer. How often Iâve thought of you these last â my God! â two and a half decades. Time has mass, donât you find, as well as duration, and those six weeks we knew each other in 1941 are among the most densely experienced of my life. Even before Irinaâs visit not a month would pass without a memory of that time arising in my mind, and since September Iâve thought of it every day. Of course the war was a vivid period for all of us who lived through it, and I suppose itâs only natural that Iâm haunted, as it were, by that brief time under enemy occupation. And yet I sense the same might be true for you â why else, I ask myself, would a West German citizen opt for an Intourist-supervised excursion to the Soviet Union, when presumably the Bahamas was an option, or Finland?
Not that Iâm entirely surprised. Whatever else may have befallen you later in the war, you can have scarcely forgotten the maddening of Julius Metz (how exceedingly strange it is to write that name) or the deaths of your three comrades. (Their names, I regret to say, I no longer recall â so much for my supposedly excellent memory.) Was it to pay your respects that you returned to Yasnaya Polyana? âTo the scene of the crimeâ, I was tempted to write, but that would be inaccurate, wouldnât it, as I recall you behaved rather nobly there, or tried to. Do good Samaritans return to the scenes of their benignities? Perhaps you are like my late husband who once likened his compulsion to revisit Tula, his hometown, which he professed to hate, with a dogâs urge to eat its own vomit â a crude analogy, I know, but one I canât help remembering when, under the cover of professional obligation, I sometimes go back to Yasnaya Polyana.
So how did the estate seem to you after such a long absence? Essentially unchanged, I hope, if I did my job properly when you and your comrades left, though visiting in summer is a different proposition from staying in winter, as you are in a position to know better than most. Irina confessed she didnât recognise you, even after you introduced yourself, so I presume that, like me, you are not unchanged. Distinguished looking, is how she described you, which if I remember correctly you were already on the way to becoming in 1941.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
What's Done in Darkness by Kayla Perrin(25465)
Shot Through the Heart: DI Grace Fisher 2 by Isabelle Grey(18189)
Shot Through the Heart by Mercy Celeste(18136)
The Fifty Shades Trilogy & Grey by E L James(17742)
The 3rd Cycle of the Betrayed Series Collection: Extremely Controversial Historical Thrillers (Betrayed Series Boxed set) by McCray Carolyn(13157)
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson(12858)
Scorched Earth by Nick Kyme(11801)
Stepbrother Stories 2 - 21 Taboo Story Collection (Brother Sister Stepbrother Stepsister Taboo Pseudo Incest Family Virgin Creampie Pregnant Forced Pregnancy Breeding) by Roxi Harding(10924)
Drei Generationen auf dem Jakobsweg by Stein Pia(10192)
Suna by Ziefle Pia(10164)
Scythe by Neal Shusterman(9227)
International Relations from the Global South; Worlds of Difference; First Edition by Arlene B. Tickner & Karen Smith(8566)
Successful Proposal Strategies for Small Businesses: Using Knowledge Management ot Win Govenment, Private Sector, and International Contracts 3rd Edition by Robert Frey(8384)
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay(7632)
Dirty Filthy Fix: A Fixed Trilogy Novella by Laurelin Paige(6423)
He Loves Me...KNOT by RC Boldt(5768)
How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired by Dany LaFerrière(5334)
Interdimensional Brothel by F4U(5270)
Thankful For Her by Alexa Riley(5126)