Mark Blair: Stroika

‘ Pronto ,’ it was a woman who answered.

‘Ilaria, please will you tell these gentlemen, in Russian, what you have on your desk and where you are.’

‘Milan, General… I have four black-and-white photos on my desk – two men by an embankment.’

‘Can you tell me, the man wearing the hat, what has he on his face?’

‘Glasses, General… dark-rimmed glasses.’

‘And the negatives of these photos, where are they now?’

‘With a friend, who will release them to the international press if your general secretary is not freed by tomorrow morning or any harm should come to you, General, or in fact me or my associates.’

Yuri picked up the receiver and dropped it back in its cradle, ending the call.

‘Comrades, do you wish to be associated with this traitor? If these photos are released, the Russian people will know soon enough that a key member of the interim government sold his country to further his career and even now may be supplying key information to the Americans. Maybe this whole coup – and that’s what it is – is an American invention to bring Russia to its knees, to banish it for ever?’

For the first time, Yuri could see fear mixed with doubt on their faces.

‘Don’t think you are overreaching, General?’ said Gerashchenko.

‘I tell you, Comrade Gerashchenko, if we launch this repression, it will be the end, economically and politically – you will all be branded traitors by the people.’

Yuri looked again at Karzhov, who had turned as white as a sheet.

‘Release the general secretary and we have a reset. I will do my best to intercede on your behalf; it cannot be in the general secretary’s interests to advertise such dissension at the heart of his government – not in the middle of a crisis. That does not go for Karzhov; he is to be arrested for treason.’

They were staring at him now like rabbits caught in a headlight.

‘And two other matters… you will release General Ghukov immediately and until such time as he is back at GSHQ I am to be made acting head of the army. General Volkov is to be relieved.’

Volkov looked across at Gerashchenko, his face filled with fury at the prospect of an end to his ambitions. ‘Gerasim, we can face this down, we can’t pull back now.’

‘You can… that’s the point… you simply have to give the order,’ interjected Yuri. ‘Deputy Secretary, I suggest you speak with the general secretary yourself, in person, before he goes on the air waves. Make your peace.’

Yuri walked back along the length of the room and opened the double doors. Two soldiers appeared.

‘Arrest Chairman Karzhov.’

The soldiers looked from Yuri to Gerashchenko, confused.

‘Do as he says,’ said Gerashchenko, capitulating. Gerashchenko switched on the intercom to the outer office.

‘Anna, organise me an escort to Peredelkino. Comrades, if you wish to join me, please do. General Marov, I am appointing you acting head of the army. I emphasise acting .’

Yuri thought Volkov would charge at him. Instead, he sat down in his chair and stared out of the window. Volkov turned and faced him.

‘General Marov, I admire your courage, but it will be you not me that will ring the death knell of the Soviet Union.’

‘No, General, you’re wrong… time… and people like Karzhov.’

Yuri turned to the soldier standing beside him.

‘Soldier, order me a car for GSHQ.’

On October 18, the East German Communist Party, bowing to mounting clamour for change, replaced Erich Honecker with his protégé Egon Krenz. The new East German General Secretary, in a TV address to the nation, said that within the bounds of “continuity and renewal” the door was “wide open for earnest political dialogue.” He also quoted Mikhail S. Gorbachev: “We have to see and react to the times, otherwise life will punish us.”

A month later, the Berlin Wall fell, and with it, the East German Communist government.

Adriana – Nightclub girl

Agnessa Raskolnikova Agapova – General

Alyabyev – Commander, Central

Ilaria Agneli – Italian model and buyer

Dimitri Bazhukov – Konstantin’s second

Lieutenant Galina Biryukova – Volkov’s adjutant

Luigi Crisi – Italian sales director

Yev Derevenko – Captain in the military air force

Viktor Dubnikov – Defence Minister

Stephan Federov – Minister of Oil and Gas

Major Sergei Gaidar – Commander of a private force

Gerasim Gerashchenko – Deputy Secretary General

Colonel General Andrei Ghukov – Chief of Staff

Erik Fyodorvich Harkov – Sveta’s killer

Karzhov – KGB Chair

Viktoriya (Vika) Nikolaevna Kayakova – Economics graduate

Yuri Romanavich Marov – Colonel

Ivan Antonovich Pralnikov – Mikhail’s friend

Mikhail (Misha) Dimitrivich Revnik – Street trader

Konstantin (Kostya) Ivanivich Stolin – Mafia boss

Lev – Konstantin’s debt collector

Najibullah – Afghan leader

Ilya Terentev – KGB Colonel

Grigory Vasiliev – Banker

General Vdovin – Commander, North West

General Volkov – Commander, Western Group of Forces

I would like to thank Ann Byrne, and Glen Saunders for being my first readers, for their ongoing support and advice, Juliet Gwyn Palmer for bravely volunteering her professional help, Richard Sheehan for remembering all those commas and much more, and Yulia Sofronova, for being authentically Russian.

Copyright © 2016 Mark Blair

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Matador®

9 Priory Business Park,

Wistow Road, Kibworth Beauchamp,

Leicestershire. LE8 0RX

Tel: 0116 279 2299

Email: books@troubador.co.uk

Web: www.troubador.co.uk/matador

Twitter: @matadorbooks

ISBN 9781785898013

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador® is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd