Susan Viets - Picnic at the Iron Curtain

Thanks for friendship, shared adventures and help with the manuscript to Anna, Charlotte, James, Katya, New York Marta, Roma, Sallie, Stephen, Toronto Marta and Yaroslav. Helga, Sabine and Ute (all pseudonyms), you will recognize yourselves if you read this book. I hope that we will meet again some day.

I am lucky to have caring relatives and friends who did so much for me after my cycling accident. Thank you to Rachel Morgan, Anne and John Morse Jones, Martin Morse Jones, Eirian and John James, and to my late cousin Alyson James, whose kindness I will always remember. Thanks also to Jennifer Cowell and Dr. Jean Staffurth, as well as to the wonderful doctors and nurses on the University College Hospital orthopaedics ward. Jonathan Cohen, Charles Erin, Sabina McGarrahan, Michelle Oakes and Celia Russell were all good friends in London.

For giving me a start in journalism, I am grateful to Nick Thorpe, Valerie Carter, George Schöpflin, the Guardian foreign desk, and especially Steve Crawshaw at the Independent , whose support was essential for moving to Soviet Ukraine. Thank you to Liz Robson and David Morton at the BBC for returning me to London and to Leonard Doyle at the Independent on Sunday , who welcomed me back in 2004 after such a long absence, to cover the Orange Revolution.

In Budapest, I lived through exciting times and shared good memories with many people, including Ernest Beck, Nick Denton, Laszlo Egyed, Peter Futo, Ildiko Kemeny, Michael Kuttner, Jutka Szombat, the Simaly and Vertesy families, Gabor Xantos and Zoltan Zarandy.

The same is true in Ukraine for Volodya Ariyev, Marta Baziuk, Luda Beletskaia, Greta Bull, Natalka Feduschak, Chrystia Freeland, Marga Hewko, Yurko Holianych, Matthew Kaminski, Chrystia Lapychak, Irene Marushko, Lida Poletz, Bob Seely, Sasha Stetsenko, Slava and Tanya, Alex Shprintsen, Oleksander Tkachenko, Constance Uzwhyshyn and Mykola Veresen.

Karen Connelly launched me on the way to this book when she reviewed a chapter as writer-in-residence at the Toronto Reference Library. She also introduced me to Kelly Dignan, a very talented editor.

Picnic at the Iron Curtain is almost as much Kelly’s as mine. Her insightful comments helped so much in shaping it. My sister, Deborah Viets, was equally skilled in finessing sentences and catching errors, but I owe more to her than this. I have always respected her judgment the most. She gave me the confidence to persevere when she read a chapter and liked it.

My family has helped in so many other ways. My parents always encouraged me to take risks and explore. I am even more grateful for this in retrospect than I was during all those years away from Canada. I realize now they let me go when many other parents might have held their children back. When I did return to Canada for visits, my brother, Mark, met me at the airport. Once I saw his face at the arrivals gate, I felt that I had truly arrived home.

I remember with warmth and love my late mother-in-law, Sakina Mitta, who read and commented on many chapters and was a wonderful, wise companion and a role model for aging. Finally, to my husband, Aamer, thank you for all your help along the way and even more for the happiness that has made life at home so good and writing this book so much fun.

Bennett, Will. “Blood-feud tradition claims innocent life.” Independent , May 2, 1994.

Bowcott, Owen and David Pallister. “Caucasus feud spills into Surrey.” Guardian , May 2, 1994.

Burrell, Ian. “Chechen’s justice hits Willow Way — Killing in Woking.” Sunday Times , May 8, 1994.

Guardian , “‘The idea was to put me as a victim,’ he said before he killed himself — Chechenia murder,” October 22, 1993.

Hanley, Charles J. “On warlords’ wish list: 22 pounds of shoulder-fired lightning.” Associated Press, November 20, 1993.

Hanley, Charles J. “The quest for the Stinger. It’s a ‘nightmare weapon’ if it gets into the hands of drug dealers, terrorists. CIA trying to buy back missiles shipped to Afghanistan guerillas.” Associated Press, February 13, 1994.

MacKinnon, Ian. “Professional hitman blamed for murder.” Independent , May 2, 1994.

Reuters News, “Armenian jailed for life for political killings,” October 21, 1993.

Reuters News, “Court told Armenian KGB ordered Russians’ murder,” October 18, 1993.

Tendler, Stewart. “Suburban murder trail leads back to KGB assassinations.” Times , May 2, 1994.

Thompson, Tony. “Russian gangsters target UK.” Observer , February 11, 2001.

Times , “Prisoner questioned — murder of Karen Reed,” May 4, 1994.

Weale, Sally. “Russian pair ‘executed in penthouse.’” Guardian , October 14, 1993.

Susan Viets reported for the Guardian , the Independent and BBC World. She has also contributed to CBC, Newsweek, USA Today , the Moscow Times and other publications. She lives with her husband in Toronto.

Copyright © 2012 Susan Viets

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 0987966405

ISBN 13: 978-0-9879664-0-7

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9879664-2-1

Cover design: Cai Sepulis

Map graphic: Haley Anderson