Who likes having his actions and beliefs represented by a religious object and have it presented to him while he’s in public? After all, Commies don’t like Christianity.
[ Excerpt: “No Novosti is Good News” ]
“ls it any different now?”
“Well, in a way, yes. You may get it at your Novosti briefing soon — the new policy line.’
“Relaxation of international tensions? Rapprochement?”
“Not only that. The latest key-word is ‘detente.’ “
“Big, big men will dance to our music. You’ll see. Men like Willy Brandt, Nixon, Ed Kennedy, Pompidou, that Canadian Pidar Trudeau ... to say nothing about small shit like liberal university professors, media people, actors, lawyers, businessmen, and of course, students,”
“Igor.” said I. pretending to be more drunk than I was. “…don’t you think it stinks?”’
“The ethical side of the work, Yuri Alexandre vicru may give you some trouble and often bring up the question “to be or not to’ be” with our Committee. Remember though, that any respectable world power, and we are, must have its intelligence service, and in any political system these services use methods which are, mildly speaking, less than kosher. “
“Could you be more specific about my work, please.”
“Yes. We want you, for the start, to screen the yoxtngchemnzhopye, including the Lumumba lot, and using your Novosti cover and your discretion, select those who are fit for further training in our centers for leaders of the national liberation forces.’
“Why me? Don’t you have enough of your men within Lumumba already?”
“We want your opinion on them from a specific angle. As a journalist and propaganda specialist we want you to assess their ability to be ideologically effective.”
“Well, most of them were sounded ideologically, as I understand, before entering Lumumba. Would you like me to select further the most dedicated marxists?”
“No...just the opposite. We need people who can innocently say white is black and make others believe it. We do not need ‘true believers’: they turn into the worst enemies if and when disillusioned. We want ideological workers, motivated by simple, permanent and reliable instincts: the desire for power and the ability to survive. Plus an ability to use ideological propaganda techniques, the wav you do within Novosti. This is one of the most important factors of our future work in the developing world, according to the latest usianovka of the Central Committee.”
“Yes. I see, “I said, noticing that my glass was empty. “I will think it over and let you know soon.”
“Very well, Yuri Alexandrovich. Please call Sklorov when you are ready, OK?”
It was getting cold or the balcony, so I said good-bye to Igor and walked into the guest room, where the future liberators of the Third World were dancing cheek-to-cheek with KGB girls to blues from the USA. The room smelled of sweat, smoke, alcohol, and proletarian solidarity. I poured myself a stiff vodka and tossed it down my throat, chasing it with a bite of pickle. Nobody paid any attention to me as I slipped out of the apartment and walked into sleeping Moscow. Sleep well, dear Moscow. Me and Igor are vigilantly guarding your security against imperialists.
The next morning I heard on the short-wave about the Soviet invasion into Czechoslovakia, The tearful voice of a Prague radio girl implored the indifferent world: **This is Radio Prague. Brotherly radio stations in Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary! Please tell the world about our tragedy. Please help us to reach people in brotherly socialist countries , . , This is our last broadcast , . . The Soviet tanks open fire at the windows of our radio station . . . Long live Dubcek I. Long live socialism! Long live Czechoslovakia!**
Four days later, a Novosti colleague introduced his girl-friend Galya, just returned from Prague on a Soviet personnel carrier. She was shaking, weeping, describing the night of the invasion. And the shame she felt, as a teaching of Russian in Prague University, when her students walked out of her class on the morning after the invasion.
Repressed rage overtook me. What can a small man like myself do to stop this madness? Burn myself in protest in the Red Square? Blow up the Kremlin’. “Hopeless. This world, as my Indian friend would say, is going progressively mad.”
By the end of the day a decision crystal: I shall take the new KGB job. I shall remember every blackassed son-of-a-bltch personally, take their picture, if possible, and after defection to the West, I shall tell the world who are the cadres of the “black majority” and “liberators of peoples”! And what these whores were doing in my country, apart from screwing the KGB lamochki.