And when communism fell in that part of the world did the CCCP dissolve or was it Russia? What then of the USSR? It can all be very confusing. One thing that is not confusing, no matter what name it goes by, is that the territory is immense and they have little trust in the United States.
Stretching from the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean in the north, to the Pacific Ocean on one side and Europe on the other, it is immense. It is difficult to grasp the enormity of this closed society country. Today there are fifteen independent republics and Russia is struggling to build a democratic political system and foster a market driven economy. But not everything has changed in Russia. Various areas still harbor ill feelings about the role that America played in the demise of Communism.
~~
Major General Yegor Nikitin was becoming complacent. It seemed that his future promotion was slipping away. The few civil conflicts were not of sufficient importance to thrust him into the limelight enough to do his career any good. At his age, it seemed no longer possible that one day he would be the Marshall of the Soviet Union. Three grades still stood between him and that lofty goal. It wasn’t because of his military abilities but his lack of political skills. He was far too blunt and would always share his true feelings. In the rarified air he wanted to operate in, it was practically a guarantee that he would never reach the top position.
Yegor knew his latest assignment was nothing more than a way to pigeonhole him, effectively ending any chance of advancement. Colonel General Aleksei Petrov had as much as told him that when he was given the assignment.
“Yegor you are being assigned to the Military District in Sverdlovsk,” the General said, shoving a packet of papers across his desk.
“The Sverdlovsk Military District? I don’t understand. Has my work not been sufficient here?”
The General pushed the packet a little closer to Yegor with the tip of his finger like it was something he didn’t want to touch ever again.
“General?”
“Yegor, it was not my decision.”
“But…”
“Yegor, let it go. Nothing is going to change the decision. Besides you don’t really want to know the reason. It is not something that any military man likes to hear.”
“General. I have been with you for three years. I always want to hear what you say,” Yegor insisted.
“Yes, Yegor, that is true but you don’t really listen. You speak without ever thinking about the consequences of your words.”
“Sir, I am obliged to give my honest opinion when asked, am I not? Isn’t that what a good military officer should do?”
“To a point, Yegor, to a point. It is always wise to think about who is asking the question as well as what was asked.”
“This has to do with Army General Andreev’s last plans for the North Sea war games doesn’t it?”
The Colonel General just spread his arms and shrugged.
“But it was a horrible plan. It was ill conceived and would have never have worked.”
“And you felt obligated to tell him that.”
“Sir. I felt it was my duty to point out the mistakes.”
“In front of others.”
“But, I wasn’t criticizing the Army General. I was talking about the plan.”
“Yegor, it was his plan. When you criticized the plan you criticized the Army General as well, as far as he was concerned. It was a foolish and dangerous mistake.”
“But Colonel General, can’t you do something about it? Isn’t there anything you can do to help Andreev understand I did not mean it as a personal affront?”
“No Yegor. Even if I could, I would not. Andreev is not a person I want to have as an enemy. He is only one step away from being the Marshall General of the Soviet Union and I am not going to go down that road. I am sorry for you Major General Nikitin but these are your orders. Good luck to you,” he said as a way of dismissing Yegor.
He did not stand or offer his hand so Yegor picked up the packet and walked out of the room.
“The fool,” Colonel General Petrov said after he closed the door.
~~
“We are going where?” his wife demanded.
“I told you. My new orders are to Sverdlovsk. We have two weeks before I have to report.”
“What is wrong with you? We can’t just pack up and go off to this...whatever it is called.”
“We can and we will. I do not intend to argue with you over this. Those are my orders and I will report in two weeks’ time,” he said, slamming his glass down on the table.
They barely spoke the rest of the week as they started packing for the move. The day before the military movers were to come and pick up their few household goods, his wife Larisa announced that she and the two boys were going to stay with her mother in Lyuberstsy, a suburb of Moscow.
“That is crazy talk. I will not have you going home to your mother. We have been married twenty-three years and you will come with me,” he demanded.
“No Yegor, I will not. Not this time. You gave me your word that when we finally got back to Moscow we would never have to leave again. You promised and I am holding you to that,” she said.
“This is out of my hands. Can you not see that? I cannot refuse to go where I am ordered.”
“Then resign. That’s what they want you to do. Tell them no and walk away from this posting.”
“I am a military man. It is all I know,” Yegor said.
“Then learn how to do something else. You are smart. You can do anything you want. Please Yegor, I do not want to go home either but I will not go to that God forsaken area of the country. I looked it up at the library. It is nothing more than a hole. Why in the world do they need someone of your rank in a place like that?”
“I cannot tell you that but there is a reason. They do have a valid reason.”
“A Major General to watch over a base that has no more than three hundred men? It must be really important. Do you know who is in command now?”
Yegor didn’t answer.
“A stinking Captain. Four pay grades lower than you. Not even a Colonel but a Captain. Now you are going to go there? Don’t you see what is going on here?”
Yegor lowered his head and said in a low voice, “Yes. I see. I know what this means but Larisa it is what I do. I obey orders.”
“Then you obey them if you feel you must but I am not going. Not this time Yegor.”
~~
Yegor kissed his two boys and hugged his wife for a long time.
“You are sure?”
“Not this time Yegor. When you are ready to come home, I will be waiting for you. You know where to find us. Please think about this Yegor. I do not want us to be apart but I will not go to that place.”
“I understand. I don’t like it but I do understand. I will let you know how to reach me once I am settled in.”
“We will be at mama’s starting the day after tomorrow.”
“I will see you soon. I love you Larisa.”
“I love you too Yegor,” she said with a tear rolling down her cheek. He kissed it and then he was gone.
“Will we see papa again?”
“Yes darling. Your papa will be seeing us soon. He promised.”
“I miss him already,” the boy said.
“So do I,” Larisa said closing the door.
Yegor almost just said the hell with it and decided to resign but it was always the same thing. He was a military man and he would always do what he thought best for the Motherland. He would go to this godforsaken place, as Larisa called it, and if he hated it he would resign and go back home to his family.
~~
Yegor slept through most of the flight and did not awake until he heard the landing gear and flaps being lowered. He looked out the window and saw that the ground was covered with snow. It was just what he had expected. The sky was overcast and obviously more snow was on the way.
The plane made a bumpy landing and Yegor waited until the few other passengers disemb
arked. He gathered up his briefcase and went down the steps.
“It was a pleasure to have you fly with us Major General,” the pilot said.
“Thank you,” Yegor said.
Like he had any other choice? This was the only flight that came to this isolated place. He looked around as he started toward what served as the terminal. It was nothing more than a shabby looking building.
Yegor spotted a young man with black shoulder boards and two gold stripes on them. My God he thought, they sent a Junior Sargent to pick me up. The young man was standing next to a 1989 Gaza-24 Volga painted olive green. Yegor could only shake his head in disbelief. Not even a 3110 Volga but the old Gaza-24.
“Sir, Captain Mihailvo sends his regrets that he could not come himself to meet you. He had an important meeting and could not get away.”
“An important meeting? Does the Captain have many important meetings here?”
“Sir?”
“Does he often have these very important meetings?”
“I don’t know sir. I was just told to pick you and your family up.”
“They will be joining me later. I wanted to get here as quickly as possible to see what was so important that the Captain couldn’t meet me himself.”
The Major General stood waiting and finally the Sargent opened the door for him. What have I gotten myself into, Yegor thought?
The ride was longer than expected and Yegor had wished he had gone to the restroom first. Finally they drove through a gate that was standing open. A guardhouse was there but no one was in it. The Sargent stopped the car and rushed to open the door this time.
“Where is this important meeting taking place?” Yegor asked.
“Uh, I’m not sure sir, but Lieutenant Sidorvo is inside,” he said pointing to a large building that looked like it hadn’t been painted in twenty years.
The windows were caked with years of rain, snow and filth. Snow was falling lightly as he made his way up the stairs and into the building. There was a desk just inside the front door but as with the guardhouse, no one was at it.
A sign said Сигн ин. Sign in. Yegor picked up the book and placed it under his arm and walked down the hall. He could hear someone talking on the phone so he walked down the hall following the sound and went inside an office.
A man sitting with his back to him had on a wrinkled uniform and shoulder boards with a single star. The plaque on the desk said Junior Lieutenant Sidorvo. Yegor hit the Lieutenant in the back of the head with the log book.
“What the hell,” he said spinning around.
He stopped and slammed down the phone and jumped to his feet.
“Major Gen…”
“You are Junior Lieutenant Sidorvo are you not?”
“Yes Major General.”
“And this is the operations center is it not?”
“Yes General.”
“And Junior Lieutenant, we have strict procedures about how the operations center is to be run do we not?”
“Sir, I..”
“Shut up. Lieutenant, you have exactly five minutes to get the commanding officer here and all of the staff down to Master Sargent. I want them in this building, not in fifteen minutes, not in ten minutes, but five minutes. Do you understand Lieutenant Sidorvo? If they are not here, I will shoot any son of a bitch that comes in late.”
“Sir…”
“Five minutes from….now,” he said looking at his watch.
The Lieutenant bolted from the room screaming at the top of his lungs. Soon a mad scramble was taking place in the hall and Yegor smiled to himself. He could hear the clamoring of men yelling and running.
He heard one man said, “I don’t know where he is. I think he went to see his mistress.”
“Then get his ass here now,” came Lieutenant Sidorvo’s frantic voice.
His mistress? Was he talking about the Captain, Yegor wondered? The noise started to die down and finally with thirty seconds to spare the Lieutenant stuck his head in the door and said, “Sir, we are ready.”
“Excellent,” Yegor said, making a show of looking at his watch.
Sidorvo escorted the General to a large room where all the men were standing at attention. Yegor slowly walked down the first row of men and then down each successive row. He looked each man up and down and then square in the eye before moving on to the next one in line. They could feel his eyes burning into each of them. His expression never changed. When he was done he walked to the front of the room.
“I am Major General Nikitin. I will be your commanding officer.”
He paused for several seconds.
“From what I have seen so far, I’m considering having the entire garrison transferred to the Nikiski Ice Station in the Arctic. This is without a doubt the sorriest military post I have ever seen in my twenty-five years in the military.”
He again paused for several seconds, looking up and down the rows.
“From this very second…”
The door to the room crashed open and a man in a Captain’s uniform came rushing in.
“Major General I am Cap…”
“I know who you are Captain Mihailvo. Did they not tell you that I wanted everyone here in five minutes?”
“Yes sir, but I was in a meeting and couldn’t get away,” he said.
“Where was this meeting?”
“Sir?”
“I’ll speak more slowly. Where...was...this...meeting? Did you get that Captain?”
“Yes sir. It was in town.”
“You hold important meetings off base? In town?”
“This one, yes sir,” he said.
“Then Captain you will be relieved to know that you will no longer have to attend such demanding meetings from now on,” Yegor said.
Yegor drew out his pistol and shot the Captain in the leg. He screamed and went down in a ball. Some of the men started to move but Yegor turned to face them, his weapon still drawn.
“Lieutenant Sidorvo, I believe I said I would shoot any son of a bitch that was late did I not?”
“Yes General.”
“And do I not look like a man of my word?”
“Yes sir, you do.”
The Captain was writhing in pain and a pool of blood was spreading across the floor. Yegor looked down at the Captain and then back at the men.
“Gentlemen, when I tell you to do something I expect it to be done. Excuses are something I really can’t stand. On the other hand, when I give you my word on something you can be assured I will do as I say. From this day on, this is a military base. It will be guarded twenty-four hours a day and it will follow military regulations. Every one of you will get a haircut by sixteen hundred hours tomorrow and your uniforms will be pressed and clean. So we have no misunderstanding, I am giving you my word that anyone who comes up with a reason why they can’t comply will have guard duty for the next thirty days. Lieutenant, do I keep my word?”
“Yes sir. Without a doubt.”
“Good. Now get the good Captain over to the medical facility.
“Major General,” a short man with Senior Warrant Officer’s bars on his uniform said.
“Yes?”
“May I go along? I am the medical officer.”
“By all means. And for the rest of you. Tomorrow morning starting at 06:30 I want a status report on my desk. I will then meet with each one of you over the next few days. No one,” he said, stopping to look around at them, “Is to leave the base until I am satisfied that this is a military operation once again. If you do...” he didn’t finish the sentence.
He looked at them for a few more seconds and waited until the Captain was taken to the medical office.
Finally he said, “You are dismissed and someone clean up this mess,” as he turned to leave.
What Yegor had not told his wife was that at this remote facility, stuck in the middle of no place was an underground missile launch base. It was one of twenty that only a handful of people knew existed. The Americans had no knowledge of
this or any of the others.
What Yegor could not understand was why they had let it deteriorate to such a pitiful state. The Captain was totally worthless. He should be taken out and shot. Yegor chuckled. In a way that is exactly what had just happened.
His wife was right though, a place like this did not require a Major General. Any properly trained Captain could do this job. But now that he was here, he needed to find out the operational readiness of the system. What was the condition of the system and how long would it take these poorly trained men to get ready in case a strike was ordered.
He walked across the snow covered grounds to where a sign said: Четверти Командующих. Commander’s Quarters. When he got inside he was pleasantly surprised to find his clothes had been hung in the closet and his personal gear placed in the bathroom. Obviously they were going to take him seriously. And it had only cost the military one bullet. That seemed like a reasonable price, So far.
CHAPTER EIGHT
RUSSIA
It was snowing heavily as Yegor walked across the compound. He hurried up the steps to the operations building. Sitting at the desk was the Junior Sergeant; he stood up quickly and saluted when the General came in.
“Ah, very good,” Yegor said, returning the salute. “You are Sargeant Gurov are you not?”
“Yes sir, Major General,” he managed to say, wondering how he could possibly know who he was.
Yegor just nodded and walked back to his office. Sitting on a bench outside of the door was Lieutenant Sidorvo. His Great Coat was hanging on the hook and a pool of water had gathered under it. He had been waiting for some time, Yegor noted.
“Sir,” he said, jumping to attention and saluting.
Yegor returned the salute, opened the door to the office and went inside. The room was sparse. A metal desk was placed in the center of the room and two wooden chairs faced the desk. The desk was cluttered with papers, personal effects, and empty glasses.
On the window ledge was a bottle of Vodka. On the wall hung a year old calendar and a crooked picture of Vladimir Putin. Yegor threw the outdated calendar in the trashcan. A radiator hissed but it was not giving off much heat.
THE BEGINNING Book Two (THE EVENT) Page 6