{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6618", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 6618, "subject": "Short Story 90: The Peace Spy", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2014-08-12T21:07:50+00:00", "last": "2014-08-12T21:07:50+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-08-12T21:07:50+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 90: The Peace Spy", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "“The Peace Spy” first appeared in *Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine*\nin 1986 and is reprinted in *Endangered Species*.\n\nSUMMARY: Sonja Aralov invites “Charles C. Percival” into her apartment,\nbelieving him to be an American who will help her return to the Soviet\nUnion. However, his real name is Krasilnikov, and after some small talk\nabout her furniture and the other Russians living in the United States as\npart of the guest exchange, Krasilnikov thinks that she does not know as\nmuch as she believes.\n\nKrasilnikov says he has no intention of bringing her complaint to court\nwhere it could be stalled for perhaps five years, and insists that his\nmethods will get her to return within five months. He identifies her father\nas the Minister of Marine, the equivalent of the Secretary of the Navy, and\nshe goes to give him a check. He refrains from checking for American\nlistening devices.\n\nHe asks about her father, and she replies that it was strange and terrible\nand her eyes fill with tears, at which point “he felt something he had\nthought dead since childhood move inside him.” She describes how the\nPresident’s son, a dancer, was visiting Moscow and decided to stay as\n“security against nuclear attack — just after [the Soviet Union’s] Party\nSecretary had said *we* would never fire the first missile.”\n\nOthers came, and soon the children of influential Russians decided to come\nto the United States as security as well. “She threw back her hair, her yes\ngleaming, and he thrilled as if to the call of a trumpet. ?Oh, they tried\nto stop us, but they could not send us to the gulag — they had to let us\ngo, and they did.”\n\nHowever, she now wants to go back, because there is fighting in the east,\nand she feels she could do something, like become a nurse or even fight. Then\nher real reason for wanting to leave comes out: “I am so lonely here.”\n\nHe says there are other Russians there, and that it seems her father\ndoesn’t want to see her. He sent money until she said she was returning,\nthen she heard nothing more.\n\nHere, “his hand touched hers. ?Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps\nyour father doesn’t really want you to return to Russian” “How do you know\nhe’s not secretly proud of you?”\n\nShe says he doesn’t understand her country and Russian families, and\nKrasilnikov thinks, “He should have been proud, and he told himself to be\nproud but the thing that had awakened was weeping in his chest.” Here he\nclaims to be proud of the President’s son, maintaining the ruse that he is\nAmerican.\n\nHe offers to return her check, and says that if she still wants to return\nhome they will see a lot of each other. She burned her passport when she\narrived and reveals that her real resentment is building towards the\nAmerican government of putting every possible obstacle in her path.\n\nHe suggest that things must be done his way if she wants help and that she\nshould get a green card and finds work to “pay the rent on this apartment\nand maybe some legal fees.”\n\nHe tells her she is wearing a beautiful dress, which flatters her, and then\ntells her not to wear it to find real work, then suggests that she tries\nmodeling, perhaps only having to lose ten pounds (“Not for a man — but for\na modeling agency, maybe. We’ll let Madame Deppe decide.”)\n\nShe agrees to go meet his Madame and attain a green card, and the phone\nrings. When he answers the phone at her request, a man says they are\nsending the actor Ipatiev to “hold her” and he thinks “Unless he goes to\nHollywood.” When Sonja returns, he says the call was intended for him.\nNoticing the Time subscription, he thinks it a valid way to trace every\nagent, and looks at the current issue to see stories of the Chinese in\nKazakhstan and the Red Army stopped before Paris. He thinks, “Better than\nwhen we were all so afraid, though at least we had peace.”\n\nCOMMENTARY:\n\nThe political message of the story is actually fairly deep: now that there\nare hostages in the two countries against the threat of nuclear war, the\nnations have nothing to fear — and is revealed in the final line, without\nthat fear, even though it really hasn’t been mentioned explicitly, the\nworld is now at war, with the Russians actually marching towards France. For\nthe majority of the story, it seemed as if the world were now at peace\nthanks to this bold and self-sacrificing move, but it served to prevent\nonly the threat of total annihilation and not war.\n\nKrasilnikov’s motives are equally murky — even though he seems to be\nworking to get her “out” of the United States in his American persona,\nworking against the wishes of America, he drops enough hints and flatters\nher enough to suggest she creates roots there in seeking a green card and\nemployment . Indeed, his flirtation and compliments create a kind of\nhopeful link for their future meetings, manipulating her away from her view\nthat her presence there is useless and lonely.\n\nThe motives of the United States and the Soviet Union are actually\nmarginally altruistic at first glance in this story — they want to avoid\nthe final nuclear war at all cost, so they keep “voluntary” hostages of the\nother side, something which seemed fine to the main character, Sonja, until\nloneliness and another purpose enter her mind. The United States is\nreluctant to let her leave, and she willingly destroyed her passport on\narrival. However, since the Secretary of the Navy has stopped sending\nmoney to his daughter, and there is war blossoming, it seems that the\nnations simply want war without the threat of mutual assured destruction." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From the title, “The Peace Spy”, we can assume that Krasilnikov is actually\nworking to keep Sonja in the country, though there are so many ambiguities\ninvolved in his assignment that his position is very hard to determine\nexactly. His flattery seems to distract her very effectively. The United\nStates hopes to get her to stay by bringing over a famous Russian actor and\npossibly fostering a relationship, but Krasilnikov knows this will be\nthwarted by the actor’s Hollywood ambitions — why would he stay with her in\nNew York? On a first reading it almost seems that Krasilnikov would\nactually cause Ipatiev to go to Hollywood and never meet Sonja, but I think\nthis is a misreading — he simply knows that the actor will have further\nambitions leading him away from her. Krasilnikov’s other hints (that she\nneeds to find work, taking all the money that she has, and planting the\nidea that her father is proud of her and does not want her to return\ndespite his earlier angry letters) seem designed to keep her in the United\nStates. In the final analysis, if he is actually a spy who desires peace,\nhe would help her go. However, since he says that the situation they have\nis “better” than when they were afraid, it is clear that his motivation is\nto keep the system exactly like it is: hostages against ultimate nuclear\ndestruction while war blossoms in the world." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "NAMES:\n\nThe Russian names mentioned in passing as hostages (or “guests”) are by and\nlarge those of military heroes or important political figures in Russia\nduring Lenin’s and Trotsky’s time in particular. Symbolically these peace\nloving people have actually allowed war to occur since the ultimate threat\nno longer lingers, and they have become war heroes.\n\nThe most interesting is the name of Madame Deppe, who will decide which\ncareer Sonja should pursue, as the name implies a practical joker or\nprofessional comedian, right after Krasilnikov hints she should be a model.\n\nSonja Aralov: Sonja means “wisdom”, a Russian variant of Sophia, and Aralov\nwas the first head of the Soviet Red Army Intelligence Directorate and\nserved a pivotal role for Lenin against Trotsky form his placement in the\nGRU. Perhaps her wisdom is in recognizing, beyond her loneliness, that the\naltruistic gambit has actually failed, and war resulted anyway.\n\nCharles Percival — Charles can be derived from “warrior” or ?army?, but it\nis also related to Karl, or “free man”. Percival is of course the knight\nof the round table questing for the holy grail with Galahad, in some\nstories failing to answer the questions of the fisher king and heal him in\nothers recovering the grail with Galahad.\n\nKrasilnikov: In *White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian*,\nBisher writes:\n\nIn Omsk, the capital of free Russia, a lackadaisically concealed monarchist\ngang calling itself the Mikhailkovski Hunting and Fishing Society ferreted\nout Socialist-Revolutionary members of the constituent Assembly and sent\nthem to the “Kingdom of the Irtysh”, in other words, murdered them and fed\nthem to the fish. A prominent hunter was Ataman I.N. Krasilnikov, renowned\nfor leading a reluctant Omsk orchestra in “God Save the Tsar” with his\npistol, who orchestrated the kidnapping of Constituent Assemblyman V.N.\nMoiseyeko and presumably presided over the latter’s torture and ritual\ntossing into the Irtysh. — It did not bode well for a government that\nclaimed to be striving to restore law and order. (117)\n\nI believe his name might be related to the concept of beauty, but my\nunderstanding of Russian and the paucity of sources available concerning\nname meanings lead me to latch onto war references rather than the actual\nmeanings of the names.\n\nLebedev means Swan, and there are several military “Heroes of the Soviet\nUnion” of that name.\n\nThe most famous Deniken was a Lieutenant General of the Imperial Russian\nArmy and an important general of the White movement in the Russian Civil\nWar.\n\nMikhalevo is a place name in Russia, and Nina implies “grace”.\n\nIpatiev, the actor who theoretically will keep Sonja there, shares the name\nwith a rather famous building: Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg where the\nformer Emperor Nicholas II of Russia was murdered with his family and\nhousehold.\n\nUNANSWERED QUESTIONS: Does Krasilnikov have more personal motives for\nseeking to work with Sonja, such as fostering a relationship? Sapping her\nfunds and encouraging her to find a flattering career indicate he doesn’t\nreally want her to leave, especially since the deal involves him keeping\nthe retainer whether she is freed from America or not.\n\nHas something terrible happened to Sonja’s father, are his letters and\nmoney being intercepted, or is Krasilnikov’s claims that her father is\nsecretly proud of her true? It seems that Krasilnikov is lying here to\nplant the idea that her father is actually proud of her, but can’t show it,\nso that she will decide to stay. Is her father interested in fostering and\nspreading war as the Secretary of the Navy?\n\nCONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS:\n\nThe central idea here, that children of influential people would be held as\nhostages against aggression, certainly has historical precedent but also\nappears in Wolfe’s most famous series and is the very reason that Thecla is\neven there to meet Severian — the exultants must provide a representative\nof their family in the clutches of the Autarch to assure their compliance\nwith his edicts and commands. Russian names and references may also be\nfound in “Cherry Jubilee”, but Wolfe is far more apt to make German and\nIrish references in his work. The idea that the threat of nuclear war is\nactually beneficial for maintaining the peace does not seem to be found\nextensively in Wolfe, as the fear at the end of “How I Lost the Second\nWorld War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion” saw the threat as\nalmost entirely ominous." } ] } ] }