Читать книгу Stationed For Good ... In Moscow - Vladimir JD McMillin - Страница 5

Galina Dunaeva didn’t grow up in an ordinary Russian family either. At home she was called Galya. Her father, Vasilii, worked in the Soviet secret service organization, which was called at that time the NKVD and would later become famously known as the KGB. He was rarely at home, going on business trips all over Russia. Exactly what he did, nobody knew. He never talked about his work at home even to his wife, who stayed at home taking care of the kids.

Galya had a brother, Vladimir who was two years younger. At a time when almost seventy percent of the Russian population lived in communal flats with kitchen and toilet facilities shared by a number of tenants, Galina’s family lived in a three-bedroom apartment. They weren’t far from downtown Moscow near a beautiful park and very close to a notorious Moscow prison Motroskay Tishina, which means “quiet navy area” in Russian. Nobody knew where the name came from but it wasn’t a very quiet area, especially in the 1930s when hundreds of political prisoners disappeared inside its walls. But Galina and her brother Vladimir didn’t pay much attention to the prison; the big park attracted all their attention. Both of them liked sports. In the winter Galya spent all her free time skating on the ice rink while Vladimir played soccer. Every day he and his buddies got together and played for several hours. They didn’t care if it was raining or snowing—after school they were on the field.

Galina’s dad, as a high-ranking officer, had an opportunity to rent a little cabin not far from Moscow where he and his family stayed during the summer break from school. Both Galina and Vladimir were very energetic, couldn’t sit in one place longer than one minute. They often hiked in the nearby areas and enjoyed the extended stays during summer break from school each year. One day when she was twelve years old, Galina, her brother and several of their friends were hiking in the forest near their cabin and found an abandoned house. Galina went up to a window to look inside. Suddenly she slipped, her head hit the window, and the glass broke. One shard of broken glass pierced deep into her neck. A fountain of blood gushed forth like a geyser and she fainted. Vladimir was nearly scared to death and ran as quickly as he could back to the cabin. Thank God their father was there, and he rushed Galina to a hospital. Doctors thought it was a miracle that she was still alive. She spent several weeks in the hospital, and went home with a dark scar on the right side of her neck that would be a visible reminder of the incident the rest of her life.

As was usual in the wintertime she spent a lot of time in the park on the skating rink. Despite the scar on her neck, Galya was a very attractive girl who was always surrounded by a group of boys. She didn’t escape the notice of a handsome young man, Nikolai, and they skated together often. She fell in love with him and they became sweethearts.

As she was only sixteen and still a little girl at heart, she still believed in fairy tales. She was sure she had met her prince charming. On one date he invited her to his home. “My parents won’t be back for three hours,” he said to Galina. “We can have so much fun together alone.”

With excitement and yet with some fear, Galina agreed. Alone and free to explore, they began with kissing, but with three hours and no intervention, they did not stop there. Sex was awkward but it did happen, for the first time in their lives. Two months later Galina realized that she was pregnant.

“What do you think we should do?” Galina asked Nikolai when she broke the news to him.

For Nikolai, this was an unexpected turn of events—and not welcome news. “We must do something about it,” he told her. “I don’t know what, but something needs to be done. I cannot tell my parents that soon I will be a father. They’ll kill me.”

Galina told Nikolai that she had given the matter much thought and wanted to have the baby.

Stunned, Nikolai couldn’t give her an answer. The seventeen-year-old boy realized he had made a big mistake. “We shouldn’t see each other anymore,” he finally said.

His response was a real blow to Galina. She needed support from the person she loved, and he betrayed her. Without another word to him, she turned away and went home. Galina decided she didn’t want to see him again.

She didn’t know what to do and was scared to tell her parents about her situation. She was afraid her parents would be furious with her. But quite the opposite—they gave her unconditional love and solid support. Galina gave a birth to a baby girl and named her Lyudmila, after the famous Pushkin fairy tale in which Lyudmila was the princess saved from enemies by the prince.

Galina never saw Nikolai again. It was 1942. Soon after she broke the news of her pregnancy to him, Nikolai volunteered for the army. German troops were near Moscow, and a year later he was killed in battle defending his city. He never met their child.

Her parents’ support would play both a negative and positive role in Galina’s life. Her parents understood that their daughter was too young and inexperienced to take on the entire burden of unexpected motherhood. As her parents took good care of her daughter, she could finish growing up with her friends. Galina recognized and appreciated their love and support for both her and Lyudmila and was grateful for the return of her freedom. They treated Lyudmila as their own daughter. When Lyudmila was two years old, she thought Galina was her older sister and she called her grandmother “Mom.”

Galina’s brother, Vladimir joined the army in 1944, when he was sixteen. World War II was still going on and the Germans were strong. The Russian troops needed more volunteers. He was a big guy—about six foot two inches tall and physically fit, as he was playing soccer at nearly a professional level. He wanted to be with his dad, Vasilii, who had been fighting against the Nazis since the first days of the war. At the military office he lied about his age and told the clerks that he was eighteen, that he had lost his birth certificate. He was allowed to enlist in the army and continued to serve after the war.

* * *

After the war ended, the economy and life itself in Russia were gloomy. People stood in long lines to get bread. Drunken citizens littered the places where Galina used to walk before the war. She became very confused about life. She knew that millions of people were being sent to concentration camps—some of them for nothing, some of them for refusing to accept the existing regime. Camps were situated in Siberia where severe cold lasted almost the whole year. People died slowly of hunger and various diseases. But she also understood that she was lucky—her dad was a KGB officer and that somehow gave her the feeling that she was safe. But for how long she did not even want to guess. She pushed the unsettling thoughts from her mind.

When she graduated from school at the age of eighteen, Galina started working at the clothing factory. For eight hours a day, she sewed clothes for the military. It was hard labor and she was still a teenager. Even though her daughter, Lyudmila was well cared for by her parents, her life had become too routine. She worried that she would never have the opportunity to meet the wonderful prince from her favorite fairy tale to share her future with. Her prince charming would be attractive, funny and enjoy all her favorite things like dancing, museums, music, theatre, and hiking. She also speculated that he would not be Russian. All the eligible young Russian men she knew were drunks and only wanted one thing from a girl.

Her chance to meet someone different came quite unexpectedly. In 1946, she happened to see her high school friend Nina while walking home after work. She was nicely dressed and was wearing a perfume with a wonderful scent.

“Where are you going?” Galina asked her.

“Actually, I’m not supposed to tell anybody,” Nina said. “But since you’re my best friend I’ll tell you. There is a club in downtown Moscow called American House. American soldiers who are serving in the American embassy live there. Every Friday and Saturday night they have dancing parties. Don’t ask me how I found out about it, but today is Friday and I am going there. If you want to, you can join me tomorrow. But don’t tell anybody about this. The music is loud and the guys don’t speak Russian but they’re very respectful. But at the end of the party almost all of them are drunk, but they are differently drunk compared to Russian guys. They start to be funny. I like to be there.”

Galina was very intrigued. She loved to dance. At the end of each day, Galina hugged and danced with Lyudmila for half an hour or more before putting her little daughter to bed. She didn’t want to drink but she desperately wanted to have some fun.

She was excited by Nina’s invitation and decided join her at American House. She had uneasy feelings at first but the desire to have fun soon took the upper hand. It didn’t even occur to Galina that the KGB were all over that place.

Saturday night she met Nina near the subway station and together they went to American House. It was situated on the bank of Moscow River near the biggest grocery store in Moscow. When they arrived at six o’clock in the evening, the grey building of American House was surrounded by a unique aura. Maybe it was Galina’s imagination, but she felt that something really unusual would happen that night. Outside it was quiet, but Galina was pretty sure that inside was music, and it would be loud.

They went inside the building without any problems. Galina assumed the American security men would recognize Nina and let them in without asking any questions. Inside, everything was almost exactly how Galina pictured it in her mind— the fast rhythm of the music made her quiver inside with excitement. The room was smoky and the lights were turned low. Somebody came to her, introduced himself and said something in English. Galina realized that she was in trouble. The only English words she knew were hello and good-bye. She found Nina, rushed to her, grabbed her hand, and almost yelled, “What should I do? I don’t understand a word they’re saying.”

Nina calmed her down. “You don’t have to,” she said. “Everything will be clear without words.”

Another tune hit the big hall and Galina saw many dancing couples around her. At that moment she realized that all the girls here were Russians and they had learned to speak English well enough to communicate with the Americans. Suddenly a young man in uniform came to her and invited her for a dance. It was a slow tune, and Galina felt very comfortable in his hands as he led her on the dance floor.

The next tune was fast and Galina went to the corner to watch how other people were dancing to this fast music. She was a quick learner, and by the end of the dance she knew all the jumping and jiving moves.

While watching the dance floor, Galina didn’t notice that the same guy that invited her to her first dance in American House was approaching her again with a glass of wine. He said pointing a finger to himself, “John.” Then he pointed a finger to her, and she said “Galya.” Both of them were smiling, happy that they understood each other. That was Galina’s first communication with an American. She drank the glass of wine that John gave her and started to feel great. Several times in a row she danced with John, then with another guys. At the end of the party she realized that she was happy. She felt like a young woman again! She completely forgot her responsibilities at home and at her workplace. She wanted to stay, but it was time to leave. Several drunken American soldiers tried to talk to her, but she dismissed them.

During the whole evening she had been watching this new (for her) crowd of young Americans that surrounded her. Most of them were holding glasses or even bottles full of whiskey or vodka. They were laughing and she realized that they seemed really happy.

Only one fellow out of the lot of Americans looked pretty serious. He also was holding a bottle in his hand, but it was a bottle of Coke. The bottle of Coke was in fact what attracted her attention, not the guy. She had never tried Coca Cola in her life, but had heard about it from her friend Nina, who liked it very much. She told her once “it’s full of bubbles, it is like sparkling water but tastes a hundred times better.”

“Next time I will definitely try it,” Galina thought. “Maybe this guy will share it with me.” She even smiled at her own idea. The soldier was skinny, tall with long curly hair and some pimples on his face. He was not so handsome but at the same time, he had a pleasant expression on his plain face. She wanted to find her prince here and although she didn’t feel he was the one, she couldn’t help noticing that he was probably the only guy there who was sober. Several times they exchanged quick looks at each other but that was all. She turned away, found Nina, and both of them left.

“How did you like it there?” Nina asked. “For me it’s always fun. You don’t have any obligation to these American guys. At the end of the evening they’re so drunk that you can disappear without a problem. Of course they want more than dance and some girls are ready to go to their rooms, but not me. I have so much fun dancing and flirting, that is enough for me.”

Galina said. “I loved it there. There is another life waiting for us, full of fun and joy. I am tired of this grey life that surrounds us now. I want something else. What about next weekend? Are you going there? Can I join you?”

“Yes, I’m going next weekend. You can meet me there, but if you like it there you will need to do something with your English. You cannot be silent all the time and you should understand some of what they’re talking about and avoid finding yourself in an awkward situation. If you like, I can give you some English textbooks for beginners. I learned my English by studying them.”

“Of course. I want them. Please bring me the books tomorrow. I’ll start learning English right away.” Galina said.

It was two o’clock in the morning when Galina came home. It was quiet; everybody was sleeping. She went to bed but couldn’t fall asleep. For an hour she turned from one side to another, thinking about the night before. She felt so good. She was also thinking about her new friend John. Nice fellow, she thought. He didn’t fluster her at all—just the opposite, she liked him. With that wonderful feeling, the feeling that her life was just beginning and the tingle of all the possibilities ahead, she at last went to sleep.

Galina always had an expedient character. If she set a goal for herself she would do everything to reach it. She started to learn English the next day after she got the textbooks from Nina. Every day she spent four hours learning words that she had never heard before. At the end of the week Galina could say several phrases in English like “how are you,” “what is your name,” and “let’s dance.”

Friday came quickly and after work she put her favorite dress on. It was a little bit provocative, but it was party time. She borrowed the perfume that she liked so much from Nina. Both of them smelled the same but what a smell it was! Galina was thrilled to be in social circles again. At the party, Galina surprised John. She asked him in English, “How are you? How was your week?”

John was so excited that he started to talk to her so quickly she had to stop him.

“That’s it. I don’t know anything else,” she said in Russian. “Let’s dance,” she added in English.

They danced together the whole night and the next too, which was Saturday. Galina liked John more and more. Not only because he was an excellent dancer, but because he was intelligent, talked to her respectfully, and never drank to excess. Her main attraction to him was he made it clear that he liked her too. At the end of Saturday night John asked her for a date. He explained it simply, so she could understand him.

“You need to practice your English. I can help you with that. Let’s meet each other tomorrow and I will give you some tips to get better in English. You have made so much progress in only one week. You’re a smart girl.”

Galina was happy that she would see John sooner than the next dance party. They decided to meet each other at noon near the entrance of the most famous park in Moscow, Gorky Park. It was Galina’s decision to go to the park. She liked the atmosphere of Moscow parks. She grew up near one, and Gorky Park was not only the biggest in Moscow, it was the most beautiful one, situated on the left bank of the Moscow River. It was like a forest near downtown Moscow. And as a bonus, it wasn’t far from American House. John had been stationed in Moscow for almost a year but he had never heard of Gorky Park. He was also excited to see some sights in the capitol of Russia with this beautiful Russian woman as his guide.

It was springtime in Moscow and the trees in the park had just broken into leaf. John was impressed. They walked hand in hand for a couple of hours. He told Galina all about himself, about his life in America, about his plans, and about his parents who were waiting for him in New York where he grew up. He wanted to go back there and had no desire to go anywhere else. Galina’s English was so poor, she hardly understood a word, but she listened and did not interrupt him.

“Are you hungry?” he asked Galina. “Let’s stop and have some lunch in this place. I think it’s a little diner.”

He was right. The small restaurant was inviting and they were the only visitors there. Galina wanted John to try some real Russian food and ordered Siberian pelmeni, dumplings filled with meat. For John this was something new. The dumplings were simply delicious.

They spent a pleasant day together and John taught her many new English words. They were both enjoying life and their moments together. They didn’t notice the two men that followed them during their entire date.

It was dark when Galina and John left the park. They said good-bye to each other near the subway station. They even kissed each other. Their kiss did not go unnoticed by the men who had been tailing them.

When Galina neared the entrance to her apartment house, one of the men approached her and asked, “Did you have a good time today?”

“It’s none of your business,” she answered him.

“It is our business now,” he said. “My name is Andrei. Don’t introduce yourself. I know you, Galina, for some time now. You’ve been under our watch from the moment you entered American House.” He gestured at the other man. “Boris and I work for the internal secret service of the NKVD. From now on, as you’re so good with the American soldiers, you will report to us about every contact that you have with any of them. You’re pretty close with that John. We know him—John Biconish. He’s a nice guy. But we need to know more about him, what he’s doing in the American Embassy. This would be your job. We don’t care how you persuade him to give you information—while you’re dancing with him—or in bed.” Andrei looked at her piercingly and smiled, then told her that they would see her again.

Immediately many disconcerting thoughts struck her mind. “I am in their trap,” she thought. “I need to be very careful with him or else I won’t see John, and I won’t see any of my family again.” She had heard many accounts of the Siberian concentration camps. She knew that she would never survive in those conditions. Perhaps they would torture her? The thought tore at her. She had also heard that many innocent Russian people were tortured by the KGB so cruelly that they confessed to crimes they never committed—just to stop the pain.

That whole day Galina had been in high spirits. Everything had been so good in her world, and now everything was collapsing. After the conversation with Andrei, she wanted to throw up. She was on the edge of panic. Galina choked back the tears on the way up to her apartment and didn’t sleep a minute the whole night. She couldn’t function at work and told her supervisor that she was sick. They let her go home but the hollow pit in her stomach didn’t go away. In the evening, she called Nina and asked her to meet. They met each other in the street and the chat was short.

“Nina,” Galina said. “I was approached by secret service men who ordered me to work for them and to report on American soldiers whom we meet in American House.”

Nina stopped Galina with her hand. “Galya,” she said, “I don’t want to hear about it. Just forget that you said anything about it to me. In fact, I don’t have time to talk to you. I need to go home.”

Galina faced the second betrayal in her life since she revealed her pregnancy to Nickolai. Nina stopped being her friend.

The rest of the week after her confrontation with Andrei, Galina felt really sick. She didn’t want to do anything. She put aside all her English textbooks and considered not going to American House anymore. She also noticed a change in her dad’s behavior. He had become serious all the time; he stopped smiling and talking to his daughter.

“He knows something,” Galina thought. “I don’t want him to be in trouble.”

And the knowing, smiling face of that guy Andrei—it followed her everywhere.

* * *

Andrei Gruzdev grew up in a small Siberian village. His dad was the leader of the local communist organization and participated in the civil war, where according to him, his father was ruthless in his support of the new regime. Andrei was proud of him and always wanted to be like him.

He was drafted in the army in 1943 when he was eighteen. He, like his dad, ruthlessly fought the enemies of the Soviet state. His commanders noticed his loyalty, and he was sent to a school where he was taught to be an internal special agent.

He was sent back to the western front where his task was to discover German spies. A proud member of the communist party and an officer in the NKVD’s special department, after the war, Andrei moved to live in Moscow where he shared a two bedroom apartment with his coworker. His task now was to keep an eye on Americans who lived in Moscow. His supervisors told him the U.S. Embassy held the most important nest of American spies in the Soviet Union.

One of his duties was to watch what was going on in American House. Almost all the Russian girls who spent time there worked for the NKVD. They were trying to get information from the American soldiers about activities inside the U.S. Embassy, but that wasn’t enough. The NKVD needed a big fish, somebody who could tell them something besides drunken rumors. Andrei had noticed a new girl there, one who wasn’t working for them, one he liked.

“Such a beautiful woman and she wants to spend time with our enemies,” he thought to himself. “This is a disgrace, she will put herself in danger. I will need to teach her.”

When he reported on her to his supervisors—he already knew her name—his bosses didn’t seem happy at first. They detected a note of caring in Andrei’s tone as he relayed his information about Galina.

“Her father works with us. He’s a good worker. It is a pity he has such a daughter,” said one of them.

“We need to talk to him about that. Maybe something will come out of this. Andrei, you have a big task in front of you. I know she’s a stubborn person. It makes your assignment difficult, but I’m sure you can do it. Let’s make Galina our Mata Hari. I hope her father will understand the importance of this case. If Galina won’t understand what we’re doing, well, we always need workers in our Siberian concentration camps.”

At these words everybody in the room smiled—except Andrei.

At home, Galina was thinking—thinking hard about what she could do with her future. She hated everything around her. She wanted to do something with her life. She wanted to breathe freely, walk wherever she wanted, and not be afraid that a man was following her. How could she do it?

She made a decision, one so important to her that she forgot about her family, about her responsibility to her daughter, Lyudmila.

Galina hadn’t seen John for several days. The day before the next party at American House she called him. She knew that secret service agents were listening to all her calls, so she was very precise.

“John,” she said, “let’s meet tomorrow at three o’clock at our usual place, the entrance of subway station at Gorky Park. I need to talk to you about something important.”

He answered, “Yes, of course.”

When they met the next day, Galina looked John straight in the face and asked him, “Do you love me?”

He said, “Yes.”

“I love you, too,” she said. “John, I will explain to you everything later. But now we need to marry as soon as possible. Will you be able to take me back to your country?”

He said, “Of course.”

Galina grabbed John’s hand and they jumped on the nearest bus. It was an unexpected move for John and she hoped it was equally unexpected for the guys following her. She felt safe in the bus and pressed herself to John. After they were married, she would leave this rotten country for good.

“Where are we going?” he asked her.

“We’re going to be married. Do you have your passport with you?” Galina asked him.

“I always keep it with me,” John said.

“I have mine too. We’re going to the local state office where they will register our marriage. A friend of mine works there and she will help us to do it quickly. I already told her about us. She’s waiting. We’re breaking the Soviet law, which forbids to Russian citizens to marry foreigners. But she’ll help us keep it quiet. She will give us an official document that we’re married, and after that we need to leave the country as soon as possible.”

John was a twenty-two-year-old kid, and he, like Galina, didn’t realize the danger of such a decision. But he agreed to her plan. “I will explain everything to my supervisors and ask them to send us to the U.S. as soon as possible,” he said to Galina.

They got married that day. With determination in their eyes, they kissed and parted. John returned to the Embassy and told his superiors of his marriage to Galina. They were thunderstruck with John and Galina’s plan. They were appalled at the illegal action the couple had taken. John’s superiors were naturally concerned that this Russian woman was working for the USSR Secret Service—the KGB. The only logical thing to do was sever ties immediately. Biconish was put under house arrest, threatened with court marshal and immediately sent back to the United States. The young man’s short military career ended at that moment.

Galina tried to call him, but nobody answered the phone. She had just gotten married, John was gone, and facing this third disappointment in her young life, she felt like a widow. Her dream to go to America slipped away. She started to think she would not survive the disappointment, never see the free world, never breathe free. Galina never saw John again.

The next day, Andrei met a defeated Galina outside the doors of her apartment house.

“I cannot believe you did that without our permission. Did you forget that you just started to work for the internal secret service? You accepted the job, didn’t you?” He was extremely angry at her and confused by his desire to protect her, yet he did not wish to jeopardize his hope for promotion in the organization.

Galina began to show her frustration. She countered in a demanding voice, “What happened to John?”

Her tone puzzled Andrei. To his own surprise, his voice started to be softer. “He was sent home.” With anger returning to his voice he continued, “All because of you. The Americans were probably suspicious of you. What do we have now? We lost a valuable person of interest. You could be sentenced to life in prison. You’re supposed to be sent to some Siberian concentration camp. But you’re lucky, and you know why? You’re a beautiful girl and we need you. To bring a new girl to American House isn’t very smart now. Everybody there knows about your situation, they’ll feel sorry for you. You’ll go there as usual, be a little bit sad, play the role of the abandoned wife. He betrayed you; you didn’t betray him. There are still a couple of guys there who are of great interest to us. We’ll show them to you. It will be your new task to get acquainted with one of them, carry things further, and then we’ll see what will happen. I’ll see you tomorrow and show you a picture of an American we really want working for us.”

Galina was caught. The secret service was already angry but thankfully, they didn’t suspect that she wanted to leave the country. “If they knew that,” she thought, “I would be already dead.”

This was a turning point in Galina’s life that changed everything in her little world. She understood that the only way for her to survive would be to be obedient to these men. They were powerful and they could do with her life whatever they wished. She thought bitterly of an old Russian adage, “What God does is only for the better.” Was this better, what had happened to her and John?

“I will do everything possible for my family to be happy,” she thought. That was her moment of truth.

The next day Andrei invited her to walk in the nearby park where Galina loved to spend her free time when she was a little girl. He showed her a photograph of young man.

“Do you recognize him?” Andrei asked Galina. “He’s always at American House parties. I don’t think he’s a good dancer, but he’s always there. He’s a sergeant in the U.S. Army. His name is James Myron McMillin. He is of great interest to us. Do whatever you need to do, but we need proprietary information from him.”

Galina remembered him. Everybody at American House called him Jimmy, and he never missed the weekend parties. Andrei was right; Galina never saw him dancing or drinking alcohol. But Galina had noticed him. He drank Coca-Cola. He always stood in the corner, trying not to draw attention to himself. He swayed his head exactly to the beat of the music. He didn’t appeal to Galina—he had a poor complexion and black curly hair that was too long. He was skinny but strongly built; he looked like an athlete. Although she did not immediately think he was handsome, Galina liked his athletic appearance.

Andrei watched Galina carefully. “What are you thinking about? Do you remember him? He’s not a pretty one like many of the other Americans, but it doesn’t matter. Consider it your assignment. If everything goes smoothly, if you do your job well, it will change your life. Please, no more crazy stunts which could destroy your life and the lives of your relatives. You’re lucky that we can forget your stupid affair with Biconish.

“From now on you will report to me about everything that happens between you and this man, Jimmy. You must start to date him on a regular basis, every day. Take him to parks, museums, the circus—they all like the Moscow circus. Invite him to your apartment. Introduce him to your parents. Don’t tell him that your father is working for the secret service. I think he won’t like it.” Andrei grinned with a rather leering smile, yet his tone softened again.

“You can even stay in his room sometimes at American House. You see we let you do a lot of things. Do you job properly and everybody will be happy. Do you understand? We need this guy! Here is my phone number. If you have an emergency, call me immediately. I will talk to you later about your progress.” It gave him pleasure that he would be able to keep watch over Galina and gave Andrei a satisfaction that he didn’t quite understand himself.

As Andrei left, Galina resigned herself, careful not to show her fear and knowing that from now her every step would be watched by these men. She didn’t pay much attention to his phrase “if you do your job well, it will change your life.” Much later, Galina saw these words as a prophecy.