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Living Section of the San Bernardino SUN August 8, 2004 Issue 
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst (c1988), Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002 
The Perilous Life of "Night Soldiers Alan Furst is, as my co-worker who turned me on to him pointed out, the hottest author today writing historical espionage. So hot in fact, that he can get away with having his name in large bold print on the book cover taking precedence over the book's title. "Night Soldiers" is a novel about the pivotal twentieth century events that have left indelible marks on our lives and continue to propel the world on its unpredictable course. I was riveted to it not only because the main protagonist happens to be Bulgarian as I am, but because it is a superbly written work that examines humankind's struggle for power and control, a book that looks into the dark side of man and captures the ethos of the times in which the story is set. In 1934, in the small Bulgarian town of Vidin on the Danube, nineteen-year old Khristo Stoianev looks on helplessly while fascists kick to death his fifteen-year old brother for smirking at their comical parade uniforms. Vidin is a town of fishermen in whose lives the Danube has played, and continues to play, detrimental role. The river "had brought them grief and fury, iron and fire, hangmen and tax collectors," writes Furst poetically. And in 1934 it brings Fascism downstream from Germany and communism upstream from the Soviet Union. Surreptitiously Khristo dreams of going to Vienna or even to Paris. But the provocations with the fascists escalate; a Russian offers him a helping hand and instead of in Vienna, Khristo finds himself in Moscow as a NKVD (the Soviet secret police and KGB's predecessor) recruit. There he is taught French, English and everything else needed to become a killer NKVD operative. His classmates are young men and women from other Eastern European countries. Some are trapped as he is, others are there because of their idealism and belief that the only way they could help mankind is through communism. But they soon find out otherwise. Regardless of the reasons, they have been snared into the clutches of the Soviet secret police. There is no way out. They learn to turn their hearts into stones and their consciousness into steely self-preservation. Khristo's loyalty and emotional strength are tested when he is ordered to shoot his lover, a Marxist girl from some Eastern European corner. In spite of her ideological dedication to communism, she is "discovered" to have been a double agent and becomes one of the earliest victims of the purges. This is only the beginning. In time, the hand of Soviet punishment would sweep through the ranks of dedicated communists and ordinary people alike, to cleanse Soviet society of imagined plots, espionage, subversive actions. And the reason for the purges? Stalin's whim? Or Stalin's paranoia? Or simply Stalin's desire to feel the enormous control he exerts over everyone and everything? Writes Furst: "There they were, killing left and right on pretext. On the phantom basis of a hostile glance, an indiscreet word, a beard drawn on a poster, anything." Khristo is sent to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. That's the cover. But in reality, he is there as an NKVD operative. The whirlpool of deceptions, plots and subplots, stratagems and subterfuges sucks him deeper. This is when he begins to perceive that the Soviet quagmire is unfathomable. The slightest show of human decency or compassion makes one subject to the purges. And the purges of 1936 are even more savage and horrifying than the ones of 1934. Gone is the entire Old Guard of Bolsheviks, gone are ninety percent of the army's generals and eighty percent of the army's colonels. Khristo is warned that he would be recalled to Moscow. That means only one thing - he will be purged. He flees to Paris. But it is not as simple as that to sever one's ties with the Soviet secret police. It seems, that he is their captive forever, a pawn in their game of war for power. He is "on the NKVD chessboard, all his moves known and predicted," writes the author, "hostile knights and bishops dawdling while he figured out how to move onto the very square where they wanted him." Paris, on the eve of World War II, teams with espionage activity -British, Americans, Polish Nationalists, Bulgarian Royalists, White Russians, Soviet NKVD. Khristo desperately wants to live his life and be left alone, to love and to enjoy the fleeting sights and smells of the enchanting city. But that is impossible. In no time he is embroiled, against his will, again into a plot involving a multitude of spy organizations. Again a pawn in the game of espionage, he is sent to French prison. "He was already in prison," Khristo reflects on the way to be locked up, "a prison of borders, passports, false names, and de facto nonexistence - a citizen of nowhere." As the Germans advance towards Paris, Khristo is rescued from the prison and eventually joins a group of Maquis (the French Resistance). Furst's research is meticulous. The political and historical detail is remarkable in accuracy. Along with the story on the backdrop of the twentieth century's most defining history, runs a philosophical analysis of human nature and of life itself. Slavic fatalism - the notion that we do not control our lives - permeates the book. "How flimsy it was," reflects Khristo at a difficult moment. "Build on sand. How he had deluded himself, that he could make what he wanted out of his life. It wasn't so." And then again, later on: "Fate was fate. He would play the game out to checkmate... So it had been written, so it had turned out to be." At times the lives of the characters in the book are so grim and joyless, that reading further becomes unbearable. You have to put the book aside and look around to reassure yourself that you are not in it. Yet, the pathos in those lives makes us turn the pages quickly. At book's end - there is a glimmer of hope. Ophelia Georgiev Roop Library Director San Bernardino Public Library |
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