Moscow Rules; A Novel
Carl Flatow (Author photograph) New York: Villard Books, 1985. First Edition [Stated]. Hardcover. [10], 389, [1] pages. Includes Prologue: Gogol Boulevard; Discoveries; The Aquarium; Nikolsky's Problem; Elaine; Living with Wolves; House of Lies; Bangladesh; Topchy's Solution; The Coup; and Nalivay! Robert Moss, born in Melbourne (Victoria) in 1946, is an Australian historian, journalist and author. Moss joined the editorial staff of The Economist. From 1970–1980, he was an editorial writer and special correspondent for The Economist. He edited The Economist's weekly Foreign Report from 1974–1980, and wrote for many other publications, including The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic and Commentary. He was a regular commentator on international affairs on British television and the BBC World Service. In a paper presented to the International Institute of Strategic Studies in 1971, Moss was one of the first to identify the emergence of international terrorism. He expanded his paper into his first book, Urban Guerrillas. From 1971–1980, he was a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. Moss drafted a speech for Margaret Thatcher in January 1976 warning about the Soviet military build-up. In response to this speech Thatcher was labelled the "Iron Lady" by the Soviet Army newspaper Red Star. He was awarded the Freedom Prize of the Max Schmidheiny Foundation at the University of St. Gallen in 1979. Moss co-authored the novel The Spike with Arnaud de Borchgrave; it became a best seller in 1980. Moss became a full-time writer and published a series of best-selling suspense novels including Moscow Rules. A taste of freedom and power, a thirst for revenge, and love affairs old and new are the volatile elements that spark a new Russian revolution in this dazzling novel by Robert Moss, coauthor of the bestsellers The Spike and Monimbo and author of Death Beam. Assigned to a diplomatic mission in New York City, Sasha experiences his first exhilarating sense of freedom. He also meets Elaine, the beautiful American woman who teaches him that love is an emotion even more powerful than hate. Later he fights in Afghanistan and is sickened to realize that the "worker's paradise" is little more than a living hell except for the privileged few. He meets others, others who are dissatisfied, who want--demand--change. Soon Sasha's plan begins to take shape. Russia--not to mention the world--will never be the same again. Moscow Rules is an unusual portrait of the world behind the Iron Curtain, and staggering testimony that people and their emotions are more powerful than any system. Derived from a Kirkus review: This thriller leads up to a coup in Moscow circa 1985--complete with total rejection of Marxism-Leninism; but along the way it provides ironic, absorbing vignettes of nasty doings among the USSR's military/political elite. Sasha Preobrazhensky, 16, has a major disillusionment in early-1960s Moscow: he learns that his WW II-hero father didn't die in action--but was murdered, by fledgling KGB thug Topchy, while trying to save a German child from Soviet rape. So Sasha vows revenge on the Soviet system, determined to destroy it from within--even if that means betraying his true-love, a dissident who suffers Siberia, gang-rape, and gruesome suicide. Sasha then joins the GRU, coolly marries the hedonistic daughter of powerful Marshal Zotov; he finds his first key ally in Capt. Zaytsev, head of the GRU's special-forces training; a few years later, as a N.Y.-based agent, he secretly befriends boozy, womanizing KGB-man Feliks Nikolsky. Meanwhile, however, Sasha risks trouble--including CIA entrapment--by falling in love with beautiful Elaine Warner, then leaving her to return to his private mission in Russia. Back home, after service in the Afghanistan invasion, Sasha rises under his father-in-law, Marshal Zotov--who, in the 1980s, becomes a would-be Bonaparte, urged on by now-General Sasha. So finally, then, amid strikes and Chernenko's gradual demise, Sasha begins putting his coup into action: Nikolsky helps to neutralize the KGB; Zotov is installed as Russia's new leader; but when Zotov refuses to accept an anti-Communist credo, Sasha himself takes over--again forced to sacrifice his love for Elaine. An entertaining exercise in speculative Kremlinology--with intriguing, or darkly amusing details. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Russia, Soviet Union, KGB, Coup d'Etat, Feliks Nikolsky, Iron Curtain, Sasha Preobazhensky, Zaytsev, GRU, Special Forces, Zotov, Elaine Warner, Afghanistan, Marxism-Leninism, Communism, Kremlin, Nalivay, Topchy
ISBN: 0394539516
[Book #82940]
Price: $35.00