Helen Dunmore (2010) The Betrayal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Betrayal_(Dunmore_novel)

Leningrad 1952/53. Stalin has god-like powers. His paranoia has shaped a super-power in which the greater good is defined by the fear of that knock at the door.

No one is safe.

 Volkov is a fictional character. He has the appellation THE attached to his name in whispers. THE Volkov. To show there’s no misunderstanding. It’s really him. With the fear and state-sponsored terror he brings.

Volkov himself did not exist,  but the historical context he inhabits, which is mined by Ben Creed, for example in City of Bones, is factual.

The-so-called Doctors’ Plot: The novel is set against the backdrop of this real historical event (1952–1953), a state-sponsored anti-Semitic campaign where Jewish doctors were accused of conspiring to assassinate Soviet leaders.

In the same way plots were found in writers and artist’s community and those engaged in engineer and manufacturing work. Right-wing saboteurs were communist witch-hunts with show trials and Pravda coverage which has a contemporary feel in Moscow and Washington nowadays.

The NKVD/MGB: The organization Volkov works for was the precursor to the KGB which Putin worked for as a low-ranking officer which literally sent tens of millions to Siberia and gulags.

Betrayal then isn’t just one thing, but many.

Volkov’s son, Gorya has a sore leg. He wants to get back to playing football and to make his father proud.

Moral dilemma. Save yourself or do your duty?

Leningrad withstood the siege. Duty first, last, always. One of the most chilling lines (which will make me want to read Dunmore’s book The Siege) is quite simple. A mother falls over into the snow. In the Siberian temperatures her daughter stands beside her, well wrapped up and waiting. She’s too young to realise her mum’s dead. Someone comes along and picks up the child and takes her away.

Andrei and Anna (the narrators) have been through The Siege. Life is better. They have survived. Prospered even with more than enough food and a dacha within cycling distance. They have an apartment that is the envy of their neighbours. With more living space than most others, even taking into account, Kolya, Anna’s brother, whom they’ve brought up as their son since her mum died in childbirth.

Dr Russov sees clearly. He understands not to treat THE Volkov’s son is more likely death than life. He’s already looked at the X-rays and seen the osteoblasts, which suggest Gorya will need to lose a leg to have a chance of life, but even then the chance of secondary tumours is high. Gorya might die.

Russov does what he needs to do. In the opening pages he bumps into Andrei and asks his advice. Andrei’s paediatric specialisation isn’t bone cancer or surgery but the treatment of childhood arthritis.  Against his better judgement Andrei agrees to see Gorya.  

Russov’s played him. He lives to fight another day.

The reader knows Andrei’s humanity means he cannot not see Gorya. So begins Andrei and Anna’s odysseys.

What a wonderful writer Helen Dunmore is. Read on.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CVBVVGD6