Russian Service

The dream of seeing the faces of legendary commentators from foreign radio, whose voices breaking through jammers were listened to by the hero of the "Russian Service" in Moscow, brings this minor Soviet clerk to the corridors of Broadcasting Abroad... in London. But the faces do not always match the voices, and his unique gift for correcting spelling mistakes in ministerial reports is of no use for work on air. Published forty years ago in Paris and serialized on English and French radio, Zinovi Zinik's novel has long become a classic of the Cold War era with its Gothic attributes - the Iron Curtain, émigré squabbles, and poisoned umbrellas. But, as the author points out, Russian history does not stand still: it repeats itself, again and again.