Chapter 7: Back in the USSR, Part II

July 13, 1991, St. Petersburg, Russia

“You look terrible, Stephen Rayevich!” Dima teased when I dragged myself from bed about 10:00am.

I chuckled, despite having a king-size headache, “I have not drunk like that in quite some time!”

Even at Pascha, I hadn’t had even half of what I must have drunk the previous night, or earlier in the morning to be more accurate.

“You will have to drink with real soldiers tonight!”

I chuckled, again, “It’s not going to be pretty!”

He laughed, “We will take it easy on the poor civilian!”

“The same way you and Vanya did last night?”

He laughed, “That was practice! Go take a shower, Stepa!”

I wasn’t about to argue with that order from a Lieutenant Colonel of the Tamanskaya Guards!

I went to the bathroom and turned the water as hot as I could possibly stand it and stood underneath the spray for at least ten minutes before I finally grabbed the soap to wash. I came out of the bathroom feeling vaguely human and went to the kitchen to get some tea and bread. I saw Jesse and Larisa in the living room with Tanya, and said ‘good morning’ as I walked by. Tanya simply shook her head.

Fortunately, my stomach wasn’t queasy, and I ate two thick slices of black bread slathered with creamy butter, and drank two glasses of strong tea. When I finished, I joined Tanya and the kids.

“Are you OK, Stepa?” Tanya teased.

“I think your plan is to have me, how did you once put it, not of much use to your cousin later!”

Tanya laughed, “Do not be «некультурный», Stepa!”

“Me? You’re the one who discussed our personal life with your cousin!”

“And you did not discuss this with Bethany Haroldovna?” she said sweetly.

“But you know that I am «некультурный»!” I laughed.

“Yes, when it is appropriate! But we must not speak like this when Dima comes back from the store!”

“I understand!”

“We shall have lunch here, then rest. The party begins at 4:00pm.”

“Where?”

“We have reserved a ballroom at the Oktyabrskaya Hotel, in Vosstaniya square near the Moscow Railway Station.”

“The location doesn’t mean a lot to me,” I said. “I don’t know much about St. Petersburg!”

Tanya laughed, “You are a monarchist, I see!”

“You know my friends at church are ‘Whites’. They hope the city will be renamed when the USSR dissolves.”

“It is possible, but it is dangerous to speak of such things. Not because State Security will arrest you, but because emotions are very high. You are an outsider, so you may get some room to speak, but you must be extremely careful. This is very controversial in Russia right now.”

“Tanya, you and Dima keep saying ‘Russia’ not ‘The Soviet Union’. I know where you stand!”

“Yes, but again, this must be stated only in VERY careful ways. As I said yesterday, there are real concerns of a coup, but nobody knows from which way it will come - the hard-liners, the monarchists, or the liberals!”

“Why would the liberals stage a coup? They’re winning!”

“Perhaps a counter-coup by them, but still, they are preparing for such an eventuality.”

“It’s that bad?” I asked.

She now whispered, “Within the next month or two, at the latest, someone will make an attempt. This I do not doubt. Dima is on alert for such a thing. This is why he only has leave until Sunday evening, and our dinner is at 2:00pm. We must return to Moscow no later than 10:00pm Sunday evening. All leave for military in Moscow is canceled for the next three months. He got special permission because my father intervened.”

“And you let me come here?” I asked.

“Leningrad will be safe, I think. Whatever happens will happen in Moscow.”

“You mean like in 1906, and twice in 1917?” I asked sarcastically.

“But this is not the capital, and there are no Tsars here! The government is in Moscow, and all the ministries are there. A coup, if there is one, must be there first. You would have time to get across the border to Finland if necessary. It is only three hours by car.”

That didn’t exactly fill me with confidence, but if Dima was here, that meant nobody expected anything to happen THIS weekend. I was very happy to be visiting, but I would be happy to be out of Russia before things went to hell!

“I should probably call home today,” I said. “Jesse will want to talk to his moms, I’m sure.”

“Yes! I want to tell Mom One and Mom Two everything!”

“You can only speak for about two minutes, Jesse,” I said. “It’s very expensive to call from here, and we can’t always get a circuit.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are wires that connect all the phones and sometimes they are all used. So we’ll try to call and see. When we do get through, we need to speak quickly. OK?”

“Yes.”

Tanya suggested we use the phone in her father’s study, which we did. We managed to get through on the first attempt, though Tanya had to speak to the operator for us to secure an outgoing trunk. Once the call was put through, I spoke to Jessica and Kara, and then Jesse talked to his moms. He spoke a mile-a-minute to try to get everything out, which led to Jennifer and Josie laughing hard. They said they missed him, he said he loved them, and we finished the call.

After lunch and naps, we took two chauffeured cars to the Oktyabrskaya Hotel, a beautiful Tsarist building. The ballroom we used was as opulent as anything I’d seen back home, and in fact, much more so. Once again, the difference between what the average Soviet, or Russian, citizen had access to, and what the elite had access to was quite obvious.

I scanned the room and quickly recognized Vasily Vladislavovich and Yuri Anatolyevich, our friends from the first visit. I pointed to them and Jesse quickly pulled his hand from mine and ran across the room. Vasily picked him up and greeted him with Russian-style kisses, and then handed him to Yuri, who did the same. They waved to me and I waved back. I knew Jesse would be entertained for the entire evening, and watched as they introduced him to other men from various military units.

“Tanya, how did all these men manage to be here?”

“They are not assigned to Moscow,” she said. “Most are in Leningrad, or involved in moving troops from the old Warsaw Pact countries, so are not currently part of active line units like Dima.”

“1st Guards isn’t active?” I asked.

“It’s in transition from Germany. They will be completely home by the end of the year, I believe.”

A few minutes later Vera walked through the doors. When she’d taken us on the tour, she’d been wearing a plain, gray skirt and white blouse, and had her hair pulled back severely in a ponytail. She’d been pretty. Now, she was stunning. She was wearing a brilliant royal blue dress and high heels, and had her platinum blonde hair down, with curls framing her face. I was left breathless and speechless.

“She is pretty, isn’t she?” Tanya whispered.

After about ten seconds, I managed to take a breath, and then found my voice, “Yes, she is!”

I excused myself and walked over to greet Vera with the standard Russian-style greeting. She looped her arm in mine, and we walked back to where Tanya stood.

“I see you brought Jesse Stepanovich,” she said.

“I think this party was planned for him,” I chuckled. “He’s been talking about the wedding party for the past three years!”

I looked for him and when I saw him, I started laughing.

“Who arranged for that?” I asked Tanya.

“Yuri Anatolyevich! He had to have it properly tailored. I knew the sizes because you sent them to me at Christmas!”

Jesse was wearing a perfect replica Red Army dress uniform, complete with unit markings for the 1st Guards Tank Army. Unfortunately for him, he was only a lieutenant!

“I see they didn’t want him giving orders!” I chuckled.

“They had thought about full Colonel’s markings,” Tanya said. “But Dima said Jesse would start giving orders as soon as he realized, and that they had no senior officers to them here and didn’t want one! Especially not one who was five!”

A few minutes later, drinks in hand, we walked over to where Jesse was with the soldiers.

“You have a fine son, Stepa Rayevich!” Yuri said.

“Thank you, Yasha Anatolyevich!” I said.

The officers nearby laughed.

“Where did you find a «культурный» enemy of the people, Lieutenant?” a captain I didn’t recognize asked with a grin.

“I would be careful, Comrade Captain!” Yuri said. “He was boyfriend to Tanya Ivanovna for a few years! I would not wish to say anything bad about him!”

“Ah, this explains it! I was invited by Dima, but he did not tell me an American would be here. Especially not such a small one!”

“My Captain means Jesse Stepanovich,” Vasily laughed.

“I thought as much, Vasily Vladislavovich!” I chuckled. “How have you been?”

“Very busy. It turns out it is harder to move our divisions east than west!” he teased.

“That’s what got you in trouble in 1914,” I said with a smile.

“Ach. The first war with the Germans. Well, we took care of them once and for all in the Great Patriotic War!”

Given that Germany was reunited, I wasn’t sure that was as true as he was saying, but Germany was much smaller, Poland had moved west, and the Soviet Union had expanded. Modern Germany was weak militarily, relying on NATO to provide the bulk of their defenses, including the important nuclear shield.

“With a bit of help from Patton,” I said, purposefully invoking a name that might generate a reaction.

“A good general, but a bad politician!” Dima said coming up next to me. “Not one who was a friend to the Soviet Union, but one I would prefer never to meet on the field of battle.”

“I think the Germans agreed with you!”

“Yes. They feared him far more than Montgomery, who was too much of an aristocrat to be a true warrior. But enough talk of war! I see Jesse has his uniform!”

“Did Tanya tell you I have a KGB Colonel’s uniform courtesy of Katya Sergeyevna?”

“Yes, she did. But I do not think you would make a good Chekist, Stepa!”

“Didn’t the Cheka cease to exist in 1922?” I asked.

“You are well informed! But it is an insult we use against our brotherly comrades in the Committee for State Security.”

The words ‘brotherly comrades’ was said with clear disdain. I knew there was bad blood between the KGB and the military, and I wondered if it was getting worse given the upheaval. But this wasn’t the time to ask THAT question.

“What is that nasty brown liquid in your glass, Stepa?” Yuri asked.

“Bourbon! I apologize, but I prefer it to vodka!”

“Hmm. Perhaps what we taught you last time was insufficient. We shall remedy that after dinner!”

Which was exactly what I feared. I should have known better than to order the bourbon!

We talked for another hour, while Vera simply stood quietly next to me, with her arm looped through mine. The only time she let go was to refill our drinks once. I was sipping slowly because I knew what was coming after dinner. And I also knew I didn’t want to disappoint Vera, though I might not have any real say in the matter.

As I expected, as soon as dinner was over, the bottles of vodka came out, and the music was turned up. I managed to get in a few dances with Vera before she was relegated to the tables with the other women, and the men began drinking, dancing, and carousing. Jesse did a good job of keeping up, though he had the advantage of drinking either apple juice or Sprite, though it was labeled with it’s original German name, «Fanta Klare Zitrone», while I was drinking vodka.

I did my best to pace myself, and made sure I ate plenty of bread and pickles, and managed, just, to not get falling-down drunk, though I did fall on my butt several times trying to dance with some of the officers. Jesse finally ran out of energy about 11:00pm, and Anya and Tanya took him back to the apartment. I stayed with the men, and Vera sat with the wives and girlfriends at one of the tables. They were drinking, but not nearly so much as we were.

The party finally broke up about 3:00am, and I was surprised to find that I could walk steadily. Vera took my arm, and we walked outside to a waiting car. Fifteen minutes later, we got out, and I realized we weren’t at Vanya’s apartment.

“We are at my apartment,” she said, obviously seeing the confusion on my face. “You share a room with Jesse Stepanovich!” she added as explanation.

I hadn’t even thought about that. He was sleeping on a trundle bed that was stored under the main bed, and that would certainly have prevented any ‘kissing’ in the room! She led me inside and into an elevator. She pressed the button for the 21st floor, and the elevator began slowly moving upwards. Five minutes later, I was sitting on the couch in the living room of her small apartment while she made tea. She brought out a tray that had the tea and some cookies, and after she poured two glasses, she sat on the couch next to me.

“If you need to sleep first, I understand!” she said with a smirk on her face. “We have until 1:30pm. Then we must leave for Uncle’s apartment for dinner. We shall come back here after dinner. Jesse can come here, or stay with Uncle Vanya.”

“We’ll ask him what he wants to do,” I said.

It dawned on me that Vera was maintaining at least an appearance of being «культурный». Going there would remove any plausible deniability. I was sure Vanya knew what was going on, but this way, we could all pretend it didn’t happen.

We drank our tea and finished the cookies. I took stock of my head and body, and decided I had enough energy for at least one round before sleeping. I set my glass down, and took Vera’s from her. She smiled as I leaned over for a kiss. We kissed softly for several minutes, as I enjoyed the feel of her lips and tongue on mine.

“Very nice,” she breathed after several minutes of kissing.

“I agree.”

“You would like more?” she asked in a low voice.

I took her hand and led her down the hall. Looking in the door of the first room, it was quite obviously Eugen’s, so I continued to the second room. Ten minutes later I was admiring her trim, fit body, with small breasts, nicely flared hips, and, to my surprise, a completely bare mons. Naked, she looked seventeen, rather than twenty-seven, and despite the vodka, I had no problem rising to the occasion.

July 14, 1991, St. Petersburg, Russia

“I am still alive, so I suppose I preformed adequately?” I teased when we woke around 10:30am on Sunday.

“I am not sure,” she giggled. “I think I need more than one sample to be sure!”

“I think I can manage,” I grinned.

Our first lovemaking had been slow, and other than some kissing and touching, there hadn’t been any foreplay. This time, though, I wanted to feast on her small breasts and her bare pussy. I was determined to ensure I was still alive when it was time to leave, and I used every weapon in my armory - lips, tongue, fingers, and dick. When we finished our second round, Vera sighed deeply and cuddled close.