Chapter 33

Benin caught the tram home from the University as usual. It had been 11 years since the war finished and in that time Novgorod had been rebuilt, brick by brick.

Sure, apartment blocks had gone up almost overnight to house the many thousands of homeless, and these were ugly and often shoddily built. But, at the same time, the historic buildings had been carefully reconstructed too. This was Russia's history, her visible legacy, and it was deemed important to her national morale to rebuild the domes and spires of her Orthodox churches and museums.

The USSR was well on the way to becoming a global superpower. The Red Army was the strongest conventional army in the World and now, with the advent of the Nuclear age, rivalled the West in atomic weapons. The Cold War, as enthusiastic journalists had dubbed it, served to sharpen the Ivan's axe.

Paranoia about an atomic exchange was at least as great in the USSR as it was in the US and Western Europe. Civil defence drills were part of daily life and were treated solemnly by the populace.

The austerity of the war years was followed by a virtual Spring of cultural expression. Even that great outpouring of youth rebellion, Rock and Roll, had made a tentative foray into the Soviet Union. But it was Russian-style Jazz music that really took off in the years after the war. Even the conservative City Council of Novgorod had to give in to the people's will and Jazz clubs sprang up like mushrooms.

But it was devastated Leningrad that siezed back the honour of being the Jazz capital of the USSR. It was a way of, perhaps, exerting its uniqueness, its pride at staring down the Nazi menace and prevailing. The City authorities even encouraged it because it gave more heart to the people than all the Socialist sloganeering ever could.

Sure, news of the outside World was filtered through the State Censorship Bureau. It told of a West that was controlled by huge Multi-National companies who paid their armies of workers a pittance. It said that Mothers had to sell their daughters into prostitution to buy bread. Workers everywhere, under the heel of Capitalist oppressors, were waiting for the chance to 'join the Soviet Union in brotherhood and cast out their war-mongering, Imperialist Governments.'

'Grain harvests were at a record high, thanks to collectivisation of agriculture and mechanisation, ' the news read. 'The people of the, the Democratic Republic of Hungary and the Democratic Republic of Germany had successfully defended themselves, with the aid of the Soviet Red Army, against Capitalist 'agents provocateur' and unreformed Fascist fellow-roaders.' In Novgorod there was a festival to mark the 'victory' of the 'Socialist people, ' over the 'counter-revolutionaries and their lackeys' in East Germany. In Korea, the Democratic Republic had 'beaten back the invasion of Generals Motors and Electric to build another Socialist utopia.'

But in reality the Soviet Union was less interested in vanquishing 'Capitalist' Governments than defending itself against a future war. Turning back to the old Tsarist strategy of building a ring of alliances around her borders, the USSR tried to ensure that the next war wouldn't be fought on the soil of the Motherland.

At Yalta and the Potsdam conferences Stalin had wrung from the British PM and the American President an agreement to divide up the post-war World into 'spheres of influence.' In the case of Eastern Europe, that situation was underlined by garrisons of Soviet troops permanently stationed on territory encompassing the 'Russian Zone, ' and paid for by the states concerned. As well as being there for defence against NATO, they could, and were, used to reinforce Soviet control.

The Russian zone of East Germany had declared itself a Nation in response to a similar declaration of the West to create the West German Federal Republic. The border between the two Germanies defined the Cold War as nothing else. However, while the British and Americans ploughed aid and investment into West Germany, the Soviet Union strip-mined the East for ten solid years following the end of the war. That Soviet prosperity post war was built on the plunder obtained from its conquered territories is not too far from fact.

But the war had left a hole in Russia's population of around 20 million people. From the line of the river Volga West, the country was rubble. An estimated 1000 or more towns and villages had ceased to exist with nothing but a placename on the map to show where they once existed. If the Soviet Union felt justified in demanding some recompense from the aggressors then few Russian citizens were in any mood to object.

But by 1956 things were starting to look up for Benin and John. Benin had gained her Doctorate and held a Professorship at the restored Novgorod University. The Soviet Air Force had refurbished their facilities and renamed it 'The V-V.S Tactical School.' Newly promoted General Ioann Khrinhov, alias John Greenhaugh, was the natural choice as Director.

Their family had grown by three more children and, in consequence of the incentives provided to couples to repopulate, had earned them a large apartment. In addition, John had the use of a Limo and driver and had the privilege of being able to gain access to Western goods through the Military's Department Stores.

Benin was also a reserve Officer with the KGB carrying the rank of Captain. The intelligence services and the Political Police, the NKVD, had been amalgamated into a new service that became almost a mini-state within the Soviet Union. The KGB had its own Police, Navy, Air Force and Army. It ran several towns in Russia and had a permanent seat at the Politburo. After Stalin, virtually all Premiers and General Secretaries had been groomed by the KGB and, some say, the Director was the most powerful person in all of the USSR.

One exception was the USSR's present Secretary General, Nikita Khrushchev. He had succeeded Stalin who'd died in March 1953. An ill-educated 'peasant' from the Kursk Oblast, his boorish lack of tact had already cause friction, both inside the USSR and internationally. But his reputation as a buffoon disguised a shrewd and intelligent politician who would go on to transform the Soviet Union from an austere, dark Stalinist State to one whose economic growth exceeded that of most Western countries.

Khrushchev opened the door a fraction and allowed unheard of influences to flow into Soviet society, from the West, and domestically. Alexandr Solzhenitzen published his 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Deniznovich' under Khrushchev. He blew away many of the old Stalinist bureaus and promoted Liberal reformers throughout the Bureaucracy.

The West was now regarded as a rival, rather than an evil force bent on the destruction and subjugation of the Soviet people. Khrushchev would later go on to play a dangerous game of checkers with the United States by ordering the setting up of missile sites in Cuba.

But what really destroyed him politically, was his erratic agricultural policies. 1962 was a disasterous year for the Russian grain harvest, caused mainly by bad weather. Political rivals managed to pin the blame on the Premier.

But throughout the years 1953 to 1960 Khrushchev was at the peak of his game. In 1956 he unseated Georgy Malenkov to consolidate together the heads of the Party and of the State. Ironically, just the same as Stalin did.

But today Benin was excited because she and John were going to have a special visitor. John himself was hurriedly flying back from Rostov and she expected him to be home around 6.

The previous day, however, Artem Mikoyan and his technical team had lead John out towards the hangar. Mikoyan was completely aware that, unlike back in 1939, he had far more power and influence than this 'igornorante.' That word was familiar to his technical staff, for they heard Mikoyan use it often in reference to John. It came from the Kuban dialect of Southern Russia. It was a scornful term for foreigner, or immigrant. Mikoyan, an Armenian, apparently didn't appreciate the irony.

He, Mikoyan, and the OKB.MiG were the pre-eminent designers of the Soviet Air Force's fighters. After the MiG-15, MiG-17 and the new MiG-19, all made in vast numbers and hugely successful, any negative word from John Greenhaugh about his newest project could be used to subvert the General's reputation at the Kremlin. Finally, John would be revealed as a bigotted amateur. Perhaps even under the influence of a foreign power? That thought had intrigued Mikoyan. Maybe John was really secretly working for the British?

The hangar doors were securely closed and an armed guard stood watchfully outside. Even the Director himself had to sign the registry and show the guard his ID. When all the formalities were completed, Mikoyan lead them inside.

All of a sudden the big relay switches let out a metalic clank and the floodlights came on. Revealed in the centre of the hanger was a sleek jet fighter finished in all over silver.

Mikoyan looked like a magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Some of his staff clapped, as if they'd never seen it before.

"Projekt Ye-5," he announced, "the new lightweight interceptor for the Air Force, pending official approval." John nodded and slowly walked around the aircraft.

It was small, with the fusilage shrink-wrapped around an internal turbojet. Its nose was long and featured a prominent radome nestled in the engine intake. The tail fin was large and swept radically back. But, to John, the most interesting thing was the wings. These were mid-mounted, semi-deltas and seemed pathetically small compared to the rest of the plane. 'Low aspect ratio, ' to use aeronautical jargon.

John returned from his circumnavigation of the aircraft to where Mikoyan and his staff were standing.

"Power?" he asked, staring up at the clear-view cockpit canopy.

"Turmansky RD-11... 15,000 pounds of thrust. Dr Mikulin designed it before he..."

"Before he fell ill and turned his OKB over to S.I Turmansky? Yes, I heard the story." Everyone had heard the official version of the sudden retirement of Dr A.A Mikulin and the handing over of his famous bureau to his deputy. Few believed it, however, and rumours abounded.

"We are working on the pre-production aeroplane," continued Mikoyan, "if all goes well it will enter service in two years time as the MiG-21F."

"As I recall, Artem, the Ministry specifications called for an interceptor that could catch American high-level jet bombers. Is this your answer?"

"It is, General," he replied, coldly, "it will fly to 18,000 metres with a speed of mach 2."

"Mmm, mach 2?" John said, raising his eyebrows and barely concealing his excitement, "perhaps you'll let me take it up?"

"We haven't, at present, any plans for a UTI(Two seat trainer). We have only the single-seat version."

"You think I need a chauffeur?" John said with mock indignation, "you don't trust me to fly it myself?"

"Have you flown the MiG-19?"

"Of course," John lied.

"Well, I guess..." said Mikoyan, scratching his jaw, "you'll find the angle of attack more acute on take off than the MiG-19. The delta wings, you know, require a higher take-off speed. But, my test pilots tell me, it snap-rolls like nothing on the planet and will pull a 5g turn, no trouble. You think you can handle that?"

"5gs?" John grinned, "get me a flying suit."

Garcia was away at the Air Force Academy. When he'd arrived at teenagehood he was already taller than Benin and worshipped his Father. Benin reconciled to having another pilot in the family.

Vasily was altogether different and displayed a thirst for knowledge and study early on. Benin was sure the boy would be a professor one day. The twin girls, Anika and Damia, were barely two and a delightful surprise long after they'd agreed not to have any more children.

Then, of course, there was the 'other, ' Ivan Ioannovich Ivanova. He was 13 years old, now, and was another who was bound for either the Air Force, V.V-S, or the Navy's Air Arm, AV-VMF. John had acknowledged paternity and had his name inserted on the State Birth Records. There was little shame in this. The war had resulted in a confusion of ex-nuptial births and Fatherless children.

Ivan could have been sent to an orphanage to be raised in State care. John was adamant this wasn't going to happen and was supported by the boy's Mother, Jana Ivanova.

Jana herself, with Ivan in tow, arrived promptly at 5.30. At 44 she hadn't lost any of her beauty, nor had she ever married. No-one had quite fitted the bill. At any rate, no-one for whom she was willing to give up her independence.

She was a reserve officer in the V.V-S as well as a senior training pilot with the State airline, Aeroflot. As such, she had a rating for just about every civil aircraft flying in the USSR, as Aeroflot did everything from long haul international flights to crop dusting and servicing drilling rigs in Siberia. Last Summer she had her first flight in a helicopter, designed by OKB.Mil. Much interest in choppers had come from the Navy for their flotillas of Anti-Submarine Destroyers, or 'Bol'shoy Protivolodochny Korabl'.' OKB.Kamov was said to be working on designs for Helicopters that could be operated from the confines of the small deck of a ship.