I am nostalgic about the times when I used to devour books set in former Soviet Union or during the Cold War. Nostalgic for those times, long ago, when I was so in love with the literary re-telling of the times, although I deeply hated everything about that actually took place in real time. The literary references sounded familiar to me, while I despised - and still do - every single reminder of those unfair chain of events. Particularly, everything in relation to the Soviet incarceration system and the political prisoners was interesting to explore in the literary realms, but when reading or hearing stories about how things actually happened, I was disgusted about how low humans can go. Soon after, my literary interests switched to other horrors - wars in the former Yugoslavia, South American dictatorships, religious dictorships. The literary renditions were opening up new doors into the same human lowliness, although kindness and integrity were sparkling the light of hope.
My last books with Soviet topics that I loved were A Gentleman in Moscow and The Patriots, but this happened four years ago. This weekend, I offered myself the pleasure of a different kind of book, also shorter, taking place during the same troubled times: Comrade Koba by Robert Littell. This is Littell´s 20th book, set during the Cold War, but for me, it was the first encounter with this author, an American writer based in France.
Set during the last weeks and months from the life of Stalin - nom de guerre, Koba - it is written as an account about ´the old man with a iodine breath´ as told by a little boy, Leon Rozental. His father, a nuclear physicist, died of radiation poisoning. His mother, a heart doctor at Kremlin hospital, was shortly after sent to prison following the antisemitic Doctor´s Plot. Leon´s family is Jewish. The boy is left alone in the House of Embankment, together with other children whose parents ´disappeared´, either murdered or sent to Siberia. Although the apartments are sealed by the NKVD, the children, particularly Leon, do find a way to survive. Mostly, by meeting Koba to whose residence he reached by wandering through various secret underground tunnels.
Leon assumes he is meeting someone who is helping Stalin to rule the world. He wants to be his ´hypothetical authorized biographer´ and he keps a kind of diary with questions and short impressions about the encounters.
The whole story is told through the eyes of the children, Leon and his older girlfriend, Isabeau. Isabeau relates second hand accounts about the story. At times, she may think he lost his marbles and no one has any idea about who this old man may be, including Leon. It may be the same with a reader that has no idea about whose nom de guerre Koba was and in general, details about Stalin and his Soviet Union.
Stalin does not appear as a hero or as a criminal, just a human, an ´old man with a iodine breath´ which is alone. Leon is able to break ´through the wall of his loneliness´.
The idea of telling the story exclusively through children´s voices is a different literary choice. It does not necessarily bring ´innocence´ into the story, but layers of humour and a kind of curiosity that is genuinely human but deterred by various educational reasons. I am not sure that direct curiosity equals innocence. Actually, I don´t think at all. Nevertheless, the kids, a ´Home alone, the Soviet variant´, are brave enough to kill an NKVD-ist keen to get some money from the children, partly made up of the money given by ´Koba´ to Leon, partly from a Modigliani Leon sold for 300 rubles to a trustworthy family connection. The children don´t doubt the communist values and the Soviet Union. They even accept to change Monopoly to Yloponom, the same word but spelled backwards, to make it sound more ´communistical´.
The story is told in the pace of a classical story, which enfolds at a controlled rhythm by the author. This was not my favorite part about the story. I also would have love more interactions between the characters as the book it is not supposed to be a book for children, although it features children.
Reading Comrade Koba was a reminder about how much I am still interesting in enjoying this historical and geographical area, and therefore will be curious to read latest works on this topic. A book that one does not enjoy may open new opportunities and literary ideas though so in a way I am glad that I´ve spent some weekend time with this one.
Rating: 3 stars
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