Word: gorin
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Feodor's mission is psychological tug-of-warfare with Mikhail Gorin, an old and honored writer who godfathered the revolution back in Czarist days, but refuses to toady to Stalin. Gorin, the titan of the title, is intentionally modeled on Russia's late great writer, Maxim Gorky, and in chronicling his fall Author Gouzenko stages scenes with other Russian VIPs, e.g., Stalin, Malenkov, Beria (who wears the name Veria, plus the identifying pince...
...Gorin likes Feodor, and before long Novikov's subtle brand of doubletalk has the old writer naively whitewashing Stalinist tyranny by eulogizing Russia's mad despot, Ivan the Terrible. The Kremlin bravos. But Gorin is heartsick at betraying his own values, and makes indiscreet remarks about the regime. From Veria, Feodor receives new orders, and he carries them out by smashing Gorin's head against a radiator until it is a bloody pulp...
After falling deeply in love with Gorin's daughter Nina (the real Gorky had no daughter), Feodor is warned by his boss: "A Bolshevik cannot mix business with pleasure." Good Bolshevik Feodor drops her and marries a factory manager's daughter, but when the factory manager is denounced as "an enemy of the people" and thrown into a concentration camp, Feodor coolly abandons his pregnant wife...