Lidiya, The Photo File
By Robert Hendry
Published by Lidiya Petrova Novels,
Smashwords Edition
Copyright Robert Hendry
This is a work of fiction. All the characters who appear in this series, with the exception of certain historical figure, all deceased, such as Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Mikhail Suslov, Marshal Dmiti Ustinov, Admiral Sergey Gorshkov, Marshal Nikolay Ogarkov, Boris Ponomarev, etc, are fictitious and the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to any other actual living person is purely co-incidental.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright Robert Hendry 2010
From an early stage in “To Kill Our Worthy Comrade” there is a naval perspective. This is hardly surprising as much of the action takes place in and around Sevastopol, the headquarters of the Soviet and Russian Black Sea Fleet since 1783. Admiral Mikhail Petrov, the C-in-C of the Fleet had been stationed at the Submarine base in South Bay when he was a junior submarine officer in the 1950s.
An Extract
Leonid Lebed slammed the brakes on and the GAZ squealed to a halt. He walked, rather than ran to the entrance to the block of flats in order not to attract attention, but hurried upstairs and unlocked the door. He walked in. He noticed the flat seemed much cleaner than it had, and realised Lidiya had been busy whilst he was away.
‘Privet’ she said with a smile and then noticed his expression, ‘What’s the matter?’
‘Privet. Fleet Headquarters and the KGB are after you. This place is too obvious. They’ll raid it, and pick you up. You’ve got to go.’
Lidiya nodded her head.
‘But what about you?’
‘I’ll try and bluff it out, but don’t waste time.
******
‘I want Mikhail back, I just want him back. You can’t imagine..’
The track worker’s daughter from Kazan who had floated in a fairy tale world that had been abruptly destroyed and then recreated when she married her admiral, sobbed in Ira’s arms. Ira, only a couple of years older than Lidiya, comforted her as a mother would do.
Suddenly Lidiya broke off, for she had realised that of the two of them Ira would know far better than she did of what it was to lose your guy. Her Mikhail was under arrest, but she had the hope that she would see him again. Ira had waved Fedor goodbye when he left the flat to take his boat to sea. With the horrendous explosion when his ship was torpedoed, Ira did not even have a body to bury.
******
About the Author
Robert Hendry is a successful author with 26 published titles. The Lidiya Petrova Series draws on thirty years study of the Soviet Union, and first hand knowledge of much of the military hardware and of the locations that appear in this series. Robert has seen live firings of Soviet missiles; he has photographed Soviet warships, helicopters and armor at close range. He has seen Naval infantry and Spetsnaz Naval frogmen training, and was present when a World War Two Nazi mine had to be removed from Sevastopol harbour. He is married to a charming Russian girl, Elena, and has three daughters.
Author's note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction were 18 years of age or older at the date the story commences in 1982
Lidiya, The Photo File
By
Robert Hendry
Chapter 1 Lidiya, the Admiral and I
The Lidiya Petrova Series opens with “To Kill Our Worthy Comrade” which is set in 1981. Air, Land and Sea action erupts as a ruthless plot to assassinate Leonid Brezhnev develops. By chance the KGB learns of the plot, but not when or where the plotters will strike. It could be in Moscow, but in summer, Soviet Leaders, including the ageing General Secretary of the CPSU, flock to a string of luxurious dachas on the south coast of the Crimea.
NEXT PAGE In “To Kill Our Worthy Comrade” we met Larisa Burtseva and her husband who is in the Militsia or Civil Police. One day the newly weds go to swim in Sevastopol harbour at the Sunken Ships Memorial, and the lively young woman climbs on to the base of the memorial to watch the ships putting to sea. The memorial commemorated the scuttling of Russian warships in 1854 to prevent the British and French warships entering the harbour. In a line with the memorial, you can see a modern warship.
“Matros” or Seamen form an Honour Guard in front of the colonnade to the Count’s Landing at Sevastopol, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet. When Admiral Petrov took command of the Black Sea Fleet, he would have inspected an honour guard at the colonnade, and then proceeded down the steps to the landing stage itself.
In “To Kill Our Worthy Comrade” we meet the nineteen-year-old Lidiya Kornilova, who has completed her basic training as a moryachka or female rating. She faces a 36-hour train trip from Leningrad to Sevastopol, the Black Sea Fleet base. The train she travels on is like this one, hauled by two Czech-built ChS2 class 1500v electric locomotives. This train, which stretches far into the distance, gives an idea of the size of Soviet trains, and is snaking its way round the sinuous curves near Inkerman, at the landward end of the “fjord” that makes up Sevastopol harbour.
To my surprise I recently ended up in a “Threesome”, with a girl called Lidiya Petrova and her husband, Admiral Mikhail Petrov. The whole complicated situation is entirely Lidiya’s fault, and arose because she managed to get drunk! Not merely did the silly girl get drunk, but she chose a dumb place to do so.
If you were working as a junior communications rating in the headquarters of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, would you select Fleet HQ as the place to get stoned? Of course not you say! If you did, would you do it on the day that the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was paying an official visit? Of course not! Even better, Lidiya managed to get drunk in the sitting room of the C-in-C of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Mikhail Petrov.
Well, now you know. If you ask why the poor girl did so, the answer is simple. Lidiya’s immediate boss, Captain Stephan Viktorov, fancied her, and being a Captain (Second Rank), propositioned her. Now if you are a junior female rating that is bad news, but Lidiya was perfectly agreeable to this cosy idea. She mentioned in passing that they would need to be careful, as her boyfriend might get mad.
That did not worry the captain until Lidiya let slip that her drook (Russian for guy) was a KGB major. Captain Viktorov decided that you had to be a fool to play around with a girl, however willing, who was KGB property. It was not a career-enhancing move, so he dropped her like a hot potato. That suited Lidiya who blew a kiss to her entirely imaginary KGB boyfriend and went on her chaotic way.
Stephan Viktorov was pissed to say the least, and when Leonid Brezhnev visited fleet HQ, made sure that Lidiya caught the roving eye of the great man. Lidiya got roped into the banquet, and realised what was expected of her after the meal. A naturally shy girl, she decided the only way to get through it was to get drunk, which was easy enough with all the toasts that were being downed.
As it happened Comrade Brezhnev also got plastered, so nothing happened, but Lidiya was left in Admiral Petrov’s quarters to await questioning. When the Admiral returned after a damned awful day, he found her there, had a drink himself, and foolishly gave her one. Given the amount of vodka she had downed, she started telling anti Soviet jokes, which would get her arrested.
Petrov realised that if he sent her back to her quarters she would be in the cells in minutes, so he decided to let her sleep it off in his living room. Lidiya misconstrued his intentions when he lifted her up to carry her to the sofa, and the admiral, who lost his wife some years before, soon found they were kissing and cuddling. A few minutes later they were in bed.
Now, of all nights, that was the night that the admiral’s ADC burst into his chief’s bedroom to say that all hell had broken loose in the Crimea. Lidiya was unceremoniously thrown out of the admiral’s quarters wearing her shoes and nothing else.
The following morning, Lidiya recalled some of the things she had said, and realised she would be reported to the Fleet Main Political Directorate and end up in the cells. That evening she was ordered to report to Petrov’s quarters, where she realised that she would be denounced and arrested. Instead, Petrov suggested that she should be more discrete in the future.
Wondering if she had to “put up” in thanks for that consideration, Lidiya discovered she was under no such pressure. Admiral Petrov was not going to hand her over to the Fleet Political Directorate for her anti-Soviet indiscretions. That meant a lot to the naïve and impressionable Lidiya. Things just took off from there.
How did I get involved? Well, Admiral Petrov was one of the key characters in my novel, “To Kill Our Worthy Comrade” and Lidiya had been introduced into the plot as some spicy and light relief at a tense moment just after a Soviet SAM (Surface to Air Missile) battery has gone into action in the Crimea.
At the time, I thought Lidiya would be a “one night stand”, but she kept wandering into the story and into the Admiral’s life. Soon we found out why the impressionable young woman had joined the navy and what it meant to her.
By the end of the book, Petrov was clearly very fond of her and told me that it was my responsibility as author to do something about it, as he was lonely after his wife had died. As C-in-C fleet, Mikhail had an awesome amount of firepower at his disposal including two aviation cruisers, several guided missile cruisers and some magnificent all gun cruisers.
If someone points a revolver at you it is wise to do as they suggest. If someone points twelve 152mm guns at you, and reminds you that this is just one of his lesser resources, you are very foolish not to pay heed. Mikhail was not that blunt, but I realised I would have a seriously angry Soviet Admiral with his own Spetsnaz unit if I did not agree to play Cupid.
Lidiya’s parents were horrified when they knew what was up, as they remembered the day when their impractical and romantic daughter managed to get drunk and had been seduced by the school wolf on the last day of school celebrations. Lidiya, who is the youngest of three sisters, had floated through life entranced by Russian folk tales, and her parents regarded her as their “Little Dreamer”.
When they heard the news that Lidiya had gotten engaged they feared the worst, as Admirals do not marry track workers daughters. They were more than a little astonished and relieved when the admiral really did marry the girl. They were equally perplexed to hear that Lidiya had been promoted to Lieutenant and had received the Order of the Red Star for her role in defeating the plot to murder Comrade Brezhnev.
So, 51-year-old Admiral Mikhail Petrov comes out of the story with the 20-year-old Lidiya as his wife, and the couple adore one another. There is no doubt of that. What do I end up with? Well, in a word, a twenty-year-old blonde problem. Lidiya is now a part of the admiral’s life, which meant she was inevitably going to end up in the next episode in the story.
She is impractical, and if you hadn’t already guessed it, still has a soft spot for Russian folk tales in which the Prince marries the serf’s daughter. Lidiya, whose papa is a railroad track worker, has married an admiral, so that is not far off the folk story. She is romantic, good-natured, and needs to be looked after if she is to get through a single day in her life without a crisis.
Well, that is what her mama and papa thought, that is probably what Admiral Petrov thought, and that is what I thought. As the story line for the sequel started to evolve, I discussed how we should develop the plot with Admiral Petrov. As a senior Soviet naval officer, Mikhail does know the system, so was very helpful. The trouble was Lidiya kept on joining in.
She stomped her foot, tossed her head and generally behaved in a very troublesome manner. I ended up by being a henpecked author. After Lidiya had sorted that book out to her satisfaction, and had named it “The Admiral’s Woman”, Mikhail and I started to discuss the sequel. If either of us thought we could get away with that, we had another think coming.
Lidiya poured herself a lemon and lime, (as she said that she had no intention of getting drunk ever again). Then she outlined the plot to us. I am very fond of Lidiya. She is an enchanting girl, but she tends to boss the admiral about, although she does it in a very lovable way.
As he is her husband, that is perfectly reasonable, for what else are husbands for. The problem is that she bosses me around too. Now that is quite wrong, as I am the author, so I should be able to say, “Lidiya, this is what will happen.” Instead, Lidiya says “Niet, Niet, Niet, Roobeert, it will be much better if we do it this way.”
I have to admit she is usually right, and in any case it is easier to agree with her. By the start of the third novel in the Lidiya Petrova series, Lidiya has come under the wing of one of the most influential figures in the USSR, Boris Ponomarev, who sees her as a perfect tool to promote the Soviet Union on the world stage. With that backing, Lidiya is even prepared to argue with the Politburo, so I suppose I have very little hope of controlling the girl.
What moral can we draw from this story? Well, if you are an author, it is important not to allow one of your characters to get too bossy, even if she is drop dead gorgeous, blue eyed, blonde and lovable. Mikhail Petrov and I agreed we would name the series “The Lidiya Petrova Series” as she had taken over, and what do you think she did. She looked at us, smiled and said we were both sweet.
If you do not think that a cute gal could take on the male dominated Soviet system and reorganise it to suit herself, you had better know a little about Amy. Unlike Lidiya, who was a character from fiction, though she rejects that idea as silly, Amy was for real.
Amy was born in 1683. Lidiya came from a poor family, as her papa was a railroad track worker. By contrast, Amy’s granddad was a Civil War Major General, and her dad was the commander of not one but two castles. As a kid, Amy watched her pop drilling the garrisons under his command, and knew she came from a proud military elite.
Historians will say that women in the 1700s are virtually invisible. Amy was anything but invisible. She appeared in a law case, decided that she and her husband would enter into a trust deed, and when she died in 1750, left her own will. She also left a fund of stories that were handed down to her descendants for the next two hundred and fifty years, so she must have had an extraordinary way with words.
One of her stories that was passed down to me was that “one of your ancestors wore armour”. It sounded as if it had come out of Walt Disney rather than the real world, but as I dug back into the family history I discovered Major General Richard Stevenson. He, too, had left a will, and it still survived after over 300 years. It read,
“I leave my bow and quiver, my arms and armor…”
There was the documentary proof of the story Amy had told. Amy was quite a gal. Her granddaughter was a twenty-year-old cutie by the name of Sukie. It was now the 1760s, and England and France were at War. For decades the Royal Navy had trounced the French navy and would do so for generations to come, so challenging the RN was pointless.
That was what the RN thought, but they had not met Sukie. The RN stood in the way of Sukie’s happiness, so Sukie decided she needed to do something about it. No novelist would pit a 20 year-old-girl against the Admiralty and have the girl win. Sukie never thought about whether she could win or not. She just did so.
Move on to the 1790s and Sukie’s daughter is in her early twenties. Sophia attends a family wedding. Now everybody knows that in the 1790s, which is about the time of the Jane Austen heroines, that women are too stupid to decide any important matter, let alone witness any documents. Sophia says she will be one of the witnesses at the wedding to represent her side of the family.
The very idea is ridiculous. Everyone knows that women are too stupid to be a witness. “Everyone” knows except for Sophia, and that is the problem. If Momma took on the Royal Navy and won, a bishop, a clergyman and the congregation are no match for Sophia, who signs the register.
Go on to the last few months of peace in 1939 and Amy’s Great x 5 grand daughter is the wife of a British army officer stationed in Egypt. They are living in a boarding house on the outskirts of Cairo, and there is a German refugee from Hitler there. Elaine realises something is wrong and goes to see the Director of Military Intelligence.
Not knowing the intelligence world, Elaine assumes that the guy will be arrested. Instead she is recruited to work for the DMI to keep the Nazi agent under surveillance, and nearly gets knifed doing so, but it is the guy who backs off. Like the ecclesiastical authorities and the Royal Navy, the Abwehr had encountered one of Amy’s girls.
Sukie, Sophia and Elaine were Amy’s girls in real life. Lidiya, who wandered into my first novel, “To Kill Our Worthy Comrade” seems to have the same determination, and I guess I am stuck with her. No one bossed Sukie, Sophia or Elaine about. What chance do Mikhail or I have with Lidiya?
If you think Lidiya sounds bossy, that’s not true. She is idealistic, still something of a dreamer, but strong willed and lovable. Mikhail adores her and so do I. By the end of the third novel in the Lidiya Petrova series, the Petrov household has expanded to include two daughters, and three nannies, all of whom are devoted to Lidiya.
Balaklava was closed to the rest of the Soviet Union. At the wharf on the left, you can see why, as a submarine is tied up. The buildings on the wharf are part of the Project 825 underground submarine base, which is buried beneath the hill. The quay on the right is where sub skippers Anatoli Vlasenko and Grigori Vanayev take their wives for a walk. The Border Guard quays from which Fedor Ustinov sailed is at the top of the harbour, and a couple of BG patrol boats are there. In the foreground is one of the medieval towers that prompted Fedor to visit the library where he met Irina.
As the story develops, Grigori Vanayev is ordered to take a Spetsnaz frogman unit on board his ultra quiet Sheatfish diesel submarine. As soon as the frogmen are aboard, Grigori takes the submarine down the tunnel from the heart of the hill to emerge from one of the most secret installations in the whole of the Soviet Union.
Deep in the heart of the submarine base, the size of the structure starts to become apparent as we see a junior naval officer taking a break in one of the massive caverns that has been hollowed out of the living rock, a project accomplished by Moscow subway construction workers and prisoners from the notorious Gulag.
From Czarist days, the Crimean south coast from Sevastopol to Yalta has been the playground of the leaders of Russian society. We are looking towards the Crimean coast in the vicinity of Foros, where General Markov had his dacha. The dacha used by Mikhail Gorbachev at the time of the 1991 plot was not far away and the dacha used by Leonid Brezhnev in 1981 was just outside Yalta.
Chapter 2 Through the Looking Glass
Warning – ADULT CONTENT.
“The Admiral’s Woman” takes up the Lidiya Petrova story soon after 20-year-old Lidiya, by now a Lieutenant in the VMF, the Voyenno Morskoy Flot, or Soviet Navy, marries Mikhail Petrov. Placed in the Reserves after her marriage, it is an idyllic time for Lidiya with the man who saved her from an Article 58 prison sentence.
From a life of luxury and happiness, Lidiya is plunged into a world where freedom and life itself is in jeopardy. Before the end of “The Admiral’s Woman”, the Little Dreamer has to draw on every scrap of courage and determination she possesses. How she faces challenges that would break most people is central to the story of how a good natured but very ordinary young woman shows that she is anything but ordinary.