Review: A Present Past by Sergei Lebedev

Synopsis: The Soviet and post-Soviet world, with its untold multitude of crimes, is a natural breeding ground for ghost stories. No one writes them more movingly than Russian author Sergei Lebedev, who in this stunning volume probes a collective guilty conscience marked by otherworldliness and the denial of misdeeds. 

These eleven tales share a mystical topography in which the legacy of totalitarian regimes is ever-present—from Katyn to Chechnya, from Lithuanian KGB documents to the streetscape of unified Berlin, from the fragments of family history to the echoes of foot soldiers in Russia’s wars of aggression. 

In these stories, as in Lebedev’s acclaimed novels, the voices of things, places, animals, and people seek justice for a restless past, where steel claws scrape just beneath the surface and where the heredity of evil is uninterrupted, unacknowledged, unnamed.

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I loved Lebedev's "Untraceable" - so was looking forward to reading more from him.

This series of short stories, haunting tales of a Soviet past intruding on a Soviet present, were very different from the abovementioned work, but were intriguing in themselves nonetheless. I would have to say that my favourite tale was "Titan" - the story of a person of interest to the Soviet Secret Police, who managed to turn the tables on them in a rather unique way.

For anyone wanting to further explore Russian literature, definitely pick this up!

Review: Untraceable by Sergei Lebedev

Synopsis: In 2018, a former Russian secret agent and his daughter were poisoned with a lethal neurotoxin that left them slumped over on a British park bench in critical condition. The story of who did it, and how these horrendous contaminants were developed, captivates and terrifies in equal measure. It has inspired acclaimed author Sergei Lebedev’s latest page-turning novel. At its center is a scheming chemist named Professor Kalitin, obsessed with developing an absolutely deadly, undetectable and untraceable poison for which there is no antidote. He becomes consumed by guilt over the death of his wife, the first accidental victim of his Faustian pact to create the ultimate venom, and the deaths of hundreds of test subjects. After he defects from the Soviet Union to spend his “retirement” years in the West, two Russian secret agents are dispatched to assassinate him. In this fast-paced, genre-bending novel, Lebedev weaves tension-filled pages of stunningly beautiful prose exploring the historical trajectories of evil. From Nazi labs, Stalinist plots, the Chechen Wars, to present-day Russia, Lebedev probes the ethical responsibilities of scientists supplying modern tyrants and autocrats with ever newer instruments of retribution, destruction and control. Lebedev, one of Russia’s most important and exciting writers, has never been better.

This really is the tale of assassination. We open with an assassination and we finish with one.

It took me a little while to get into the rhythm of the narrative style of the author, and to be honest, I nearly put it aside (I wasn't really sure where this was set - ie: locations - and what time period - though guessed late 20th / early 21st century). However, upon persevering, it became quite a good story. 

Chemical and biological warfare is nothing new in the spying game, but we only ever hear of the main players - the victims, the politicians - we never read about the creators of these fiendish weapons. Lebedev does just that - we are taken into the private world of a defecting scientist who has created the perfect, untraceable, weapon, as he grapples with his current lot in life and wonders whether the grass was actually greener on the other side. Played against the chemist Kalitin, the prey in this cat and mouse game, is the soldier - the hunter - Lt Colonel Shershnev. He too grapples with his past as he and his companion embark on their mission.

The narrative alternates between Kalitin and Shershnev as each recall events in their past that have led to this point in time. There is not thrilling chase scenes (Bourne style) - well, not to we get towards the end.

Not your standard espionage novel - but definitely one to read.

See also:

- Spy Assassinations: Top 5 Deadly Poisons

- The Devilish Art of Assassination

- List of Soviet & Russian Assassinations