Русское воскрешение Мэрилин Монро. На 2 языках

Though, in a month’s time General Secretary Yuri Andropov had died. The academician watched on the TV screen his coffin being solemnly carried on a gun-carriage through the snow-covered Red Square, and a lump rose to his throat. He felt that most important purpose of his life would never be accomplished now, and as a Communist he had lived his life in vain.

Прошли еще полтора года. За это время успел заступить в должность и умереть еще один Генеральный секретарь партии, началась горбачевская «перестройка», а великая коммунистическая держава медленно, но неотвратимо начала сползать в пропасть капитализма.

И вот однажды летним вечером, когда академик вышел во двор своего дома погулять с собакой, из припаркованной рядом машины вышел человек и направился к нему. Академик обратил на него внимание только когда услыхал из его уст свое имя.

Another one and a half years elapsed. One more Secretary General accepted the office, the next one in a queue of elderly Politburo members, but he also died very soon. Much younger Gorbachev was given the office, with a mutual hope on vigor in his veins, but that, as it turned out, was a dubious decision. The last in the party’s history Secretary General started his perestroika, that is a “reconstruction”, and the great Communist state, or as US President Ronald Reagan named it, an Evil Empire, started to slide slowly and inevitably down to the abyss of ideologically opposing Capitalism.

One hot summer evening, when academician got out of his Moscow apartment for a walk with his dog, from the car that was parked by the doorway appeared a stranger and approached him in twilight. The academician noticed him only when the stranger called him by the name.

– С кем имею честь? – не очень дружелюбно спросил он, разглядывая в полутьме незнакомца и натягивая поводок рвущейся в сторону собаки.

– Вот мои документы, – ответил тот и протянул ему красные корочки с гербом Советского Союза и буквами «КГБ».

– Я вас слушаю, – сказал академик, продолжая разглядывать в темноте фотографию на пропуске.

– Чтобы вы мне больше доверяли, – сказал незнакомец, – я могу напомнить вам содержание вашего разговора с Юрием Андроповым полтора года назад. Никто, кроме вас двоих, его не слышал. Мне его пересказал лично товарищ Андропов.

Академик вздрогнул и вскинул глаза.

– Не обязательно.

“May I have the honor to ask who are you?” asked the academician cautiously; that was a polite but detached and very old-fashioned Russian expression. The academician scrutinized in the twilight the stranger’s face while his small dog was pulling him away by the lead.

“Here’s my credentials,” said the stranger and held out his hand with a double-folded red card with a state emblem and golden letters KGB.

“What do you want?” asked the academician scrutinizing in the darkness the photograph inside the card.

“Just one thing – I want you to trust me,” said the stranger and smiled. “To that effect I want to remind you the subject and content of your conversation with late Yuri Andropov one and a half year ago in a hospital ward. No one except two of you had heard it. I was told of this conversation personally by late comrade Andropov. Shall I recall it to you?”The academician shuddered and threw up his eyes. “It’s not necessary.”

– Северокорейские товарищи вас ждут. Предсмертное поручение, которое вам дал Юрий Владимирович, остается в силе. Вы можете выехать на восток хоть завтра.

– Завтра не получится… – в раздумье сказал академик и посмотрел на свои часы.

– Вы уедите вдвоем с женой и, как вас предупреждали, под чужими фамилиями. Детей, как мне известно, у вас нет. Так?

Академик грустно кивнул головой в темноте двора.

– Вы сможете взять туда только одного или двух ближайших сотрудников, если они, конечно, согласятся.

– Но я могу взять с собой хотя бы эту собаку?

“North Korean comrades are awaiting you. The orders you were given by comrade Andropov on his death bed do remain in force. The mission he has assigned to you can be commenced: you can leave for the East tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow will not do, it’s a bit inconvenient,” the academician said anxiously and looked at his watch. “Do you have a train schedule?”

“No. You will go with your wife, and, as you have been warned, your names will be changed. As far as I know, you have no children. Is it so?”

The academician sadly nodded in the dusk of the backyard.

“You can take with you one or two of your closest associates, if they would agree, of course, and no more.”

“But I can take along at least this dog?”

– С вашей собакой проблем нет. Но я обязан вам сообщить, наше подразделение в комитете безопасности вела переговоры с корейскими товарищами без санкции нынешнего политбюро и Генерального секретаря, – выполняя лишь предсмертное поручение Юрия Андропова. Вы не сможете впоследствии обратиться к нам за помощью, вы уходите в самостоятельное плавание, рассчитывая только на свои силы. И действовать во всем будете, как коммунист, по своему усмотрению, и по советам корейских товарищей. И самое последнее. Эта длительная командировка – без права переписки. Как космонавты, вы вернетесь, возможно, совсем в иную страну, где вас никто не узнает. Но настоящие коммунисты здесь останутся навсегда, я вас уверяю, и ваш подвиг они по достоинству оценят. У вас есть время все обдумать и отказаться. Конечно, уважаемый ученый, решать только вам.

“No problem with your dog. But I am obliged to tell you, that our KGB department negotiated this matter with Korean comrades without sanctions of the current Politburo and its Secretary General. We just carried out the assignment of our former chief of KGB, late Yuri Andropov. Do you understand what’s that mean? That means you would never be able ask us for any help, material or juridical. As I said, current Politburo isn’t aware of this mission, and the KGB that I represent would not go along with you. As for the gratitude, if you expect it, you will have to count on the next generation of Communists in this country – I sincerely believe they would still be around in twenty years; I understand, this is the minimal period you need to raise the Leninist clones. Thus you are sailing off on honorable but a very lonely mission, relying only on your own means. You will be acting on your own decisions, as a true Communist, and with support of our Korean comrades. Unfortunately, I must warn you of one more term of your long and perhaps dangerous mission: you will be deprived of the right of correspondence. No letters. I guess it’s very cruel, but definitely necessary in the circumstances. As space-travelers you will return to cardinally changed country, probably with oppressive Capitalistic regime, and nobody will recognize you. But I assure you, the true Communists will forever remain on this soil, and they will appraise your deed, you will attain their gratitude for ages. But of course, my dear academician, the final decision is up to you.”

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.