The train slowed, nearing the town of Berehowe on the Soviet side of the heavily fortified border. Raisa leaned forward, addressing Karoly directly:
—Why has Panin allowed us to go to Budapest when Fraera is working for him?
Karoly shrugged:
—You would have to ask Panin himself. It is not for me to say. If you want to turn back, that is up to you. I have no power over your movements.
Karoly looked out the window, remarking:
—The troops are not crossing the border. From here on, we behave like civilians. Where we are going, Russians are not loved.
He turned to Raisa:
—They won’t make any distinction between you and your husband. It doesn’t matter that you’re a teacher and he’s an officer. You’ll be hated just the same.
Raisa prickled at being spoken down to:
—I understand hatred.
AT THE BORDER, Karoly handed over the papers. He glanced back, watching Leo and Raisa, in conversation, seated in the back of the car—paying careful attention not to glance at him, a giveaway that they were debating how far they could trust him. They would be wise not to trust him in any way. His orders were simple. He was to delay bringing Leo and Raisa into the city until an uprising had begun. Once Fraera had served her purpose, Leo, a man reported to be of great tenacity and zeal, a trained killer, could be allowed his revenge.
SOVIET-CONTROLLED EASTERN EUROPE
HUNGARY
BUDAPEST
SAME DAY
EXHILARATED, ZOYA CLUTCHED Malysh’s hand, not wanting to lose him among the thousands of people pooling into Parliament Square from every street and junction. Having spent so many years romanticizing death, certain it was the only answer to her loneliness, she now felt like jumping up and down, as if she owed the world an apology, shouting out—I am alive!
The march had far exceeded expectations, no longer merely made up of students and dissidents. The whole city seemed to be gathering in the square, drawn out of their apartments, offices, factories, unable to resist the demonstration’s gravitational pull, which grew stronger with each new person joining. Zoya understood the significance of their location. A parliament should be the center of power, the place where a nation’s destiny was decided. In reality, the building was irrelevant, an ornate, majestic front for Soviet authority. Its beauty somehow made the insult worse.
The sun had set. Yet the night didn’t diminish the excitement. More and more people were arriving, disregarding habits of prudence and caution, the influx continuing even though the square was already full, the new arrivals forcing the crowd closer together. Far from claustrophobic, the atmosphere was affectionate. Strangers talked and laughed and hugged each other. Zoya had never been caught up in a public assembly like this before. She’d been compelled to attend May Day celebrations in Moscow, but this was different. It wasn’t the scale. It was the disorder, the absence of authority. No officers stood in the corner. No formations of tanks rolled by. No troops clicked heels as they passed rows of handpicked children waving flags. A fearless protest, an act of defiance: everyone was free to do as they pleased, to sing and clap and chant:
Russkik haza! Russkik haza! Russkik haza!
Hundreds of feet stamped the three-beat-rhythm and Zoya joined in, fists clenched, punching the air, overcome with an indignation that was, considering her nationality, absurd.
Russians go home!
She didn’t care if she was Russian. Home was here, among people who had suffered as she’d suffered and who understood oppression as she understood it.
Shorter than the men and women around her, Zoya strained on tiptoes. Suddenly she felt two hands clasp her waist as Fraera lifted her up, placing her onto her shoulders, giving her a view of the entire square. The crowd was larger than she’d supposed, stretching up to the Parliament building and the river behind it. There were people across roads and lawns, tram tracks, clambering onto pillars and statues.
Without warning the Parliament lights shut off, plunging the square into darkness. There was confusion among the crowd. There was power in the side streets. It must be a deliberate act against them, an attempt to drive them away, to break their resolve with darkness as a weapon. A cheer sounded out. Zoya saw a single burning torch, a newspaper rolled up. Quickly, more spots of fire appeared, improvised torches. They would make their own light! Fraera handed Zoya a rolled-up copy of the daily journal A Free People. A vory lit the end, turning it slowly, until the flame spread. Zoya held it above her head, the flames tinted blue-green by the ink. She waved it from side to side and a thousand burning torches waved back.
As Fraera lowered her to the ground, flush with emotion, Zoya strained forward and kissed her on the cheek. Fraera froze. Even though Zoya’s feet were on the ground, Fraera’s hands remained tight around her waist, not letting go. Zoya waited, holding her breath, fearful that she’d made a terrible mistake. In the darkness she was unable to see Fraera’s reaction until a nearby man lit a newspaper. The flickering red light revealed Fraera’s expression, shaken as if by the sight of a ghost.
FRAERA FELT THE KISS LINGERING ON HER CHEEK, burning hot. She pushed Zoya aside, touching the place where she’d been kissed. It had been a mistake to place Zoya on her shoulders. Unwittingly she’d allowed Anisya to return, her former self, mother and wife. Tenderness, affection, characteristics that she’d exorcised, had crept back. Drawing her knife, she raised the blade to the side of her face and pulled down, scraping the skin, shaving off the remains of the kiss. Feeling relieved, she wiped the edge of the blade and put the knife away.
Having regained her composure, she stared at the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, furious with Panin for failing to post snipers. Zsolt Polgar followed her glance, asking:
—What are you looking for?
—Where are the AVH?
Zsolt replied:
—You’re worried about our safety?
Fraera hid her scorn at his naiveté, replying:
—There’s no one to fight against.
—At the radio station students are trying to broadcast the sixteen points. Rumor is that the station management is refusing. The AVH is protecting the building to make sure it remains under Soviet control.
Fraera took hold of his shoulders:
—That’s it! That is where we will make our fight!
Elbowing through the crowd, Fraera worked her way free from the peaceful assembly, suffocated by their passivity. Farther away from Parliament Square the mood changed. Along Muzeum korut, toward the Nemzeti Muzeum, people were running in a chaos of directions, some scared, others angry, carrying slabs of rock, ripped-up paving stones. The focus of their activity was the radio station, situated along Brody Sandor ut, a narrow street that ran beside the museum. Whatever peaceful protest might have begun here had evolved into a violent mob—the radio station’s windows were smashed, glass shards on the street crunching underfoot like frozen puddles. A van lay overturned in the middle of the road, wheels spinning, the front crumpled. The radio station doors were shut and secure.
Zsolt questioned the nearby men and women and returned to Fraera, switching from Hungarian to Russian, speaking in hushed tones:
—The students demanded to read the sixteen points. The woman running the station—
Fraera interrupted:
—Who is she?
—Her name is Benke, a loyal Communist, but not too smart it seems. She proposed a compromise. They couldn’t have access to the station but she’d give them a mobile broadcasting van. The van arrived. The students read the points.
Fraera was already ahead of him:
—It was a trick?
—The van wasn’t transmitting. Instead, the station continued to broadcast orders for everyone to go home, condemning the disruption. The students flipped the van over and rammed it against the doors. Now they want the station, nothing less, they say it’s the national station and it belongs to them, not the Soviets.
Fraera glanced ar
ound, assessing the mob’s strength:
—Where are the AVH?
—Inside.
Fraera glanced up. Figures appeared at the top-floor windows— officers. There was a hissing noise, plumes of smoke unraveled within the confines of the street. Tear gas was twisting out of steel canisters like vengeful genies released from bottles, swelling in shape and size, rising up. Fraera pulled her men back, checking on Zoya and Malysh, retreating, clambering over the rails, toward the museum as the gas chased them, carpeting the grass like morning mist. Reaching the top of the museum steps, they turned. White wisps swirled around their ankles but posed no danger. The bulk of the tear gas had been funneled down the street, spewing onto the main road. Out of the chemical fog emerged men and women, dropping to their knees, retching.
As the gas began to thin Fraera moved closer, surveying the empty street. A gloomy stillness prevailed. The mob was broken. The fight had been extinguished. Fraera shook her head. If tonight passed without serious incident the authorities would regain initiative, control would be reasserted. Fraera strode toward the station:
—Follow me.
The gas hadn’t cleared. Fraera wasn’t going to wait, climbing the rails, walking into the middle of the street, plumes of gas hugging her. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand. Almost immediately she began to cough but she continued, staggering toward the radio station entrance, her eyes streaming.
Zoya grabbed Malysh’s arm:
—We have to follow her!
Malysh ripped his shirt, fashioning a mask for himself and Zoya. Climbing over the rails, they entered the street, the two of them standing beside her. The gas was lifting, circulating into the broken windows of the radio station, making it easier to breathe on the street and forcing the figures back from the windows. Slowly the mob reassembled around the nucleus of Zoya, Malysh, and Fraera. The vory returned with steel bars. They took to the doors, trying to splinter them open.
Zoya looked up. AVH officers were at the windows, this time armed with rifles. She grabbed Malysh, rushing forward. They pressed themselves flat against the wall just as a volley of shots rang out. Everyone in the street ducked, stooping, checking to see who’d been hit. No one had been hurt. The shots had been fired above their heads into the walls of the building opposite. The volley had been intended to cower them, timed exactly as the front doors to the station opened.
Puffed up with resolve, AVH officers stepped out, rifles ready, a Roman phalanx protecting the radio station. The officers divided into two lines, back to back—one line moving up the street, the other moving down, cutting the mob in half. With bayonets fixed to the end of the rifles they advanced. Malysh and Zoya were being pushed down, toward the museum, as the officers jabbed with their bayonets. Zoya looked at the young girl next to her, perhaps eighteen years old. Far from being scared, she grinned triumphantly at Zoya, locking arms with her. They’d stand together. She called out at the officers, cursing them. Inspired by the girl’s defiance, Zoya bent down, scooping up a rock no larger than her palm and throwing it, striking an officer on the cheek. Elated, she was still smiling when he swung his rifle in her direction.
There was a flash. Zoya’s legs buckled, she fell. Breathless, unsure whether she was hit, she rolled onto her side, staring into the eyes of the girl who’d linked arms with her. The bullet had struck the girl in the neck.
The officers continued advancing. Zoya couldn’t move, unable to pull herself away. She had to get up. The officers would trample her underfoot. They would kill her. Yet she couldn’t leave this girl. Suddenly Fraera crouched down, scooping up the dead girl in her arms. Malysh helped Zoya up—the two of them running. Behind them, the officers stopped their advance, holding position.
Fraera laid the girl down, crying out in raw anger, as if she were her mother, as if she loved this girl. Zoya stood back, watching as men and women knelt beside the young victim, drawn in by the sound of Fraera’s cries. Was this grief a performance? Before Zoya could think about it further, Fraera stood up, drawing a gun and firing at the line of officers. It was the cue her vory had been waiting for. From both sides of the street, they drew their guns, opening fire. The formation of officers began to break up, retreating to the station, no longer certain that they could maintain control. The officers had presumed, like men fighting beasts, that they’d been the only ones armed with guns. Under attack, they hastened back to the safety of the radio station.
Zoya remained by the dead girl’s body, staring at her lifeless eyes. Fraera pulled her aside, offering her a gun:
—Now we fight.
Zoya replied:
—I killed her.
Fraera slapped her across the face:
—No guilt. Just anger. They shot her. What are you going to do about it? Cry like a child! You’ve been crying all your life! It’s time to act!
Zoya grabbed the gun and charged toward the radio station, aiming at the figures in the windows, pulling the trigger and firing all six shots.
24 OCTOBER
DAWN, AND ZOYA HADN’T SLEPT. Far from being dulled by fatigue, her senses seemed heightened, her eyes picking up every detail of her surroundings. To her side, broken coffee cups, hundreds cracked and chipped, were inexplicably heaped in the gutter, piled knee-high as if marking a burial spot. In front, the remains of a fire composed entirely of charred books, copies of Marx and Lenin, looted from bookstores. Fragile flakes of gray ash rose up toward the sky in a reverse of snowfall. Cobblestones were missing, wrenched out of the ground to serve as missiles, gaps in the street’s teeth. It was as if the city itself had been in a fight and Zoya had fought on its side. Her clothes smelled of smoke: her fingertips were black, her tongue tasted metallic. Her ears were ringing. Underneath her shirt, pressed against her stomach, was her gun.
The radio station had fallen shortly before sunrise: smoke bellowing from the windows. The timber doors had finally been broken open. The resistance inside had weakened while the attack outside had consolidated with a supply of weapons, rifles from the military academy, fired by cadets from the same academy. Fraera had found Zoya and Malysh and ordered them not to take part in storming the building. She didn’t want them caught in a pitched battle, fighting in smoke-filled corridors where desperate AVH officers lurked behind doors. She’d given them a different objective:
Find Stalin.
ARRIVING AT THE END OF GORKII FASOR, a street that led out onto the city’s main park, the Varosliget, Malysh and Zoya were shocked by the absence of its landmark. At the center of Heroes Square the vast statue of Stalin—a bronze colossus as tall as four men with a mustache as wide as an arm—was gone. There was the stone plinth but no statue on top of it. Malysh and Zoya approached the mutilated monument. Two steel boots remained: the Generalissimo had been cut off near the knees, a twisted steel support jutting out of his right boot. His body and head was missing, his statue had been murdered and the corpse stolen. Two men were busy on the plinth trying to affix a modified Hungarian flag into Stalin’s hollow boot.
Zoya began to laugh. She pointed at the space where Stalin had once been:
—He’s dead! He’s dead! The bastard’s dead!
Malysh pounced, slamming his hand over her mouth. She’d shouted out in Russian. The two men on the plinth stopped and turned. Malysh raised his arm, punching the air:
—Russkik haza!
The men nodded halfheartedly, distracted as their flag fell over.
Malysh led Zoya away, whispering:
—Remember who we are.
In reply Zoya kissed him on the lips—a quick, impulsive kiss. She pulled back and before he could react she pretended that nothing had happened, pointing at the deep scratches in the street:
—That’s the direction they dragged the body!
She set off, heart pounding, following the marks where the bronze had rubbed against the cobblestones:
—They must have dragged it with a van or a truck.
Malysh didn’t reply and, unable to play it c
ool any longer, Zoya stopped:
—Are you annoyed?
He slowly shook his head. Her cheeks began to burn.
Changing the subject, she gestured at the scratches:
—I’ll race you. First to Stalin’s body! On the count of three…
Before a single number had been uttered, they both broke into a run, cheating in perfect synchronization.
Malysh tore ahead but stopped as he lost track of the scratches in the street, forced to run back, searching for clues as to which direction the bronze corpse had been dragged. Like hounds hunting, they paused at the first intersection, heads down, circling the possible turning points. Zoya found the trail, setting off, Malysh now behind. They were heading south and turned down toward Blaha Lujza Square, a large crossroads, a junction lined with shops.
Up ahead they saw the bronze body, lying flat on its belly, as wide and as long as a tramcar. Both of them accelerated, running flat-out. But Zoya had more in reserve, having paced herself, exploiting Malysh’s earlier miscalculation about how far they’d have to run. She was ahead of him but only barely, she strained forward, stretching—her fingertips touching Stalin’s bronze calf. Panting, smiling, she glanced at Malysh and saw that he was genuinely annoyed. He hated to lose and was trying to think of some reason to annul the race.
To seal her victory Zoya climbed the statue, her flat-soled shoes slipping over Stalin’s smooth bronze thighs until she wedged her toes into the imitation folds of his coat and pushed herself up. Standing on top she saw that Stalin’s head was missing, severed at the neck, a crude decapitation. She walked the line of his back, one foot carefully in front of the other—a trapeze artist pacing a tightrope. Malysh remained on the street, hands in pockets. She smiled at him, expecting him to blush. Instead, he returned her smile. A burst of pleasure exploded inside her chest, and in her mind she performed celebratory cartwheels along Stalin’s spine.