Page 331 - The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1. Born in the USSR

Svetlana never gave her). Svetlana’s “friend” could not have done all this without some

very powerful “support”.
No one knew that I would take Svetlana to the meeting, except for this “friend” and
those be-hind her. They evidently thought that I would stay and wait for Svetlana, but
miscalculated a little. I had seen that our door was very weak and on my way back went
to the shop and bought the necessary materials to repair it. Then I came back to the
apartment and caught the thieves red handed, most likely at the very beginning of the
robbery. When they saw me returning, the thieves left very quickly without taking much.

They did not take the TV, video camera, or anything of the kind. Probably, they
came for other things, because several video cassettes disappeared. Among them was
the cassette recorded in Alitus with Svetlana’s father on it, and this was most upsetting,

because it was the only and, as it transpired later, the last possible record of Svetlana’s
father! Was it done by chance? I doubt it, be-cause there were things in the apartment,
the pecuniary value of which was hundreds, if not thou-sands of times greater.

So, no one expected that I would return so quickly. I think that I foiled a search
organized to look like a robbery. The materials which I brought to repair the door proved
to be useful. A friend arrived and helped me with this. I think that they would have
broken in even if the door had been repaired before. Those who organized the “robbery”
would be able to force any door. In fact, my “flair” did not let me down and the “guests”
failed both to take away the valuable things and to find what they were looking for. But
I am absolutely sure of one thing: the robbery was not organized by amateurs and
Svetlana’s “friend” took part it its organization.

We rented a new apartment in a high-rise building near the subway station
“Profsousnaya”. The apartment was on the eleventh floor, and this caused some
inconvenience when the lift did not work. It was a one-room apartment and we had to
buy some furniture in order to make it a little comfortable. This place became our last
“base” in the USSR.

When we returned from Archangelsk, life took its normal, or almost normal,
rhythm. The shelves in shops were completely empty. One stood in endless queues in
order to buy something, including bread, whereas before people stood in queues only to
buy scarce goods. Those, who lived there then, remember that even sugar was sold
according to coupons and quotas. It was true that it was possible to purchase almost
everything at local markets, but the prices were sky-high! Most people could not afford
to buy there. At the same time the prices of imported goods in commission shops went
up every day. I was always interested in electronic goods and remember how a video-
tape recorder went up a thousand roubles in a couple of days, although the “old” price
had already been very high; but salaries remained the same, in other words—miserable.

In several days Dmitry Rasskazov arrived in Moscow and brought me money, to
be precise, he brought me less than a third part of the agreed amount, and I told him this
was not enough. He tried to mumble some explanations, but I firmly dotted my "i's" and
crossed my "t's" and he did nothing except apologise, saying that payment for the
medical lectures had not been transferred yet and my performances and other lectures
had only been partly paid. I made the situation clear again and asked him to stop making
a fool of me, which made even him feel a little embarrassed. He mumbled something
about clearing this matter up and giving me the rest of money later.

Back to contents
331