Category - PARENTAL GUIDANCE
It is September 1982. As the health of Leonid Brezhnev, the aged General Secretary of the USSR, declines, the power struggle that has dominated Soviet life seems to be over. Twice of late, rival factions have sought power. On both occasions, a few loyal officers have stopped them. First and foremost is General Georgi Ivanov, a decorated hero of the Great Patriotic War, and now head of the foreign espionage arm of the KGB.
Admiral Mikhail Petrov, C-in-C of the Black Sea Fleet has also been involved. The 52 y.o. Admiral lost his wife a couple of years previously and through the first plot, met and married a 20-year-old female communications worker in Fleet Headquarters. His young wife Lidiya played a key role in defeating the second plot. To her surprise, she becomes a celebrity and the youngest Captain-Lieutenant in the Soviet Navy.
Her extraordinary progress is due to Boris Ponomarev, the long-standing head of the International Department of the Central Committee. It is Ponomarev, rather than the Foreign Minister, who actually decides Soviet foreign policy. He sees Lidiya as a superb PR tool in the struggle for hearts and minds within the USSR and overseas.
After months when the future of the USSR hung in the balance, it seems that Lidiya Petrova and her husband can relax. She desperately wants this as she is expecting their first child. Instead, they are whisked off to lunch with the ailing Leonid Brezhnev. Lidiya begins to realise what Ponomarev has in mind when she learns that the Soviet State film agency are to commence work on an action film recounting the dramatic events of late.
Before the injuries she received in defeating the coup have fully healed, Lidiya is back at work, serving as Female Staff Welfare Officer at Fleet HQ in Sevastopol. Her hopes of a quiet time vanish when she challenges Rodion Zemskov, the son of a Central Committee member who uses his position to pressure female staff at Fleet HQ into his bed. She finds that she had made a dangerous enemy in the boy’s father, who is soon elevated to the Politburo.
Although the leadership battle in the Politburo is over, leaving Yuri Andropov as the only viable candidate, the couple’s hopes for a quiet time become ever more unlikely. The ageing Politburo is increasingly paranoid, and as the Soviet economy grinds to a halt, two rival factions emerge.
One lobby, under Ponomarev believe that better international relations are vital. They fear that increasing tension could lead to an accidental nuclear war, wiping out mankind. A rival group, horrified by the growing power of America, pursues the opposite policy. Expansion is their goal. Seizing control of Western Europe will provoke nuclear war, but if the West is confronted by a fait accompli in the shape of a sudden strike on Scandinavia, will they initiate a nuclear war with all that it entails?
General Ivanov is drawn into the struggle, due to his nephew who is a rocket engineer. During his visit, Colonel Andrei Ivanov meets and is attracted to Sophia, who was rescued by his uncle.
Lidiya faces calamity if her duel with Rodion Zemskov goes wrong, and suffers an assassination attempt on her life in Turkey. Meanwhile, her sponsor, Boris Ponomarev arranges that Admiral Petrov is seconded to the International Department to take over as Soviet Ambassador in Washington. Ponomarev’s plan is that Lidiya, with her film star looks and good nature, will win round American opinion.
In Moscow, plans for the invasion of Scandinavia gain momentum and a duel between the moderates and the hardliners cannot long be put off. Like it or not, Lidiya and her husband will be involved, but before long Lidiya and Mikhail are in peril of their lives as a Afghan Mujahidiin Resistance cell working in Washington kidnap the Soviet ambassador and his young wife to use them as hostages.
As Andrei and Sophia fall in love, events move to an explosive climax in Washington, the Baltic and in Moscow.
It is September 1982. As the health of Leonid Brezhnev, the aged General Secretary of the USSR, declines, the power struggle that has dominated Soviet life seems to be over. Twice of late, rival factions have sought power. On both occasions, a few loyal officers have stopped them. First and foremost is General Georgi Ivanov, a decorated hero of the Great Patriotic War, and now head of the foreign espionage arm of the KGB.
Admiral Mikhail Petrov, C-in-C of the Black Sea Fleet has also been involved. The 52 y.o. Admiral lost his wife a couple of years previously and through the first plot, met and married a 20-year-old female communications worker in Fleet Headquarters. His young wife Lidiya played a key role in defeating the second plot. To her surprise, she becomes a celebrity and the youngest Captain-Lieutenant in the Soviet Navy.
Her extraordinary progress is due to Boris Ponomarev, the long-standing head of the International Department of the Central Committee. It is Ponomarev, rather than the Foreign Minister, who actually decides Soviet foreign policy. He sees Lidiya as a superb PR tool in the struggle for hearts and minds within the USSR and overseas.
After months when the future of the USSR hung in the balance, it seems that Lidiya Petrova and her husband can relax. She desperately wants this as she is expecting their first child. Instead, they are whisked off to lunch with the ailing Leonid Brezhnev. Lidiya begins to realise what Ponomarev has in mind when she learns that the Soviet State film agency are to commence work on an action film recounting the dramatic events of late.
Before the injuries she received in defeating the coup have fully healed, Lidiya is back at work, serving as Female Staff Welfare Officer at Fleet HQ in Sevastopol. Her hopes of a quiet time vanish when she challenges Rodion Zemskov, the son of a Central Committee member who uses his position to pressure female staff at Fleet HQ into his bed. She finds that she had made a dangerous enemy in the boy’s father, who is soon elevated to the Politburo.
Although the leadership battle in the Politburo is over, leaving Yuri Andropov as the only viable candidate, the couple’s hopes for a quiet time become ever more unlikely. The ageing Politburo is increasingly paranoid, and as the Soviet economy grinds to a halt, two rival factions emerge.
One lobby, under Ponomarev believe that better international relations are vital. They fear that increasing tension could lead to an accidental nuclear war, wiping out mankind. A rival group, horrified by the growing power of America, pursues the opposite policy. Expansion is their goal. Seizing control of Western Europe will provoke nuclear war, but if the West is confronted by a fait accompli in the shape of a sudden strike on Scandinavia, will they initiate a nuclear war with all that it entails?
General Ivanov is drawn into the struggle, due to his nephew who is a rocket engineer. During his visit, Colonel Andrei Ivanov meets and is attracted to Sophia, who was rescued by his uncle.
Lidiya faces calamity if her duel with Rodion Zemskov goes wrong, and suffers an assassination attempt on her life in Turkey. Meanwhile, her sponsor, Boris Ponomarev arranges that Admiral Petrov is seconded to the International Department to take over as Soviet Ambassador in Washington. Ponomarev’s plan is that Lidiya, with her film star looks and good nature, will win round American opinion.
In Moscow, plans for the invasion of Scandinavia gain momentum and a duel between the moderates and the hardliners cannot long be put off. Like it or not, Lidiya and her husband will be involved, but before long Lidiya and Mikhail are in peril of their lives as a Afghan Mujahidiin Resistance cell working in Washington kidnap the Soviet ambassador and his young wife to use them as hostages.
As Andrei and Sophia fall in love, events move to an explosive climax in Washington, the Baltic and in Moscow.
