Stalin's Ghost
Encyclopedia
Stalin's Ghost is a crime novel
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

 by Martin Cruz Smith
Martin Cruz Smith
Martin Cruz Smith is an American mystery novelist.-Early life and education:Born Martin William Smith in Reading, Pennsylvania, he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964...

 set in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 circa 2005. It is the sixth novel to feature Detective-Investigator Arkady Renko
Arkady Renko
Arkady Renko is a fictional detective who is the central character of seven novels by the American writer Martin Cruz Smith.-Character timeline:...

, published 26 years after the initial novel in the Renko series, Gorky Park
Gorky Park (novel)
Gorky Park is a 1981 crime novel written by Martin Cruz Smith set in the Soviet Union. It follows Arkady Renko, a chief investigator for the Militsiya, who is assigned to a case involving three corpses found in Gorky Park, an amusement park in Moscow, who have had their faces and fingertips cut off...

.

Summary

The ghost of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 has been seen stalking the stations of the Moscow Metro
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow and the neighbouring town of Krasnogorsk. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 182 stations and its route length is . The system is...

. Renko, perpetually in hot water with his superiors, is assigned to the case with heavy hints to quash it. Instead, he discovers a peculiar connection to a string of murders and a group of Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....

 veterans.

Plot

Arkady Renko
Arkady Renko
Arkady Renko is a fictional detective who is the central character of seven novels by the American writer Martin Cruz Smith.-Character timeline:...

 is trying to adjust to his new life as a family man, with a woman who is not his wife and a boy who is not his son. The prodigal Zhenya is constantly running off for his own for days, sometimes in the company of street children, in the depths of the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 winter - and Arkady senses things are starting to sour between him and Dr. Eva Kazko. He and his partner Victor Orlov are investigating claims that someone within the prosecutor's office is committing murder for hire and then covering it up. That is until Prosecutor Zurin calls Arkady off to more unearthly matters: the ghost of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 is being sighted on the Moscow Metro
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow and the neighbouring town of Krasnogorsk. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 182 stations and its route length is . The system is...

. Knowing all to well that Zurin is giving this case to him as a punishment, Arkady attends to the task of handling it without enthusiasm. Meanwhile, his suspicions begin to be directed towards two fellow detectives: Nicolai Isakov and Marat Urman - both OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...

 veterans of the Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....

 from the town of Tver. Popping into one of their investigations, he finds evidence that the detectives themselves killed the man in question, and later also his wife - claiming she "swallowed her tongue" in prison. After further incidents on the Metro, Zurin assigns Arkady to conduct an 'unofficial' investigation, his cover being inquiry into supposed death threats directed at Platonov - a paranoid old communist
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...

 chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 grand master. Attending another sighting, the truth of matters becomes quickly evident - the event is being staged to promote a new political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 called the Russian Patriots (reminiscent of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Liberal'no-Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii is a political party in Russia. Since its founding in 1991, it has been led by the charismatic and controversial figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky...

), whose purpose is to divert opposition votes. After forcefully disassembling the charade and dealing with the uproar, Arkady smiles at the thought of Zurin's reactions to his officer crossing with the political elite. The source of the strain between him and Eva is revealed to be Isakov, whom Eva had known from her time as a medic during the Chechen war. To confound matters, Arkady is soon made aware that Isakov is also the primary candidate for the Russian Patriots, and will receive immunity as a Russian Senator if elected. Out of both professional and personal concerns, Arkady starts to gather more information on Isakov and Urman. Isakov is known as a war hero, having bravely fought off Chechen forces outnumbered without losing a single man. A war reporter Ginsberg gives Arkady "two truths form the same man", the official story and a far more seedy rendition - the execution of unsuspecting prisoners. Arkady begins to notice a trend that Isakov's fellow platoon members are slowly being found dead, most of the time investigated by Isakov and Urman themselves. Even Ginsburg is soon killed, apparently run over by a snow-plough.

With Platonov and Victor, Arkady attends a chess tournament
Chess tournament
A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.Today, the most recognized chess...

 hoping to lure Zhenya back. It works, and Zhenya once again portrays his amazing talent for the game. During his congratulatory match against Platonov, he suddenly concedes and runs away. Heading outside, Arkady soon learns why: his long lost father was watching the game. Demanding that he gets half the prize money, he ends up shooting Arkady in the head in desperation. Arkady later learns that the man had enslaved his son in order to use their talents at chess to con money out of train-goers on the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...

. Arkady survives the attack, losing some cognitive function, but quickly forces himself back up onto his feet. Zurin, having already vowed to get rid of him due to an altercation with a hired female killer later found to have connections to the Russian Patriots, is quick to try and shuffle Arkady off as health leave - any city of his choice. He expects Arkady to go down to the sunny coasts of the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

, and is shocked to hear his final answer: Tver. Knowing he is up to something, Zurin reluctantly agrees. Arkady is unsure of what he is after: Eva or Isakov. Either way, he begins to make his way around the town planning his next move. Encountering Isakov, his American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 political consultants and a melancholy Eva, he learns of "the diggers", who dig up Great Patriotic War dead either for profit or sentiment. Isakov is seeking to utilize this as a propaganda event, his campaign going far better than planned, and so Arkady decides to go himself. Much to Arkady's dismay, Zhenya also makes his way down to Tver, enticed by tales of a sea monster in a nearby lake. With the press flooding in, the main dig begins. Seeking to make a show, the diggers claim to have triumphantly dug up a mass grave of Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 massacred by the Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

. Things turn around however, when the pathologist proclaims that the grave is actually Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

killed by the Russians. His name now in disrepute, Isakov's consultants back out and Isakov himself, already uncomfortable with the tone of the campaign, leaves. Urman however refuses to quit, and goes out trying to find some real Russian victims. Zhenya, having made acquaintance with Isakov, follows him - causing Arkday to run after them. Arkady and Urman exchange blows, with Arkady managing to gain an early advantage - only for Zhenya, his loyalties torn, to attempt to break them up. Taking advantage of this, Urman tosses both of them into the pit and vows to bury them alive, only, as Arkady and others had already warned about, to dig up an old mine.

After leaving the scene and returning Zhenya back to his rented residence, Arkady finds Isakov and Eva together. The three start to walk alongside and at first talk calmly to each other - both men trying to sound reasonable to try and attract Eva. Akrady begins to confront Isakov about his past, showing photographs by Ginsburg which Arkady had managed to recover from an army inspector. Isakov attempts to downplay the allegations, proclaiming his sincere public interests, until it becomes clear that Eva is starting to believe Arkady. Admitting the execution, done to cover up his illicit sales in precious local valuable red dragon carpets, he takes out a gun from his coat and is about to kill both of them. Eva takes out a tape recorder from her coat, revealing that she had recorded the whole confession and tosses it over a nearby fence. Isakov orders Arkady to retrieve the tape, and as he begins to approach the fence a snow plough comes by and takes out Isakov. Elated by their survival, Eva and Arkady retreat to meet up with Zhenya. Walking through the door, he finds one of the thugs that accompanied the camera crew promoting the Russian Patriots. Still angered by Arkady's previous encounter with him, and how their plans have been dismantled, he wields a knife at the couple. He stabs Eva, and prepares to finish off Arkady. Zhenya meanwhile, trapped on the other side of the room, fumbles to repair an old pistol - a skill he acquired by rebuilding Arkady's gun, but fails to find the final piece. Desperate, he fires the weapon anyway - knowing that because of the missing piece he has only one shot. His aim is good, and Arkady is saved. Eva is rushed to hospital, and like Arkady earlier, manages a near-miraculous survival. He calls Zurin and proclaims the charges against Isakov, and describes the taped confession. Finally, he notes that the prosecutor in the town was in league with Isakov and states that this means that a respected impartial prosecutor must come in to investigate the case. Annoyed at the implications of that statement, Zurin lets Arkady go. He prepares for them to all head back to Moscow, after taking one last glimpse at Tver as snow begins to fall.

External links

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