20

Date …

It was early autumn in July 1954. We, the two kids including Lu and I were parting at Gia Lam airport. Lu followed his parents to get in the small plane Dakota and left his hometown in order to live in Saigon. Our family was divided into two antagonistic front lines and all of us had our own ways.

I couldn’t imagine how Lu’s life would be. According to the unclear information from my father – a high ranking cadre, I knew that uncle Vinh was a “big wheel” in Southern government machinery and Lu was a jet pilot.

I attended Southern battlefield. My starting position was a private in the ground forces. I appeared in all battlefields in the South. I returned from military service and attended school in Soviet Union after the great victory in 1975. And then, I and Lu had an opportunity to meet in a third country but not in Hanoi when the situation had changed. It was Moscow city in Soviet Union.

More than 30 years had flied as fast as a dream. Thanks to the opening of “ideology” and thanks to the “thaw” of the “cold war” between America and Soviet Union, the two brothers were able to meet.

The appointment place was certified after mutual correspondences and telephone calls were made. It was at a big hall of Ukraine hotel in Moscow city. Lu and Li Da – his girl friend – had just flied there from America since the beginning of the week and were staying in Moscow. Lu was a member of “NASA diplomatic delegation” which came there under the Soviet – America co-operative program. Li Da followed him as a tourist.

I took Vera who was staying with me as a sweetheart to attend such a meaningful meeting which was the first time our brothers had seen each other after a long stage of communication interruption due to the time in trouble.

The Lada was set out at 9 o’clock in the morning under the control of Vera. I was in high spirits of pride while I was sitting on the back seat of the car because I was going to introduce my “wife” who was as beautiful as a “picture of a female saint” to Lu.

Vera was a typical Russian girl with yellow hair, blue eyes and a complexion as fair as snow. At the dawn of love, I was flabbergasted so much that I wrote verses:

The God has favored a nation

Whose person’s face looks like a moon in the far distance.

You have a pearl of body.

You are more beautiful than the Heaven’s design …

I wondered: How Russian bud could have a sublime beauty like that. I seemed to be in front of a fairy when she was stark naked. She looked like a spotless white statue made of snow or porcelain. Her eyes were a deeply blue sky. Her hair was sparkling golden light and her lips were as fresh as a daisy.

Frankly speaking, I at first “approached” Vera step by step in order to contemplate the creator’s marvelous brave. Her friendship encouraged me to daringly get closer to her. She studied Vietnamese faculty while I followed Economic one. At lunch time, we attended “self-service” refectory in the school. “Self-service” style of eating meant each person took a tray and collected as much plates of food on the counter as their “financial ability” allowed. The food female seller would switch on the calculating machine lak lak and a “bill” as small as a big toe would be protruding. Everyone could base on that bill to make payment. Vera’s scholarship was only 40 rubles per month while I always had my pockets clinking with plenty of money up to a thousand rubles due to my trading jeans and T-shirts.

Vera’s tray of food often had a slice of bread, a bowl of soup with two or three small pieces of meat and a glass of grape juice or yoghourt. Meanwhile, my tray had beef stew and chicken fried. I share my feast with her while we were sitting side by side. She corrected my way of holding the chopsticks. For example, I should raise my little and index fingers whenever taking a dish so that I would look more polite in stead of pinching my lips and using all the fingers to keep it. She asked me to close my mouth and use both my jaws whenever chewing. It was absolutely impossible to eat like a pig and wide open my mouth at the same time otherwise other people would see the food in my mouth. What else? No slurp or use spoon to beat the bowls and plates with twinkle noises. How to eat without opening mouth if the meat was tough? She said: Just ignore it! It was quite interesting when slurping the hot soup like having vermicelli and sour crab soup with capsicum. She ordered: Stringently forbid! With such lessons, I had to “pay the school fee” by beef stew and chicken fried from meal to meal. And then, I someday realized that I would accept with great pleasure if I had to always drink loose soup so that she could always had beef due to my offer. How glad I was when I could be dear to her heart. I was as happy as the day was long when I could go for a stroll with her on the streets in Moscow under the snow and beside the yellow maples. It was my “great blessing” when I could use my last rubles to buy her a precious weasel feather coat. Her Vietnamese skill was rapidly improved and so was my Russian one because our lips had already connected with each other. It seemed not necessary to study but blow the air into each other’s mouths and the foreign language would automatically stay in each other’s brains.

Vera told that: Formerly, my forefather was a serf. I made an overjoyed smile: My grandfather was a mandarin … Vera described the house with its roof made of sections of oak tree trunks. There was a well in the center of apple garden, a ground stove used for warming and cooking in the house under a bed. The Russian farmers in the old days would certainly be freeze to death within 9 months living with a snowy winter without such style of cooking fire concurrently holding the use as a bed. Vera’s mother was a member of a collective farm in colorful skirt and boots whenever she harvested potatoes on the field. Her father was a tractor driver who usually whistled the song named “Kachiusa”. During the Second World War, he was a tank-man who used to experience tank-fighting against German enemy in the arc where the Kursk was living. Her parents were acquainted with each other while they were on the train in war period when they took a leave and came back their hometown. Their love story was similar to the love mentioned in the film named “A song about soldiers”. He hadn’t called after her: “Write me! Xat-xa-nop village” until the parting minutes came.

Many autumn days in the afternoon, I and Vera got in and out Metro trains from stations to stations under the bright golden light like two kids behaving in a ridiculously domineering way. We usually had a stroll by Moscow riverbank under the moonlight.

… At night, I’m waiting for you under the rain …

The plants seem to understand that I’m the happiest girl.

I intimately believe and love you. Between our love,

There is a deep blue river whose waves are sparkling

And width is just a short distance …

We were leaning our heads against our shoulders, whispering the song named “Two riverbanks” in the flower garden and hearing the rustle of oak leaves. The “Two riverbanks” song was followed by “Moscow in the afternoon” song:

It’s the still afternoon with wind silently soughing.

The birds are chirping in the forest all night.

Why don’t you express your fervid love?

It’s a peaceful afternoon sun in Moscow …

The “Cherry blossom” song has the same passionate and marvelous rhythm to the two above songs. We always insisted on singing those three songs otherwise we wouldn’t stop with pleasure.

Thousands of cherry blossoms are swaying lightly in the breeze and above the part-house.

The birds are chirping in the forest all night.

Why don’t you express your fervid love?

Tell me your secret things …

We finished singing. The love walked us off our legs when taking Metro trains. We visited “Farm” market to have roast meat after getting tired of staying in Gum, Sum and Deshima …

… One holiday, we caught the train departing for Ma-nop-xca village, Vera’s hometown. The Second World War veteran embraced me – a soldier who had just defeated American troops. “A son-in-law” and “a father-in-law” drank Vodka, ate caviar fish and talked about the topic how the war was. In the countryside, I and Vera were walking in the apple garden in flower under the Russian moonlight which was exactly the same to the Vietnamese one in the Stone Farming House. Both of us were embracing each other and lying on the very fragrant dry leaves cover. Vera’s bare legs were stretching out. The moonlight reflected on them and made them as bright as the moon. They were the most beautiful things on earth. I slipped my head into her skirt as if the Straw boss Coi (Hai Yen’s grandfather) used to slipped his head into the Girl Nho long time ago. It was an international motif in spite of ages and conditions.

Inside the very thin skirt, I looked at the moon which swooped down and stole into Vera’s skirt in order to be with me.

The Komsomolskaya members of “The dawn sunbeam” farm in Ma-nop-xca were playing Accordion and dancing the Kalinka with me. Nothing prevented us from being “husband and wife”. However, we didn’t contract marriage with each other because Vera had wanted to neither marry nor deliver a baby “yet” … It was alright as well when we still intimately loved each other without having married, without having any baby …

The Lada run very fast in the boulevard. The snow hadn’t come yet. It was dry outdoors. The sunshine was glistening like an innocent bud’s glint.

At the hall of the hotel, Lu and Li Da were waiting for us. I got in and observed the spectacle with a quick look. Having an extraordinary premonition, my glint was straight trained upon an “Asian youth” who was anxiously moving around.

-       Brother Lu! – I loudly uttered.

The “Asian youth” turned back at once stroke. We looked each other straight in the eye while the surrounding “European people” remained indifferent.

They were little lads when parting several decades ago. Therefore, it was difficult for them to realize each other. Lu had large stature with dignified and serious manner and the stage-carriage of officials who was accustomed to attending international Convention. He immediately approached the second “Asian youth” presenting in the hall.

-       Is it Trung?

Those were two Vietnamese clauses which surrounding people couldn’t understand except Vera and Li Da.

We hugged tight each other and burst into a convulsive sob. The surrounding European people spontaneously reduced to silent as a respectful expression to our emotion.

-       Those are “Kha Noi” (Hanoi) people in Vietnam. Their country was divided due to the war and they must have left for tens of years – A Russian woman looked intellectual whispered with her friends in Russian language.

The four persons got in the Lada. Vera went on her driver role as a “house owner”. We dropped into a luxury restaurant which looked Moscow River and exchanged confidences of one another’s stories when living in very far distance countries.

Vera and Li Da listened and sometimes embellished a few words while we were having a dialogue. They followed our conversations in order to imagine the origin and circumstance of their “sweetheart” and “husband”. Vera’s eyes were deep blue while Li Da’s ones were grey. The “international glint” was illuminating our meeting.

Lu asked me about our grandmother, the year she passed away, how her life was during the agrarian reform period, about Uncle Ham – my father, about Mrs. Lan Vien’s condition.

I asked Lu about his “family” in America. How their life was. Lu gave me cursory information such as a house in Yellow Pine Garden, Weston town on the outskirts of Housten, Texas state. His contemporary work had a connection with Russia. The former Soviet Union was a powerful country which was on equal term with United States in launching spacecrafts in the universe. Even, Soviet Union sent Gagarin to the universe before America could do that. Then, the economy of Soviet Union was fallen down and the very costly universal researching program turned out to be too “luxurious” to be continued. An “aid” from America was in need so that Russia could keep on that program. By the same token, Lu as a member of American NASA delegation had a business visit Moscow to implement the negotiation in co-operation and aid.

Lu narrated:

-       The Soviet Union delegation asked me “Where are you from?” when the intermission of the talk was taken place. They surprisingly uttered right after receiving my reply “Vietnam”. They are accustomed to the image of Vietnamese people who come here to have “co-operative work” or visit all the magazins to do trading. But now, there is a Vietnamese person who suddenly “brings money” to them as an aid for Russia universal program. That makes them admired.

I turned my eyes on Vera and was overjoyed when concluding:

-       You see! That’s how my “family brothers” are! We “are giving” your country money so as to fly in the space.

-       It’s the money of “American bosses” and your brother is just an employee who is carrying out the delivery procedure – Vera was with her nose in the air and got even with me and thus a fun atmosphere was naturally created.

-       But it’s also difficult for your country to get the “money” if “my brother” keeps being a spoil-sport in the negotiation, right? … Our Nguyen Duc clan is quite majestic … We are able to be assigned such an “extremely heinous” mission … - I continued my pride.

The “lackadaisical” atmosphere in the meeting gave us a bored feeling. The spontaneity and nonsense made us natural. However, the purpose of that “exertion of making ourselves natural” was to hide our agitated feelings by and large.

The feast including the most expensive dishes such as salmons, camel meat, crocodile meat, shrimps … was displayed. There was no reason why “Soviet Union” couldn’t stand treat “America” so as to “threaten” America despite economic crisis, wasn’t there?

Vera and Li Da ate in a timorous and artful way. Their forefinger and little fingers were nobly curved when taking plates unlike the style of using bamboo chopsticks which “seemed to be accounted boorish”.

I secretly made an observation and comparison. My Vera was much more beautiful than Li Da. She was pinky-white and innocent with a countrified “garden” look while Li Da had a “too small waist”, a dry manner and an “un-suggestive” figure. They had a big difference no matter they were both “the West”. Vera had an unaffected bearing while Li Da’s carriage was ceremonious.

-       I and my mother had experienced so many hardships during the first stage of living in America in 1975 – Lu told his family story – I was unwaged. I was a soldier, an air force official who graduated American Military Pilot Academy in 1969 when I was in Saigon. Even so, an “air force official” like me was nothing in America. I was anxious due to unemployment. Fortunately, a shepherd working for the Protestant church organization helped us with jobs. My mom worked as light bulbs and windows cleaner in American families – Lu smiles and emphasized the words “light bulbs and windows cleaner” – The American technology turned out not to have invented the light bulbs and windows cleaning machine yet and such works had to be done by hands. What a “shamed” job! Mrs. Vice-Provincial chief who used to be a Mrs. District chief when she was 16 years old then took a light bulbs cleaning job as a “servant”. It was very easy for her to fall down and break the bones without carefulness once she had to stand on a toweringly high round of a ladder with a rag on one hand and a sprayer of glass cleaner on another one. Tens of dollars was her daily wage paid for her laboriousness of cleaning all the dust on “American light bulbs”. That was alright! How happy she was! She could buy bread and beef. She hadn’t to be among the beggar-like people who had to sit by the road sides and wait for the assistance buses which would send them to the charity mess-rooms.

I was “arranged” a job on the farms as hired labor because I had a good health. That means “a coolie” with a nonsensical career. For example, “the technical manipulations which were performed when I piloted a plane” was used to control a grass cutter. The piles of grass were carried on my shoulders before loading them on the trucks. I cried my heart out when smelling the very fragrant resin of withered grass.

Thanks to my curriculum vitae which mentioned that I used to study how to pilot a plane in American Airlines Academy, I was later on recommended a job in NASA. In the first instance, I was a trainer in several phases of astronauts’ practice. And then, I was transferred to international diplomatic department and I have been working here up to now. I can’t many a time help priding whenever taking business trips to talk about the space researching co-operation program in Japan, France, England and Soviet Union … It’s not correct to say that our Nguyen Duc line didn’t glory. Beside Great Oldest Grandfather, Duc Nguyen grandpa, their nephew is unexpectedly in charge of such a “prominent” work …

-       Are you now rich? Do you have a million dollars in the bank? – I curiously asked.

Lu hummed and hawed and slid over the matter. It was very “cloddish”, “impolite” and infantile … of me to launch such a question which was too difficult for “the interviewer” to answer.

He would be able to get everybody’s disregard if he said “no”. If he said “yes”, a situation: why you didn’t send something to “your rustic people” with such wealth would be raised. The “rustic people” there were my father, Mrs. Lan Vien and me … Formerly, the “rustic people” lived for “sublime ideal” and always looked down the money. They needed nothing but enough food to eat, enough clothes to wear, enough meat for meals and enough thick dresses to be warm. However, they had money was first mentioned whenever speaking and money was considered as a common standard to assess everything.

-       I have saved 500 thousands dollars during the last few years of trading in Moscow – I won Lu’s respect by exaggerating. That was my way whenever I wanted to repress the American’s spirit. Actually, how I could afford enough 500 thousands dollars but I kept telling a white lie.

Lu’s eyes were round with amazement:

-       What a big amount!

Lu’s attitude let me knew the chink in his armor. He would phlegmatically react if he was rich. With the figure 500 thousands dollars, Lu suddenly opened his eyes as large as he could …

In those years, a conclusion I learned was that: We would never gain our “weight” unless we had money. Without money, we were just like the space pilots in a hold of Apollo spaceship on the Moon. The human value was ensured by gold. Nobody admired a proletarian despite of his great talent. The rich were the second to none.

No one but the wealthy was respected. Therefore, I had to manage to show off my financial ability so that I could win people’s belief before winning successfulness in my daily “trading career”.

Lu was my brother who I had just met after tens of years being far away from each other. Even so, I revealed my character of “a trader in Soviet Union” in stead of having a sentimentally heart-to-heart talk. What a shame! Nevertheless, my boast repressed “the American’s swagger”. Lu became more “unpretentious” in talking and secretly used the details to prove his high living condition.

-       I and Li Da had a tourist trip in Paris last summer and we spent 20 thousands dollars. How expensive Paris is!

-       There are 5 cars of all kinds such as big, small, old and new in my house.

-       I plan to build a small swimming pool in the garden.

-       Our whole family usually goes for a stroll in the streets in Houston every Sunday and we have to pay a family meal with noodle soup at the cost of 100 dollars. What expensive prices in United States!

-       I bought this real crocodile-skin belt in Thailand at the cost of 100 dollars as well.

The more he told about him the more he was looked down.

-       Lu added – I belong to middle class in America. A lot of people have to live on “social security” which means pension. There is a very high tax which was used to support unemployed levied on the people who have job …

… I was seized with compunction after the meeting on that day. It was quite true that the money had never “ruled” the human’s mind and feelings before. The human was unaffected and paid less attention to it. Money wasn’t counted as a target. The ideal, career and cultural value played the capital role. People seemed to be “far-minded” with the money as long as they weren’t in state of hunger. However, “the more it was suppressed the higher its bound ability was”. The money turned out to hang in mid air and was set as a goal for everybody. “Money was a mankind’s woman of easy virtue”. Whose saying was it? We, the students who used to ally hunger by eating manioc and potatoes liked that sentence so much because it encouraged us in getting self-confidence. But then, we became chicken-hearted without money.

The common denominator is money

Which decides everything.

Some “damned poet” in Vietnam composed those two verses. They were orally transmitted to Moscow where some “crude poet” crazily responded.

Everything is nothing.

The purse will decide who win.

The American people never even wrote poetry whose topic was money like that. But let’s forget it anyhow and sympathized with the “guy” who had been too dull-witted to know anything, even the money value for a half century and hadn’t begun to understand until that time and thus he overstated. Resented such trifles for what …

21

Date …

What a fascinating beauty the landscape in Moscow, Russia with very yellow autumn sun and maple leaves had! We, including I, Vera, Thieu and Hai Yen were promenading on the 500-year ancient Arbat street. We were throwing into ecstasy of natural space as wonderful as the day was long in Russia in the fall.

Among four of us, Yen was the person who had longest time staying in Moscow. Her branch of learning was literature. She kept living there after finishing a PhD thesis …

I and Thieu had been comrades who were always side by side no matter we were alive or dead in the same combat unit for years. During the time living in the hardship battlefields, we were so hungry that our eyes seemed to be dim and we had to search for the potatoes on the field, rub off a smear on the bulb and devour it right after getting any food otherwise we would be able to faint from hunger whenever the arrival of rice supply was late. We shared a cigarette of pipe tobacco, a bowl of quinine dissolved in water.

Thieu was strong and brave. One day, he was set a good example for the whole unit because he had alone wiped out a team of American spy when being on reconnaissance duty. Thieu said: Nobody knew how the war would be. Let’s strike up a friendship with each other as brothers. You received my parents as your adopted parents and performed the filial devotion with them on behalf of me if I died and you were still alive and returned home in the North. On the contrary, I would do like that if you passed away and I still alive.

           

Thieu was an only child whose father was a deputy minister. Thieu’s daddy joined revolutionary activities before 1945. He was sent into exile, was tortured, escaped from prison and was one of leaders in the provincial August Revolution. Thieu’s characteristic was the spitting image of his dad. He always left all his companions in arms behind and was in leading position whenever engaging in battle. Thieu unfailingly volunteered to be in charge of difficult and dangerous duty. Thieu rapidly improved his rank in commanding title from squad, company to battalion. Thieu would be cultivated and trained to be a high-ranking officer in leading position if he kept working for armed forces after 1975. However, he would like to attend school in Soviet Union. Thieu was acquainted with Hai Yen due to my introduction. They had fallen in love and got married. Their wedding was taken place in Moscow while Vera and I, we were an unmarried couple in a nice apartment. We all had teamed up to “go in for trade”. There was a remarkable quantity of Vietnamese people living in Soviet Union in order to study, work and exchange culture in the 80s. They brought jeans, Thailand T-shirts, life-preservers made in South Korea, kimono robes embroidered with the patterns of dragons and phoenixes, electronics clocks, watches whose trade name was Citizen, sunglasses, eyebrow pencils and lipsticks whose usage was to prevent chapped lips … with them. They were bad quality goods indeed. The watches would be soon damaged within some days. The sunglasses were made of mica which would make the wearers night-blind. Even so, the Soviets loved them due to their beautiful styles and strange images. The Russian girls in white thin T-shirts seemed to thoroughly show their spotless white complexion during the summer days.

All Russian products had been unchangingly produced under the motto “the comfort is better than pride” since October Revolution. Their economy was scheming, directed but inflexible. The factory would manufacture what it was assigned to produce and a mass of products were made under the old design. Quality and model weren’t improved. The output was always scarce and had never been enough to satisfy the demand. Therefore, the change wasn’t in need.

As a matter of fact, the goods made in Soviet Union had a very good quality but a “brusque” design. The sunglasses whose model seemed to be in Sekhop times were rough-hewn while Vietnamese “bad quality” ones were delicate and fashionable as well as met the taste. The electrical goods made in Soviet Union had no comment due to their perfect quality such as maixo heat conductibility wire, electric irons and electric ovens that were sold like hot cakes. Moreover, the pressure-cookers which could be used through generations and every household in Vietnam had at least one in order to simmer the bones were heavy and durable with aluminum frame as thick as a half length of a knuckle. What else? The “multipurpose” ice buckets could either carry ice or keep the rice warm for a whole day. The water pots made in Soviet Union with their long-lasting quality was extremely wonderful …

The Vietnamese people often brought a ton of goods each and flocked to Soviet Union. To avoid tariff, they put on a lot of jean wear no matter the temperature was even 37°C and they were bathed in perspiration. They would take the extra clothes off after finishing the check-in procedure and getting in the plane. One a gain, they wore such clothes when arriving in Moscow airport. The customs officers wouldn’t dare to levy the tax on their “portable goods” which they were wearing by asking them to strip. How the government could compensate if they “froze to death” due to such removal.

The people who could only stay in Soviet Union in a short time had to hurriedly sell their goods at the “wholesale price” to persons like us – the guys who had become experienced fellows in the ground of Moscow – due to the urgency of time. One suite of jean had the purchase price up to one tenth of a tael. A Thailand T-shirt cost 25 rubles. A Citizen watch was 200 rubles. We “received” all kinds the goods. Then, we sold them to Russian end users and got a bit profit for each. A Russian girl in awkward age would seem to wear a Thailand jean without washing if she were able to have one.

Vietnamese people borrowed money to buy and bring goods with them to Russia for trading. They did the same activities once coming back Vietnam and thus they could earn two-way profit. With 7 rubles, they could buy an electric iron and sell it in Hanoi to get 5 times profit. A pressure-cooker could be bought at the cost of 15 rubles and the selling price was 6 times higher. A 120-ruble sewing-machine would cost a fortune in Hanoi. A thousand-tablet box of Anagin could give a 10-time profit.

Vietnamese people rummaged all the stores including Gum, Sum, Deshima … in Moscow in order to clear all the stocks of the things in need in Hanoi. With the convenience of the underground, Vietnamese people didn’t spare any magazin (shop) in Moscow.

The delegations of people who came there for 3-month short term studying and doing research were extremely crowded. The class started at 9 o’clock and finished at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. After class, Metro was the first arrival before flocking out to buy goods. The question of carton box used for carrying purchasing goods was raised. The “planned economy” didn’t allow any manufacturer to produce the carton box and sell to Vietnamese officers. The idea of buying the used ones appeared. However, the carton boxes weren’t sold in any place all over Moscow because they weren’t manufactured in any factories. The persons who had real gift of the gad and were good at Russian language were assigned to fervently contact the ware-house-keepers of the magazins and make a pass at them in order to buy carton boxes as waste-paper. What a joy when the carton boxes were bought since how the goods could be packed without them!

How the thin carton boxes could carry tons of goods which were then tossed about on the floor-board of oceangoing vessel and were unhurriedly sent to Vietnam. One more time, “Vietnamese idea” was sprouted: Fishing lines whose thickness was as big as a little finger were bought so as to knit like the body of the hammocks before covering the boxes. That could prevent the boxes from damage while the weight of the goods wouldn’t be inappreciably increased and the tax wouldn’t too, accordingly. It seemed that the gangs of thieves, the underworlds and Russian mafia hadn’t been established in those years. Therefore, the goods remained undamaged when arriving in Vietnam after months of sailing despite they were only carried in carton boxes. They weren’t drawn from the center by breaking through the boxes in stead. What extraordinariness! The socialist Soviets were quite honest, sincere and serious.

Four of us had a long-term stay in Moscow so that we had the conditions to “mingled into the team” of scouring all over the alleys and side streets in order to buy all the stocks of the things as a speculation. We worked so effective that the short-term “Cong” newcomers couldn’t afford to buy any electrical iron or maixo heat conductibility wire in any store and they had to buy back from us at higher cost.

“Cong” was a slang name used to call our Vietnamese people at that time in Moscow but not in Hanoi where nobody used such word. Anyone who stayed and traded in Moscow would be named Cong at once.

We had profit which was more than enough to buy a Lada car and reached the distant provinces to clear all the stocks of the things. The old interest created the new one …

All the shops in Moscow were as empty as the bottom of the Buddha statures during those months. It was reasonable that the more the goods were sold the more the goods should be produced to get profit. On the contrary, a careful calculation had been chalked out under the so-called the planned and directed economy. The yearly production “target” was just 8 millions pairs of shoes which was the barely enough quantity to replace the damaged ones in correlative with 200 millions people. According to the ready-assigned plan, the just sufficient raw material would be supplied to manufacture exactly 8 millions pairs only, no more and no less even a shoe. The “supply” way of selling was performed at the cost “in compensation for losses” as “a service to the people”. That meant the capital used to produce the goods was equal or lower than that very cheap selling price. The price which could bring the interest wasn’t allowed to display and the development of the factory became unnecessary.

The same case happened to pressure-cooker whose barely enough quantity based on several millions households and sold to households one each had been planned. The extra production wasn’t allowed. The “Cong” had cleared all the stocks of pressure-cookers in Moscow and surrounding provinces in order to “equip” Vietnamese households who were in need of stewing pig-bone with taro. As a result of that, the inhabitants in Moscow lost their rations while nobody cared. The “plan of the government” had been approved by the “Congress” and remained immutable and unchanged.

Thanks to that “planned economy”, we became “rich”. Whenever there was any mass of output goods appeared, we stood in lines and bought them in bulk in advance. That came of our impishly playing a lone hand. The sincere Russian sellers with high “spirit of service” always fulfilled their duty and the goods unfailingly run out before the Russian housewives attended lines. They didn’t complain at all despite they couldn’t buy. How upright the people in Moscow were at that time!

… It was my Moscow with the very spacious boulevards, the magnificent castles, the snow, the yellow maple leaves and the buds who were as beautiful as angels beside the memories of my first love with Vera, Thieu and Hai Yen … in my poetic time.

… Four of us came and went freely under early snow, had an unoccupied stroll by Moscow riverbank where was one of the contexts of the film named when the flock of cranes flied past while Boris and his sweetheart were bending their steps in the last night before he attended front.

Based on a map of Metro schedule, we could appear and disappear all over the Moscow capital. We were familiar with underground stations which were full of memories and were excitedly pronounced in clanging peals in Russian language such as Proxbec Macka, Kalininxcaia, Kudonhetmoc, Mayakovsky, Xmolenxcaia, Proxbec Miara, Packuntuaru, Novoxlobopxkaia … The surrounding magazins were often built near the station. We dropped into those stores and bought goods by the way. We bought and we of course had interest as well. We traveled for pleasure and we could earn money at the same time. Our purses were too full with the ruble currency printed Lenin image. We weren’t normal “Cong” who came there as workers. Not at all! We were Masters of Science and Doctors in literature, economy. That was alright! We “carefully put” those knowledge in our mind. We traded in “jeans, T-shirts, maixo heat conductibility wire, electrical irons” on a line between Hanoi and Moscow first …

22

Date …

Three persons Trung, Thieu and Yen … were from a distant Vietnamese country. They had unexpectedly witnessed the “historical minutes”, the “century minutes” in Moscow, Russia which was one of the states of the great Soviet Union.

Early in the morning, three of them arrived in the Red Square, an extremely familiar square where something extraordinary was happening on that day. The flagstones which had been tiled on the yard of the square since the previous centuries looked like the pages in history. They were going to record a new important event.

The clock bell in the Kremlin palace was humming its tune which was echoing in the space. A sparkling red star with a ruby attached on the peak of Kremlin tower shined. The light of that star flashed all over the earth planet during the last 70 years which meant nearly a century. It became the symbol of revolutionary light which guided the workers and peasants’ struggles. Million millions of people on the Earth “made a pilgrimage” to that Red Square in order to raise their eyes and looked at the “ideal star” … The light of that red star also stayed in the hearts of Thieu and Trung and guided them when they attended combats.

On that day, the star was still there and its ruby was still there while its light in the figurative sense was no longer existent indeed. It was impossible to imagine that a great country including federal republic of 16 states, a greatest stronghold in the world and an institution which affected a half planet during the last 70 years had completely collapsed with neither sound nor a voice of rifle-fire.

Yes! There wasn’t any voice of rifle-fire. However, a country which was founded as a result of a revolution whose damage was mountains of bones and blood streams of rivers in 1917, was protected by the deaths of 30 millions in the Second World War and was built by the sweat of hundreds of million people who had performed a boiling ideal and a self-abnegation labor during the last 70 years vanished in the air like a dream.

Thieu, Trung and Yen were astounded. They were standing in the center of the square and were looking at Kremlin palace. The historical minutes were chimed. During the last 70 years, the red hammer and sickle flag was proudly silhouetted against the deep blue sky in Moscow but then, it was little by little pulled down. The “new eye of day” was step by step rising and replacing the “old sun” which was gradually slopping behind the range of mountain. The new founded Russian flag whose three colors were white, blue and red was slowly pulled up. A new chapter had begun in the history of Russia. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with its first-class greatness in the world had been announce its own end and had been smashed into “small pieces”. A new established Russia was celebrating the “coronation”.

Thieu, Trung, Yen and all the tourists on the square quickly took photographs as many as they could. Wow! What happiness! Normally, people had to “witness sceneries of terrible bloodshed” before seeing the minutes of “mankind’s history” in which a new chapter had begun. But there, people were deliberately playing the role of travelers and were repeatedly taking the pictures to record the images as memories.

Thieu looked at the television screen in a nearby building. Mr. Gorbachev, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics President was reading the resignation speech. Which country could he be a President without resigning? His huge nation was broken into 16 small pieces and each piece had its own president. Whose President could he be while his Union had been nihility?

How poor Gorbachev was! He used to be at the toweringly high pinnacle of sacred power but he eagerly became utterly engrossed in “reshuffling” without knowing that he was digging a tomb to bury himself alive. Well! It was enough to talk about him. “An individual destiny” was nothing at all in the step of the history which treaded on him and he had to accept it without having any regret because that “historical machinery” was started and operated in the person of him, himself.

Thieu, Trung and Yen thanked Soviet Union where they – the persons coming from “eating water morning glory and riding bicycle” place – could eat beef soup, study literature and economic sciences in the framework of collectivism and properly obtain “MA” and “PhD” degrees. How extremely high-level! But then, they had to self-adjust as well once the “situation” had been shifted although the degrees remained unchanged. However, they had to use “the light from the natural instinct of life” to adjust “what they had learned”.

It was very unlikely when Yen, Thieu and Trung could help concerning political events despite the fact that they did trading “jeans and T-shirts” all day long.

The above three mentioned persons had presented in Soviet Union since it was in “peace and prosperity”. One and all had to indispensably follow the only way, the only universal truth. However, they unexpectedly heard the different timbre of the fanfaronade. In February 1989, they curiously attended Manezh Square to have a look at the view that hundreds of thousands people with a democratic flag in their hearts were meeting and demonstrating against the contemporary institution although they couldn’t manage to get any “pressure-cooker, ice bucket, electric iron and  maixo” due to the shortage of them. What a formidable event! In Stalin’s times, his name made everybody’s hair stand on end. In the meeting, his speech made them “petrified”. But then, they dared to demonstrate against the contemporary institution. Boris Yeltsin, a construction engineer working in the central province Ural, had grasped the situation, the setback of the collectivism and the tendency of the masses who were more and more fed up with the officialdom of the institution during the time he stayed in Moscow. He soon became “a leading star”. How the firmest structure of Soviet Party in the world could be stopped operating due to the decree signed by Yeltsin. How the Party headquarters, the center of national management, the symbol of superpower which had ruled half of all nations all over the world could be surrounded so tight that the leaders who were working inside such a building had to take a secret underground to avoid the assault and the trial from extremists. Meanwhile, the Team of valiant militiamen who were performing their watch and protection automatically left their positions and took to flight in the tunnels.

Good gracious! The Soviet Union great powerful country used to win a victory over fascist German, Italy and Japan in the Second World War. The Soviet Union armed forces which was under the direction of Party political commissars had successfully manufactured the nuclear weapon which could make half a terrestrial globe explored, the intercontinental ballistic missiles, space vehicles soaring in the sky (American had to show great vigilance), thousands and tens of thousands tanks and modern dreadnoughts, the battleships defending its territorial waters just like islands made of steel, the Mig and Su planes which could overshadow the sky … That seemed to disappear when its regime was vanished in the air. What was the reason why?

We can see the great strength of Democratic thought. The Democratic thought was turned into a tornado which swept away all the violence. The Democratic thought submerged all kinds of weapons just like a glacier. Hundreds of millions people in 16 republican states of Soviet Union suddenly woke up and their dreaminess was ended. Their look was changed under the effect of Democratic flag.

The Democratic thought could perform evolutions on the earth without using any bullet or shedding any drop of blood. How strange the human’s spiritual strength was! Perhaps, it was the first time in the history during the last many thousands years as well as the unique time a new historical chapter had begun as silent as a flower automatically stretching its petals without conceding the pressure of any war. Russia and 15 republican states in SNG block had played the strangest fanfare with Democratic musical scales in mankind history.

The “jovial” people said that Soviet Union had been eliminated in the Democratic “game”. At first, they planned to light a candle only but unexpectedly, it burned the whole building down.

Thieu, Trung and Yen witnessed the wind which signaled a tornado from the beginning. In January 1991, the historical decree-law “of proprietary rights” was approved. That created a breath of air which was contrary to the ideal of 70-year revolution. The regulation of public property looked like a broken atmosphere. It was the first time the State declared that all citizens had their own private property, the right of freely trading and engaging manpower. Hiring labor event which was being counted as exploitation crime and had to receive a death sentence was then allowed.

The old framework “was stopped suddenly”. In the period of transition, the new apparatus hadn’t been comprehensively operated, the economy was slack, the goods were run out and the people’s life was difficult. On the “indirect insults” of housewives due to having nothing to display on dining-tables alone, it was enough for the contemporary situation to be “flooded”. The streams of people who stood in queues to buy food were crowded as if they were attending “festivals”. The state of forming a line had already been counted as one of specific characteristics in Moscow and at that time, it became really exacerbated. Thieu, Trung and Yen had to give up their “clearing all the stock of things” career in Len and Moscow. The goods were so scarce that there wasn’t even a cake of soap as though the sceneries of the film named “Song about soldiers” in the historical background of the Second World War had come true. The low-grade pork-pie used in the popular meals, the pork-pie Kanbasa whose half the ingredient was wheat flour became very little as well. Salt and raw salt were run out in some places. The ruble currency was devalued everyday. The money printing-factory “couldn’t reach its target” despite of the three-shift working system. The starvation was prowling on the horizon just like the shadows of black ravens.

How shamed a great power which used to make the whole world admired was! A superpower “ruled” (in the figurative sense) a half of all nations in the world. They were tall, big and handsome. They were slavs who were so preeminent that they met the Creator’s ideal design. Fortunately, they were a human race who was the owner of the largest strip of land in the world. Their country stretched from Asia to Europe with the ranges of mountains extending endlessly, the very green grasslands planted with colorful flowers like an Elysium. It was a nation of snow, yellow maples, sunflowers and the bud with eyes as blue as a sky and hairs as yellow as golden sunbeams. It was an immense strip of land with large fields of wheat beyond the sight and “a huge oil river” in the bowels of the earth with its inexhaustible source of oil as dowry for its people from generation to generation.

Ridiculously, that country then hadn’t got even a roll of toilet-paper, a chicken egg, a box of matches, a cake of soap and a length of low-grade pork-pie Kanbasa. Meanwhile, furnishings and food were so abundant that they were thrown away in Western regions. People there had to pay a sanitation company for their cars and electronic goods being sent to dumping ground despite such things were still in good condition. The chicken meat and sugar weren’t in popular use due to their fatten cause. On the contrary, the journalists in that country had to use the ancient words “The specter of famine was prowling on the horizon” as though Russia were in serf period when the Queen Ekaterina’s most confidential concern was potato cultivation for the purpose of food aid.

Trung, Thieu and Yen who were from a poor country could only experience the taste of sweet potatoes but not white sugar, cow’s milk. Settling in that country, they hadn’t expected to be in state of thinking … how to escape the coming starvation till that time after years of drinking fresh milk, eating beef soup. They wouldn’t have even a piece of bread to chew unless they had to hardly stand in a queue. Their deep knowledge of literature, philosophy, economy would seem to be in “philadop” or complete evaporation status within three days of having nothing to eat and their strength as weak as “balloons” …

Date …

One certain Sunday, Thieu and Trung drove their Lada to Vixenxcaia village in the outskirts of Moscow. There, the rows of silver poplars were very green, the land was immense and the Russian houses whose walls made of high piling lengths of oak wood, windows carved with flower pattern and brightly painted and square wooden fences beside tulip hedges in blossom were ancient.

The windows of Russian houses looked like big frames where the house owners stood to enjoy the sky as a picture which was sometimes opaque because of the curtain of snow. Meanwhile, the excursionists could perceive the hearts and the features of Russian people through such frames on which the blazing golden sun shed light at times. The perfume of lavender made people astounded.

Thieu parked the car in apple orchard whose fruit was ripening in a riot of red just like the Russian buds’ cheeks. A great number of apples were hanging as low as an arm’s reach. How poor the apple trees in Russia were! Win and snow plucked even their last leaf in the cold winter and made them bare with black branches as though they were dead. They were assumed not to have any warm stream of resin running in their bodies. Contrariwise, the twigs which seemed to be numb with cold during snow season appeared to be brimful of vitality and hurriedly grew leaves and flowers when the biting cold weather was over. The leaves quickly grew, the panic-stricken blossoms opened and the fruit was prematurely formed as well. In the twinkling of an eye, the fruit had to rapidly grow and ripen as red as the cheeks of the girls who were of marriageable age otherwise they would all have become putrescent if they hadn’t ripened before the snow season came. The marvelous vitality of Russian apple trees could be counted as a symbol of an incarnation including Russian, Vietnamese or any people of any nationalities … that were all the same.

Thieu knocked at the heavy door made of oak wood. The professor Anatoli with his very white hair and beard appeared. Three of them warmly embraced together. They hadn’t seen each other for long. The professor Anatoli had been Trung’s teacher before he taught Thieu. Trung and Thieu had already received their red degrees in Moscow.

A silver water pot Samovar went up in smoke. Cups of Grudian tea merged with sugar and lemon juice gave the sweet taste of Grudian area.

-       Have you still had such a wonderful tea? – Asked Thieu.

-       Yes, I have. I still remain something of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – He made a mischievous joke – However, it will soon be SNG within some days. Grudia will become an independent country which is going to go over to the West and it’s hard for me to get Grudian tea anymore.

-       And you will drink our Vietnamese tea with Thai Nguyen brand name – Trung smiled while giving him a present – There is the taste of Vietnamese country in this box. Thai Nguyen where was revolutionary base in Vietnam “is manufacturing” this kind of “revolutionary tea” which is famous all over the world. “The Soviets” like you can consider it as “holy water” which is the same original point with you …

They all laughed loudly.

-       It’s extremely delicious. However, your “revolutionary tea” will make us sleepless all night whenever having it. We will be insomniac.

They chattered. They said their stories half in jest half in earnest but full of philosophical aspects and world affairs.

-       Previously, Stalin was a student in denominational school. He was born in Grudia and then he was the great historical personage – Said professor Anatoli – Admittedly, the iron or “steel” character – The literal sense of his name - was a factor which had helped to win a victory over fascism and saved Soviet Union. He had left a great inheritance of expanding and defending country beside another inheritance of an iron order which had been existent for years. The “ancient steel” order with the theocratic tenets of Middle Ages had dominated for the whole thousand years. The restriction of spiritual freedom created the stagnation. The mankind can only restore to former prosperity and develop once the thought is free. In recent months, there is something similar to the time when the theocratic tenets were breached. Copernic and Galilei were against the Holy Writ by declaring a sensational event: The Earth is round. I’m very melancholy because I don’t have cucumber pickled in bean sauce, cherry jam, beef and kanbasa. Nevertheless, we must have a “far sight” of political and economic professors – One more time, Anatoli teacher loudly laughed.

Thieu and Trung gave him two more “symbolic gifts” including instant noodle and spice flour that were food coming from Vietnam.

-       Sir! These are two typical products which represent the “flexibility and naughtiness” of market economy and exactly met the consumer taste.

Thieu used boiling water and finished “processing” three hot bowls of delicious instant noodle whose perfume pervaded the air within two minutes. The three teacher and students gave slurp sound when eating.

-       It takes a lot of labor in the kitchen to finish cooking a bowl of soup and it’s quite convenient in cases of “emergency” if we have such products like these. Meanwhile, the “planned economy” can’t create any invention.

Mr. Anatoli pleasurably nodded repeatedly out of satisfaction:

-       It’s as good as any other bowl of soup.

-       And here you are … the “housewifely industry” in Moscow has used salt to mix with food since time immemorial – Thieu kept on his introduction – There are many tastes in this bag of spice flour such as salt, peppery, scent and sweet extracted from meat that please our tongue very much.

Mrs. Dasa, Mr. Anatoli’s better half, made a “try” by the way. The spice flour was scattered on slices of bread, cucumber and meat and made them much more delicious in stead of dusting with salt on them …

-       It seems that your “economic” curriculum only has an item how the collective can reach the target but not the one how the individual brains can be improved and create the new ideas like those smart “instant noodle and spice flour” for example – Trung said funny words …

Anatoli was pensive:

-       To abolish private property in order to collectivize and let the state run the business actually inhibited the economic development and made our country sluggish and backward in comparison with the storm-like advance of the private property economy. That explains the reason why the “velvet revolution” had succeeded without causing any war. With a perfect equipment of weapon, the armed forces still became civilian population and followed their people’s aspiration. Meanwhile, the rulers couldn’t manage to maintain the old order.

-       The “political upheaval” taken place in August 1991was a very weak reaction whose purpose was to save the collective system. The pretence appeared in the person of Gorbachev when he spent his holiday in Krym where was 2.000 kilometers far away from Moscow to let conservative group alone doing political upheaval. He became a Jekyll and Hyde, half approved, half disagreeable. His action was just to give him as much advantage for his own political destiny as possible …

Thieu and Trung had witnessed the most excited minutes in Moscow. The three persons including students and teacher were effervescent with their memories:

-       In the morning of 19 August in that day, I saw armored cars and military cars carrying soldiers coming into Moscow from suburban direction when I opened the windows. I didn’t believe in my eyes – Thieu narrated – It was possible for a putsch or a civil war. I was panic-stricken. I was a soldier who bathed with lethal weapons when I was 18. I had experienced the battles in Sanh Interstice, in the Year of the Monkey in 1968, in Quang Tri in 1972, in Xuan Loc in 1975 and thus I knew how the war was. An un-describable feeling which was something like suffocation and a pain rose in my heart when catching the tanks and soldiers. My god! Will a Moscow in Russia with snow and yellow maples which were legendary and peaceful like that start its war period like a civil war after 1917, a Volgagrad - Stalingrad combat or the defensive counter-attack campaign Kursk? My heart seemed to be stifled. No one but a soldier knows how the state of mind is when seeing many tanks and a whole forest of soldiers in uniform marching in the capital. The official news said that the Top-ranking general Varennicop, infantry commander wanted to annihilate all the Russian President Yeltsin’s accomplices at once. The Alpha group which belonged to KGB had already received the order of arresting Yeltsin at the pleasure-house in Arkhangelskoye in advance.

-       Having soldierly manner in my blood, I rushed to Assembly building, the Yeltsin’s headquarters – Trung added – Tens of thousands Moscow inhabitants had formed a belt to protect him when he arrived in.

“State Committee for cases of emergency” made the revolution and declared that they had been in the saddle and would govern Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The constitutional Vice-president Yanayev was “the new President” in the room of Gorbachev who was “dismissed from office”.

However, like a fanfare which was lost its voice right after delivery its first sound, a group of “conservative fellows” couldn’t afford to change the direction of the wheel of history. Such group who made the overturn, “was climbing and trembling” soon collapsed as though a breeze made cluster figs easily dropped down due to their rotten stalks.

I was standing close to the tank parking in front of Assembly building and looked up. Yeltsin had a very big stature. He was standing on a tank and sonorously condemned the coup, rejected it and called upon everybody to protect the Union constitutional government. The mass cheered and advocated him. His iron will soon spread all over Moscow, Russia and Soviet Union. I had taken tens of Yeltsin’s photographs in those minutes. How strange! Although the “whirlwind of coup d’etat” was happening, I had totally forgotten the image of blood and war. I went straight into the “eye of a hurricane”, the center of the political upheaval and took photographs like a tourist – Trung snorted of laughter – It was a typical joke. That was the reason why the “State Committee for cases of emergency” which made the putsch was captured after several tens of hours. The “constitutional President” of Soviet Union coming back from Krym wasn’t “deposed from office” but was mournful on the staircases and was ashamed in his bludong which he was wearing when he was on his vacation.

- The leading group of State Committee for cases of emergency didn’t insist on taking up Yeltsin’s accomplices – Mr. Anatoli gave supplementary ideas – I myself heard this event. The commander of a crack special mission team Alpha of BGK refused the oral order of capturing Yeltsin at the country-seat Arkhangelskoye. The power of Yeltsin – the constitutional President of Union of Russia Republic – was so great that it psychologically overwhelm his adversary. His name became the symbol of freedom and democracy.

The half coup looked like a new-made fire which was out right after that. They weren’t advocated by their people in Russia and all over Soviet Union. The wave of “democratizing” was being erupted just like an earthquake or a tsunami which no dyke could stop it.

-       It’s enough for “the memories about political events”. What should we do now, sir? How should we deal with our advanced “economy and politics” syllabus we had learned?

-       Let’s take the demotic saying used among the common people. Let’s turn back the direction arrow. Public property was changed into private one. The subsidized and planned economy was turned into market one … - Mr. Anatoli mischievously winked at his students. Luckily, my retirement age has just come. I locked my house in the city. I’m staying in this countryside house in Russia and play a role of an apple tree which grows naturally … This is our family’s traditional house which is handed over through generations. In this house, an 18-year-old little boy Anatoli with golden hair had attended a continuous war. He presented in the battle destroying Hitler’s Parliament House in Berlin and planted a hammer and sickle flag on the high peak. Returning his country, the youth Anatoli’s hair became less golden due to the smoke of war. He attended Lomonoxop School, studied and became a professor of political economy. A sacred golden line: Collectivism, non-private property supplied concrete direction of mankind history and was the lodestar of the written curriculums.

But now, you have known! The history is rewriting this line. Let’s turned back the arrow … Your time of getting profit from clearing all the stock of “planned products” is “over”. You may face difficulties you keep staying in Moscow. The familiar word “tavarit” (comrade) is no longer existent. The Chauvin thought will lift up its head like a pendulum which has an equal swing. That is the rule of revenge. Russian people’s joy of “freedom and democracy” has just cooled down before their pain of being changed from a huge super power and influence person to a normal one. The feeling of vengeance will be raised in Russia and you won’t be no longer distinguished visitors. Turn back your hometown. The perverse “close-shaven head” rascals will pick a quarrel with you. On the contrary, our relationship is everlasting. The friendship between Russia and Vietnam is too …

The professor Anatoli’s eyes wetted with tears. He was upright and soft-hearted …

Thieu and Trung were emotional and sat still and quietly.

-       There is a “typical” story. It’s very funny. A group of Soviet Union astronauts got in the spaceship and “traveled” in the atmosphere in order to make a long-term research within several continuous months – Mr. Anatoli kept on their conversation by “creating a new popular tale” – Their spacecraft took off and left their country which was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with the hammer and sickle flag and the President Gorbachev. Their “space roam” had already programmed. Unlike a car whose driver could jump out of if whenever there was any breakdown happened or the brake was stuck, for instance, the astronauts had to stay in their rooms which were always “hanging” in mid air. The spaceship would be on the ground when the landing time came. Alas! Their “old country” had been changed into “another nation” with “new name and new leader”. It was fortunate for them when “the new government” remained their “old technical department” which performed “machine manipulations” so as to safely receive them otherwise they would be “forgotten” and had to keep running about as though the moon rounds the earth or become new citizens in another planet … Who knows?

Mr. Anatoli’s story was quite arch. The “motif” of stories like that had never been heard up to then and couldn’t take place in any other time but the 20^th century.

-       I can’t imagine what they would think when they put their steps on the ground, recognized the smash of their “old country”, the beginning of a new chapter in the history and saw the strange color of national flag – Trung wondered – They would be sad or happy …

The golden sun in Russia seemed to cheer like the beer bubbles which splashed over the mid cold clear air. Three of them were strolling in the apple garden. The apple trees bore heavy fruit which sometimes knock on their heads. They picked the apples and enjoyed their sweet taste, the taste of Russian country.

-       This taste is formed from the process of taking the nutrition from the earth, having a dew bath, basking and withstanding the wind. Our economic theory had cut their resources including the sun, the wind and the dew and made them different from what the creator had “designed” for them – The professor Anatoli’s students uproariously laughed while he made a slight smile which made him, an old professor whose every strand of hair was dyed white due to the theory of “public property” economics younger.

-       As a soldier in the Red Army, I took a “swastika” flag and threw it at the foot of the stronghold in Kremlin palace on the date of passing the troops in review for the victory over the Second World War. I kept thinking that from that day on, the peace was everlasting, the sky in Moscow would never resound the voice of war. On the contrary, I unexpectedly see the shadows of tanks and cannons that were the dangers to peaceful life in Moscow on these days – Mr. Anatoli shook his head with utter discontentment – I didn’t witness the tanks and cannons that “State Committee for cases of emergency” used to make the political upheaval in August 1991 in order to restore order in Soviet Union. But, I had seen with my own eyes the President Yeltsin’s tanks and cannons laying a siege to the leaders of National Assembly Khabulatop and Kryuchkov in 1993. They are “democratic soldiers” who were side by side together to start out overthrowing the government of Soviet Union and now, they had parted so as to be in opposition and fight with each other over power …

What a higgledy-piggledy chapter in history! It was quite good-for-nothing! Even the great head of Russian orthodox religion wouldn’t have been able to afford to settle all the thing if he had directly dashed into the secret talks from his church.

The “President’s roars of cannons” were resounded and the shells were poured on “National Assembly” building …

-       How well schooled the Yeltsin’s operation was! – Trung gave his comments – What he had done seemed to prove that he was enticed the parliament side into his “trap”. The Parliament faction pugnaciously attacked municipal administration block and Ostankino radio station in Moscow, appealed to the Russian armed services to march in Moscow and toppled the President Yeltsin … That was what Yeltsin’s faithful wings were waiting so that they could show their ability. “All members of parliament” were encircled. The roars of cannons were resounded and the shells were poured on National Assembly building where the parliamentarians in bullet-proof armors were holding rifles and “shooting” from the balcony. How the National Assembly building could struggle against the surrounding tanks, cannons and special task forces in spite of its highest symbol of power. The Yeltsin’s influence was on the rise. The military and the mass were advocating him. His armed services were occupying the important posts in Moscow. The oppositional Parliamentary had no choice but surrender. The several guns of the “members of parliament” which were one of the parts of a drama performed nothing except their symbolical meaning …

That scenery had never happened in the history of Russia indeed. The “green born democracy” had created such “drama” and such situation …

The professor Anatoli was absorbed in thought:

-       Now, I don’t know what and which symbol the National Assembly building represents whenever looking at it. Under the time that Soviet Union was peaceful and prosperous, it was the symbol of “the people’s power”. It became democratic symbol when Yeltsin succeeded in the election, received the title as a Chairman of Supreme Soviet and worked there. Then, it one more time lost its meaning when Khabulatop and Kryuchkov, the National Assembly Chairman used it as a stronghold to struggle against Yeltsin and Yeltsin poured the shells on it. It time and again played from role to role …

… Mrs. Dasa prepared a feast including smoked pig’s trotter, the eggs of caviar, sardines, cucumber picked in bean sauce, Russian salad, black bread, cakes stuffing of apple dumpling … It was called a hearty meal despite its quality was equivalent to what they often ate in the old days. She considered Thieu and Trung as her children with unaffectedness, chatter and fervidness. She loved Vietnam and kept praising Vietnamese girls for having been very beautiful and delicate. A bit feature of Russian thoroughbred bud whose beauty was exquisite and fascinating still remained on her heavy face and bulky stature.

-       During the Second World War, I was a member of Komsomolskaya organization and I was old enough to understand how the war was. Therefore, I have just been terribly fearful when seeing the shadows of tanks and cannons marching with stamping noises on the street.

However, I longingly remember the time that Soviet Union was peaceful and prosperous anyway. The Russian spaceships were launched in Baiconua airport. The bright red flags overshadowed all corners of Moscow whenever the congress was taken place. The youth from all over the world flocked to Lomonoxop for studying. Import food was inundating all the stores. The very yellow lemons Bradin were used whenever having tea. Vietnamese coffee was made under French style in which every drop of it was fallen through the filter. Vietnamese pineapples, bananas and Thieu litchi had the taste of the tropical golden sun. Like brothers, 16 republican countries formed a ring round each other just like a united states. What cheerfulness!

-       But, one Russia nation full of ambitions had placed a heavy burden on its shoulders because of “helping” its friends in the socialist block – Mr. Anatoli made an interruption – That burden was so heavy that its back was broken. In Hanoi, there were some verses saying about Lenin statue which was built in Lenin garden “Lenin cared for everything, maixo and electric iron including” (in order to supply Hanoi with those things).

Four of them laughed again.

The professor Anatoli was an amateur “Museologist”. In Vixenxcaia village, his house was built in accordance with ancient model just like a small museum. The walls were made of sections of tree trunks which were arranged in correct order. The modern furnishings were decorated in the outside room while the style of cooking fire concurrently holding the use as a tightly rammed ground bed was in the inside one. The chairs and tables made of rough oak wood, the earthen jars, the bronze Samovar vases produced hundreds of years ago, the bright country-field skirts and shirts and the sets of kitchen utensils carved with silver … Thieu and Trung couldn’t help restlessly contemplating them. As human beings, how they could forget their past which would become uneasily soft and sweet in their mind in the course of time no matter how bitter it was. What they had just witnessed in Russia that day would be their everlasting memories.

They had seen with their own eyes the time the domination thought on the Earth changed …

-       Mr. Anatoli! How would the present Russia and the future Russia be? – Trung asked.

-       My dear Russian country was great but heart-breaking. It had three opportunities to build a citizen society during the last 150 years. The reform which should be happened at the beginning of 20^th century was obstructed by the war and revolution. The innovation in Khrushchev times was ended by the delay of Brezhnev era. The Yeltsin’s intention which brought democratic thought to the mass has carried the competition among the billionaires who have been fighting with each other over the proprietary rights to own what the old Soviet Union left.

In United State of America, the political circles are still able to keep their own stable life although they eagerly performed their activities in front of their people and what they have earned is their property no matter who will take the position as a president. On the contrary, the king – the new president in Russia would own the people’s property which would reach the figure of tens of billions dollars when he came into power. One huge company would be purged out and another gigantic one would win the advantage if it had a relationship with “the king – the new President”. The Russian country has a belief in its future because its oil energy resource will be counted as a weapon which can effect on political situation. Russia has a lot of oil fields. It may become rich and powerful. Even so, its way leading to the real democracy will never be smooth and flat at all …

Saying good-bye to professor Anatoli, Thieu and Trung perceived an extraordinarily sorrowful feeling. A part of their lives belonged to that country with many familiar memories. However, time had changed. And then, a terrible insecurity which wasn’t named the environment for their lives anymore was arousing in their mind. They had to leave …

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