August
2010
REVIEW
All Them Cornfields and Ballet in the Evening
John Miller
Published by Hodgson Press ISBN 978-1-906164-12-6
The title (taken from the film I’m All Right Jack) draws a picture of the Soviet Union as a rustic yet sophisticated paradise. The reality, as described by Southwold town councillor John Miller in this memoir of his time behind the Iron Curtain, was anything but that.
Miller’s position as a reporter, first for Reuters and later for The Daily Telegraph, gave him levels of access that most Western visitors to the USSR could only dream of. He describes encounters with Russian Presidents, the Cambridge Spies, dissidents and MI6. But this was Soviet Russia, of course, so that access was still limited and controlled by minders, by the information agency and ultimately by the KGB. Still, while they could control official access, Miller still found opportunities to talk to the real Russians and to learn something of their lives. So it is that within these pages Khrushchev and Brezhnev rub shoulders with Ivan Ivanov, the ordinary Russian in the street.
From the opening description of arrival at Vnukovo Airport, it is clear that this is going to be a vivid and entertaining read. It is not all politics, either; there is Floppy the Reuters rabbit, tales of drinking, bugs (the electronic and cold-blooded varieties), diplomatic incidents – oh yes, and more tales of drinking. There is much to smile at, but running through the whole narrative is a vein of terror. The Soviet Union was responsible for some truly unpleasant actions even in the post-Stalin era, when Miller was there. The dark corridors of the Lubyanka were stained with blood, the fate of British agent Oleg Penkovsky a gut-wrenching reminder of the horrors of which the Soviet system was capable. The gulags were filled with those who, by word or deed, offended the leadership, including the footballing brothers who were sent to a Siberian labour camp for no worse crime than playing for the Spartak team that defeated the KGB chief’s home team in the Cup Final.
If a criticism is to be made, it is that the text is sometimes let down by the standard of the copyediting. That said, for anyone who was alive during the Cold War, this book provides a fascinating window onto a closed world that still indirectly influenced every life in the West. If you ever wondered about the truth of that ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’, as Churchill called it, you should read this book.
Bibliophile
John Miller at his book launch
