(The troops of General Bredov entering Kiev at Sophia Square, 31 August 1919)

In the first volume of his Samson Kolechko series entitled THE SILVER BONE, award winning historical novelist Andrey Kurkov begins his story with a horrifying scene where Kolechko’s father is murdered, and Kolechko himself has his ear sliced off with a saber by marauding Cossacks.  Kurkov’s novel is set in post-World War I Ukraine in the city of Kyiv as the fighting for control of Russia after the “revolution” continues into 1919.  The death of Kolechko’s father follows the deaths of his mother and sister leaving him an orphan.

The novel accurately portrays a city of 500,000 who live in fear and poverty and are afraid to walk the streets.  Remnants of the White Army and other factions opposed to the Bolsheviks threaten the city as the Red Army tries to gain control of the streets.  The Red Army is requisitioning any private property they feel will enhance the revolution and people have nowhere to turn.  Peasants are forced to enlist in the Red Army, and it is difficult to understand how certain characters believe in the tenants of the revolution.  Enters the hero of the novel, Samson Kolechko, grieving because of the loss of his father he wanders the city and ensconces himself in his flat grieving the loss of his family.  Samson is an electrical engineering student in need of a job and stumbles into a police station after soldiers requisition his father’s sacred desk.  In an absurd scene he is recruited as a detective by Comrade Nayden, a sleep deprived Commissar because of his writing talent, but again very little makes sense in1919 Kyiv as Kurkov’s Vonnegut Esque approach to storytelling is wonderful enhanced by his by the author’s knowledge of Ukrainian history and detailed knowledge of the city’s streets.  Nayden hires Samson because he believes he supports the Socialist cause – the new worker’s state and he seems committed to outlawing disorder.

Samson is upset as two Red Army soldiers have absconded with his flat and he is forced to live with them.  He has placed his severed ear in a metal box which continues to hear and is located in the room where Anton and Fydor, the soldiers are sleeping.  The ear plays a major role in the story as it is used as a superb intelligence device!   Samson learns that the two soldiers are preparing to desert and informs Comrade Nayden about enhancing his reputation.  Samson will stumble into a world of murder and intrigue as he discovers a wider conspiracy involving a mysterious foreigner and a silver bone.

(Author, Andrey Kurkov)

The elements of an authoritarian regime are on full display as individuals must produce identification documents at will and one could not question the state.  In this tense atmosphere Samson investigates a theft that evolves into the pursuit of a murderer who kills a police colleague named Semyon Glukhov, and Friedrich Balzer, a tailor, who also almost kills him.  He is aided in solving this crime by Nadezhda Trofimovna, who works in the census office providing a glimpse into the Bolshevik bureaucracy.  Soon Nadezhda moves into Samson’s flat, though at first their relationship is quite platonic.

Samson and other characters live in a barter economy that involves frequent blackouts caused by the theft of firewood that fuels Kyiv’s power plant.  The city also suffers from food and water shortages leading to a great deal of crime. 

Kurkov has authored an atmospheric novel in a droll style which exhibits a great deal of dark humor at the same time Samson battles personal tragedy and a corrupt system as he navigates being an inexperienced detective.  At the same time Samson must deal with two important cases.  First, arresting Anton and Fydor, the Red Army soldiers and trying to  ascertain their link to his second and more important case of locating the killer of Balzer, the tailor, and Semyon, his colleague.

The author is a wonderful storyteller who based his novel on Bolshevik secret archives.  These traits are expressed through a series of playful, and at times serious scenes.  One of my favorites is at the dinner table in Samson’s flat as Nadezhda has moved in and her parents led by her irrepressible father, Trofim Sigismundovich questions Samson’s intentions.  Kurkov employs extreme sarcasm as the conversation shifts to the techniques involved in gathering census material-who knew census taking could be so funny!

There are a number of important characters on display in the novel and each impacts the eventual conclusion.  Comrade Nayden provides insight into the bureaucratic nature of Soviet police work.  Sergius Kholodny, a priest turned policeman offers commentary about the existence of god.  Nestor Ivanovich, a retired police fingerprinting expert.  Luc Jeanovich Jacobsen, Balzer’s roommate, is in search of a doctor to transform his ruined leg.  Vera Ignatyevna Gedroits, a doctor in the male dominated Soviet medical system.  Dr. Nikolay Nikolaevich Vatrokhin who treated Samson’s loss of an ear and provides a great deal of advice throughout.

The novel is expertly translated by Boris Dralyuk, a fellow Ukrainian like the author who returned to Ukraine having escaped Putin’s invasion to fight the authoritarian Russian autocrat.  As one reads the novel you should keep in mind that the story takes place in a country which has amazing similarities and relevance to our contemporary world.  The Ukraine of 1919 was fighting off the yoke of the Red Army, and though the country achieved its independence in 1991, today it is confronted by the Russian Army as Putin tries to recreate the boundaries of the former Soviet Union.  In both cases people clamor for a normal existence, but war and a tyrant’s ego must be overcome first.

(Leon Trotsky inspects units of the Red Army in Kyiv, which was occupied by the Russian Bolsheviks, June 1919.)