About the Author

Successors of the Soviet propagandists would call my life story 'The Path of Betrayal'; independently thinking people would call it 'The Path of Enlightenment'. Like my peers, I was a Soviet pioneer and at due time a Komsomol member; sat by the campfire in the circle of other happy children singing communist songs and participating in the impressive ceremonial meetings devoted to the chiefs of the country. When I became older I was drafted into the Army and served my time in Uzhur, Siberia, which I described in my novel, building rocket launchers for the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. The war against the West appeared to be imminent and we were told to defend our country. However, I still remember the headlines in Pravda about "atrocities" of Hungarian rebels in Budapest and subsequent invasion of Soviet troops in 1956; "the fraternal assistance" by the way of Soviet tanks to Czechoslovak people in 1968; and of course, the anti-Stalin Twenties CPSU Congress. Changes to me came over the years and when I had a chance I've defected to the West. There are three very different versions of my escape but all of them are equally credible. America was generous to me. I continued my education and became a physicist. Currently I work for the US Department of Defense.