The man from Saint Petersburg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Man from St. Petersburg (Original: The Man From St. Petersburg ) is a novel by the English writer Ken Follett from 1982 . The German translation by Helmut Kossodo appeared for the first time in the same year by Gustav-Lübbe-Verlag. In this novel, too, Follett combines thrillers and history novels. With the main story set shortly before the outbreak of World War I , Follett creates a moral picture of Edwardian England .

content

Felix Kschessinsky has a daring plan. The Russian revolutionary and anarchist wants to kill Prince Alexander Orlov in London. Orlov is to negotiate an agreement with Great Britain on behalf of the Tsar . The First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill asks Lord Walden to conduct the negotiations, because Walden is Orlov's uncle.

By murdering Orlov, Felix wants to prevent this agreement, which obliges Russia to enter the war in the event of a war between Germany and Great Britain. He hopes that his act will permanently disrupt British-Russian relations. His preparations are going according to plan: he familiarizes himself with the language, travels to England unrecognized, takes a room and waits for his chance. It is the summer of 1914.

His chance seems to have come when Walden's daughter Charlotte makes her debut . Felix ambushes the Waldens' carriage, in which Orlov is also sitting, on the way back from Buckingham Palace . But when he tears open the blow, he recognizes Lydia Walden, his former lover. He hesitates a moment too long, the attack fails.

Almost two decades earlier, Felix and Lydia had a passionate affair in St. Petersburg . But Lydia was the daughter of a count and Felix was a farmer's son. Lydia's father discovered the liaison, had Felix arrested and married his daughter to the young English diplomat Stephen Walden.

But Felix doesn't give up that quickly. He visits Lydia, who does not recognize him as the assassin, at home and elicits Orlov's whereabouts: the Savoy Hotel . But a second attack also fails because of Walden's courageous intervention. The police cling to Felix's heels, but he always just manages to escape. He watches the Waldens town house to find out Orlov's new whereabouts. He follows Charlotte once. The young woman is currently in a difficult position. She begins to realize that the world is not what it appeared to be in her well-protected childhood. She has no idea about politics or social conflict, let alone sexuality, and is gradually realizing this. Her parents' house suddenly appears narrow and narrow-minded.

At a suffragette demonstration, she gets into a fight, but Felix comes to her aid. They become friends and Felix finds out so quickly that Charlotte must be his daughter and finally tells her. The meetings between the two of them do not remain a secret for long, so Lydia sends Charlotte to the Waldens' country estate to avoid a social scandal, because as a daughter from a good family you don't have such company. So Charlotte learns that Orlow is also there and can teach Felix. Always pursued by the police, he also makes his way to Walden Hall. This is where all the main characters come together: Orlow and Walden are already there, as is Churchill to sign the contract, Charlotte, Felix, thus inspector Thomson of Scotland Yard , and finally Lydia, who has guessed Felix's intentions.

Charlotte keeps Felix hidden in her secret children's hiding place. Lydia sees through this secret, however, and visits Felix one last time in his hiding place. When Walden then confronts her, she confesses her past and Felix's fatherhood, and ultimately his current hiding place. But Felix is ​​already gone when his captors arrive. He sets fire and in the resulting mess he shoots Prince Orlov. Only then do you notice that Charlotte is locked in the burning house. Together with Walden, Felix frees his daughter from the burning prison before the ground collapses and Felix falls victim to his own flames. The cunning Churchill gives the order to have Orlov's body disappeared. The agreement has already been signed but has yet to be ratified. The next day you can read in the newspapers that the Russian diplomat Alexander Orlov was tragically killed in a fire on his uncle's estate - regrettable, but politically unproblematic. Felix Kschessinsky never existed.

A few weeks later, German troops invade Belgium and a little later also France. After an attack by Russian troops on the German eastern territories, the German army, which had penetrated far into France, had to be split up and partly relocated to the east, so that the German Reich would henceforth wage a two-front war - just as the British intended was. The rest is history.

literature