Love on don

River landscape of the Don

Image of the course of the Don River

Image of the Zaporozhian Cossacks

Kuban Cossacks

Love on the Don is a romance novel in 39 chapters by Heinz G. Konsalik from 1970, which is set in the Soviet Union .

Blurb

Eberhard Bodmar, a German journalist, is allowed to travel to the country between the Volga and Don on the trail of the former German Sixth Army . But already after his first steps on Russian soil, he senses that this country will seize him, even suck him up ... Jelena, the interpreter, falls in love with him as quickly as he with her; there is the Don with the steppes, the fragrant cherry orchards and the Cossacks ; and finally there is Nyusha, the blonde Cossack daughter, wild as untamed as the country. Her love for the German destroys her world and builds a new one.

“ Lightning struck when no one was in church. Father Ifan Matveyevich Lukin had been working in the garden and piled up the beans when the rain began, a completely unplanned rain at this time of year when everything was green and blooming and the heavy scent of wormwood mixed with the sweet touch of cherry blossoms, a breath, that floated across the steppe and was carried south with the current of the river. "

- Introduction of the story. Presentation of the Perjekopsskaya location.

content

With a special permit from the Soviet Interior Ministry, the German journalist Eberhard Bodmar came to Moscow to follow the traces of the 6th Army , with which his father also went down near Stalingrad. At the airport he is picked up by the pretty interpreter Jelena Antonovna, who immediately falls in love with him. Little does Bodmar suspect that Jelena is constantly monitoring him for the KGB . Bodmar quickly succumbed to the fascination of this land between the Don and the Volga; he felt captured by the simple beauty of the vast steppe and the infinity of the radiant sky. When Bodmar meets the wild beauty Nyusha, a spirited Cossack daughter who only obeys the laws of nature, a love develops that crosses borders and knows no turning back ...

action

Eberhard Bodmar, a journalist from Cologne , receives the authorization to document the traces and the path of the 6th Army, which went down in the 1943 Kesselschlacht of Stalingrad , more than twenty-five years after the end of the war. His personal motive is the fate of his father, Hans Bodmar, who died in Stalingrad at the time. The press attaché of the German Embassy in Moscow is astonished by Bodmar's far-reaching special permit, all the more since they are still in a state of tension between East and West during the Cold War . The destination of Bodmar's journey, which is to lead via Tula , Voronezh and the Great Don Arch, is Volgograd , what was then Stalingrad . The young and attractive interpreter Jelena Antonovna is placed at his side. Jelena is employed by Intourist as a camouflage , but actually works for the KGB. There is repeated erotic tension between the two of them and an unrequited love , which ends with Jelena turning away from him, snubbed. The night before Bodmar's departure from the Hotel Ukraina, a qualified engineer is murdered. The German is mistakenly associated with this murder case. Finally, Bodmar and Jelena can begin their journey. Your first stop is Tula, where your car breaks down. The two passionately kiss in the middle of the street and thereby attract the attention of Anton Talinkow, an overweight industrialist. First there is an argument between Bodmar and Talinkow, but then the powerful man decides to take them home with him. Reluctantly, they accept his invitation. After making advances to him, Jelena waits in the shower for Bodmar for a while, but Bodmar does not appear. Talinkow stuns the two of them with a herbal cocktail and then wants to attack Jelena. Before he can even commit the rape, he suffers a stroke. After Talinkow is picked up by an ambulance, both can escape from his dacha . The second storyline begins with the fate of the beautiful Nyusha, daughter of the village soviet of Perjekopsskaya, a (fictional) village on the banks of the Don. Nyusha was promised to the violent Granja and has already injured him once during one of his approaches. Nevertheless, she has to give in to her father and is promised as wife to the hated Granja. Bodmar is able to save Nyusha on the Don, where she almost goes under with her boat. The two fall in love and since then Nyusha has been Jelena's enemy, because both women fight for the same man. Jelena watches Bodmar and Nyuscha have sexual intercourse in a birch grove and has sworn cruel revenge on her adversary ever since. First, according to the traditional Cossack style, there should be a forbidden duel between Granja, whose honor was offended, and Bodmar. Nyuscha can avert this by revealing to Granja that she is no longer a virgin and that she had sex with the German. Granja is deeply injured and rejects his right to satisfaction because he no longer wants the "tainted" Nyusha. There is also a decisive duel between the two women. One night they fight naked and passionately for the man they both love. Jelena is injured in the process. Eberhard is shocked by the uncompromising behavior of the two, whose "animal nature" breaks out. The defeated Jelena cannot forget the shame that was inflicted on her. One night she ambushes the bathing Nyusha on the Don and tries to drown her. Also this time Nyusha emerges as the winner and kills Jelena out of self-defense. She carries her dead rival to her father's hut and confesses to her family that they killed her. When examining the body, they find a document that indicates that Jelena worked for the KGB. Bodmar recalls that Jelena made regular phone calls to Moscow at certain intervals and that her disappearance will not go unnoticed for long. Nyusha and Bodmar flee to Volgograd. They decide to send a fake telegram from Jelena from there to lure the KGB on the wrong track. However, Major Tumov discovers the fraud and himself travels to Perjekopskaya with a militia unit to investigate the suspected matter. Nyusha's father Dimitri swears the whole village to tell the KGB that Jelena and Eberhard have left for Volgograd. The existence of his daughter should by no means be mentioned. Before that, they had buried Jelena in a small wooded area and sunk the Moskvich- type car with which Bodmar and Jelena traveled to Perjekopsskaya in the Don. Tumow interrogates Dimitri, but cannot get the truth out of the Cossack. Granja then reveals to him, full of hatred for Nyusha, that she had slept with the German and cheated on him in the process. This statement moves Tumov to arrest Dimitri and continue to interrogate him in Volgograd. In an underground dungeon of the KGB, Kolzow is flogged until his heart can no longer stand the severe pain and he dies from the agony. Nevertheless, he did not betray his daughter Nyusha. The major now assumes that Jelena was murdered. Granja is also picked up. Instead of receiving his reward for the betrayal, he is tortured in a cellar and sentenced to death by the village assembly the next day. He is made drunk, shot, and his corpse is finally tied to a raft in the Cossack style that drives the Don down to the Sea of ​​Azov. Nyusha and Eberhard arrive in Volgograd. They want to start a new life there, but fail when looking for a place to live due to the bureaucracy of the authorities. Eberhard does not have a Russian passport and therefore has to live unrecognized in illegality. He poses as a Don Cossack. He also gets doubts about the meaningfulness of what he is doing. He has given up his secure life in Germany to build a new, insecure life in Russia with the beautiful Nyusha. Nyuscha manages to get them both a place to sleep in the Volkow family's apartment. As a camouflage, the father of the family Arkadij Volkov poses as distant relatives. He gives Eberhard a letter of recommendation with the help of which he succeeds in becoming an employee of the gravedigger Borja Ferapontowisch. At the same time Nyusha got a job as a corpse washer in the hospital. Meanwhile, the KGB and the militia are again moving into Perjekopsskaya to increase the pressure on the stubborn villagers. Tumow confronted the village with an ultimatum and, to emphasize his words, had a hut set on fire. But the Cossacks stick with their version of events. Tumow reports to his superior Rossosky about the inconclusive investigation into the case of Jelena Antonovna. Rososskij thinks Eberhard Bodmar is a double murderer who killed both Jelena and Grischa. The TASS news agency spreads this suspicion as a fact with the headline "Hospitality is rewarded with murder" in all media and a major political scandal ensues, which causes a stir, especially in the German embassy in Moscow. In addition, Bodmar is suspected of being a secret agent of the West. Nyusha recognizes her own father Koltsov among the corpses she is supposed to wash. She prevents his corpse from being used by anatomy students as a dissecting object and has him buried in a secret location. She swears vengeance on her father's grave. A funeral ceremony in honor of Koltsov is held in Perjekopsskaya and a memorial is erected to him. Tumow flies in by helicopter shortly afterwards and wants to prevent Kolzow from being declared a martyr by all means. The villagers mount their horses and, as proud Cossacks, declare open war on him. Nyusha puts her revenge plans into action in Volgograd and lets herself be photographed naked (headless). She sends the seductive picture to Major Tumow. In an attached letter, she writes that she longs for a secret meeting with him. The sexually excited man drives to the cemetery and meets Nyusha, who identifies herself as Kolzov's daughter. At that moment Tumov is killed by Borja with a spade. Tumow's office noticed the major's absence relatively quickly and when his company car was found near the “Red October” steelworks, it was assumed that it was a crime. Perjekopskaya is then occupied again by a company of militiamen. Rossoskij finds Nyusha's nudes and, with the help of Volgograd Pravda, searches for the unknown woman who is associated with Tumov's disappearance. The photographer who took the picture leaves for Rostov for fear of persecution .

Borja goes on a trip to Pitomnik Airport with Eberhard and Njuscha. His father's last letter from the Stalingrad pocket came from Pitomnik. He reports on the so-called "Pitomnik Death Road" and the 18,000 Wehrmacht soldiers who perished there at the time. Borja confirms once again that he absolutely hates the opponent at the time and can never forget what the Germans did to his country back then. The situation in Perjekopsskaya is escalating. Between the military column that wants to move into the village and the 900 mounted Cossacks who want to defend their freedom, threatening situations arise that almost degenerate into an open conflict, a "fratricidal war on the Don against the Red Army". The confrontation becomes a political issue.

In Volgograd there is a ferry accident on the Volga, in which more than 50 people are killed. Bodmar receives the order, together with Borja, to take care of the many dead. In the hotel “Intour” he meets Heppenrath, the tour guide for a tourist group from the GDR . Heppenrath offers Bodmar to flee Germany, which he refuses because he sees Russia as his home and would never leave Njuscha. He asks Heppenrath to take a letter with him to Germany, which is addressed to his colleagues in the Cologne editorial office. You shouldn't worry. “The crazy guy is happy.” Back in Germany, Heppenrath contacts the Foreign Ministry and reports that he met the missing Bodmar in Volgograd.

In the meantime, the Volkov's grandfather dies. His heart had not got over the great excitement that Nyusha's nude photo triggered in a newspaper clipping in Pravda in Volgograd. Bodmar is promoted from the cemetery inspector to the morgue attendant and survivor carer because of his good work. In Munich - Pullach , in the "Defense East" department of the BND, Major General Richard Bollweiß and his deputy, Colonel Alf von Braun, plan to smuggle one of their top agents into the USSR by exchanging the identity of Eberhard Bodmar. Peter Kallberg alias Fyodor Alexejewitsch Prikow is supposed to set up a network of agents there instead of Bodmar. So Bodmar is officially declared missing. Rossoskij is still looking for Nyusha. He can identify the photographer who took the nude photo at the time to lure Tumow into a trap. The KGB officer confronts Evtimia with the nude photo of her daughter, but cannot make her confess. The photographer recognizes Nyusha in a picture together with Bodmar on a Volga excursion steamer and reports this to Rossoskij. Now they have definitive proof that Bodmar and Nyusha live in Volgograd undetected. He also comes to the conclusion that both Jelena and Major Tumow must have killed. The photo of the two is published in the Volgograd Pravda. In the event of clues leading to the capture of the two, a reward of 500 rubles is offered . Bodmar and Nyusha are therefore forced to confess their story to Borja. Borja, a veteran of the Stalingrad Battle, is initially beside himself and then deeply disappointed by Bodmar, who pretends to be a hated German. But the love for his foster son is stronger and he enables the two of them to hide from the police in a crypt during the day. Eberhard and Njuscha are planning their future. They know that another stay in Volgograd is impossible and are thinking of looking for a new existence in the loneliness and expanse of the Siberian taiga . But then Eberhard dismisses this idea as unrealistic. Then another German tour company arrives in Volgograd, including Peter Kallberg. Heppenrath arranged a secret meeting on the memorial on Mamajew Hill between Kallberg and Bodmar. Kallberg offers Eberhard his identity and the possibility of an unrecognized departure to Germany . Bodmar refuses when he learns that Nyusha is excluded.

Evtimia dies in her home village Perjekopsskaya. The villagers decide to notify their daughter via an encrypted newspaper advertisement and offer her the opportunity to pay her last respects. Bodmar and Nyusha travel together to Perjekopsskaya, with a different appearance, where she can say goodbye to her dead mother. Then they return to Volgograd. Kallberg visits Bodmar at the cemetery in order to force him to return to Germany again. Nyusha realizes that there is no longer any way out for her lover and therefore leaves him in one night. Bodmar realizes that it no longer makes sense to look for Nyuscha and as Peter Kallberg he boards the plane to Munich. Nyusha had given him a farewell letter in which she told him that he was going to be the father of a daughter.

characters

• Eberhard Bodmar - German journalist. Bodmar is the protagonist of the story. He's young and handsome. Both Jelena and Nyuscha fall in love with the German and fight for his love. A duel that ends fatally.
• Dimitri Grigoryevich Kolzow - Perjekopsskaya village soviet. Dimitri is Nyusha's father. He accepts Bodmar as a guest in his house and later has to pay for his daughter's deed.
• Nyusha Dimitrova Koltsova - Dimitri's daughter. Nyusha is promised Granja, but refuses to show his intrusive affection. Nyusha falls in love with Bodmar and is ready to give up her old life for him.
• Granja Nikolajewitsch Varvarink - Nyusha's fiancé. Granja is cruel and vengeful. After Njuscha has rejected him and also physically punished him, he seeks retribution.
• Jelena Antonovna Dobronina - interpreter. Jelena is a young attractive girl. She also works as a secret agent for the KGB and has been assigned to monitor Bodmar. On her trip to southern Russia, she falls in love with the journalist and has to compete against her rival Nyusha.
• Russlan Dementievich Gorlowka - murdered agent. Gorlowka is murdered in the same hotel "Ukraina" in which Bodmar is staying. Suspicion falls on the German.
• Boris Grigoryevich Tumov - KGB major. Tumow is considered a cold and cruel person. He is investigating the Gorlowka murder and reappears during Jelena's disappearance.
• Anton Antonowitsch Talinkow - director of a sock knitting factory near Tula. Talinkow is another antagonist of the story. The industrialist leads the life of a boyar in the communist USSR. He abuses his position of power and invites Bodmar and Jelena to his dacha. He gives his guests a herbal anesthetic so that he can rape Jelena. The plan fails, Jelena defends herself and Talinkow suffers a stroke during the scramble
• Ifan Matveevich Lukin - Pope of Perjekopsskaja. Lukin is the keeper of the iconoclast in Perjekopsskaya, St. Wladimir, the patron saint of the village.
• Arkadij Volkow - the landlord of Eberhard and Njuscha in Volgograd
• Borja Ferapontowitsch - gravedigger and superior Eberhard. He helps Nyusha and kills her adversary Major Tumow.

Quote

“ You then say coldly: Well what! Such a trip to Stalingrad, on the trail of the German army, what is that? We are a different generation, sober, businesslike. It's not like the water in our eyes when we name names like Minsk, Charkow, Terek, Great Don-Bogen, Crimea, Lake Ladoga, Lake Ilmen, Pripet Marshes, Orsha, Rzhev. Stalingrad. Those were our fathers ... and now we see the world. The youth, the sons of the 'heroes'. And if I'm allowed to drive the battlefields from back then, I want to keep my eyes damn open. For our fathers this Russia was the greatest, most drastic, most unforgettable experience of their lives, bought with ten million dead and thirty million wounded. We see this country differently! We will not reheat the war like a bread roll on a Sunday .. "

- Eberhard Bodemar's thoughts on arrival in Russia

This is Bodmar's mindset, which he still had when he arrived in Moscow, but which changes radically due to events in the course of history.

Subject

Konsalik dedicates “Liebe am Don” to its role model, Michail Scholochow , the author of The Silent Don , a novel of world literature that was awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize for Literature. Konsalik also deals in detail with the way of life, customs and rites of the Don Cossacks , which in the postmodern, Stalinist Soviet Union appear like relics from another time. In addition to the protagonist Eberhard Bodmar's coming to terms with the past, unfulfilled love and passion as well as betrayal are leitmotifs of the story. A defined premise cannot be identified.

Reception and criticism

Konsalik's own experiences on the Eastern Front are reflected in numerous of his novels such as B. " The Heart of the 6th Army " or " The Runway " processed. The mystery of Russia is the subject of " Heaven over Kazakstan ", " Ninochka ", " Natascha ", "The damned of the taiga ", " Love nights in the taiga ", " Love in St. Petersburg ", " The Devil's Daughter ", " Cossack love "and" Love on Don ". Harder cites Konsalik's “ Liebe am Don ” as a typical product of the social and historical conflicts that prevailed in Germany in the 1960s. The author deals with the long-term consequences of the battle for Stalingrad for the next generation. However, the protagonist Eberhard Bodmar later states that it is a utopia to want to understand Russia rationally and rationally. Jörg Weigand even goes further and claims that the German reading comprehension of the " Russian soul " and the proverbial " vastness of the landscape of Russia " was even decisively shaped by Konsalik, who was also nicknamed " The Cologne with the Russian soul ". Konsalik's novels are described as reactionary. In “ Liebe am Don ” he combines anti-communist propaganda with sensational “action”, sex and crime, which is based on the James Bond films that were made around the same time.

output

• Heinz G. Konsalik: Liebe am Don, Hestia-Verlag, Bayreuth, Bastei Verlag Gustav H. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach, 1970 or 1975, 400 pages, ISBN 3-404-00050-1

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ Book edition of "Liebe am Don" on Amazon
2. ^ Heinz G. Konsalik: Liebe am Don, Hestia-Verlag, Bayreuth, Bastei Verlag Gustav H. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach, 1970 or 1975, ISBN 3-404-00050-1 , p. 5
3. ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: Love on Don (pdf)
4. ↑ older term for embassy employee for public relations
5. ↑ Knockout drops
6. ^ Heinz G. Konsalik: Liebe am Don, Hestia-Verlag, Bayreuth, Bastei Verlag Gustav H. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach, 1970 or 1975, ISBN 3-404-00050-1 , p. 11
7. ↑ fictional-historical plot about Rasputin's child
8. ↑ The goddess of the jungle is not allowed to cry, Gunar Ortlepp, DER SPIEGEL, 50/1976
9. ↑ Matthias Harder: Experience war: to portray the Second World War in the novels of n the novels of Heinz G. Konsalik. With a bibliography of the author's German-language publications from 1943–1996 (Epistemata - Würzburg scientific writings. Literature series, Volume 232). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1999.2
10. ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik (1924-1999) - One of the most successful entertainment authors of the 20th century Jörg Weigand
11. ↑ Amsterdam Contributions to Modern German Studies, Volume 25 - 1988 Literature Scene Federal Republic: A View from Outside: Symposium at the Free University of Amsterdam, edited by Ferdinand van Ingen, Gerd Labroisse, p. 86