Love nights in the taiga (novel)

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Mood in Siberia
Natural landscape in Siberia
Siberian taiga
Ships on the Yenisei

Liebesnächte in der Taiga (Subtitle: A German spy on the run ) is an espionage and romance novel against the background of the East-West conflict by Heinz G. Konsalik from 1966 . This story is one of the most popular titles by the successful writer.

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Blurb

“His mission is secret. He took everything into account - just not the love of a young woman, the Russian commissioner Ludmilla Barakova. Franz Heller was prepared for his mission for years. On his arrival in Moscow, a secret agent received him on behalf of Colonel Karpuschin, who was the first to track down the German spy. He will hunt him down like a mortal enemy. And so begins the escape of the two lovers across the taiga ... "

- Love nights in the taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9 .

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The plot consists of several books.

first book

Colonel Karpuschin puts the KGB agent Marfa Babinskaja on the German Franz Heller, a former combatant of WW II . She picks him up from Wnukowo airport and pretends to be Intourist's hostess , who was assigned to him for personal care. However, he does not comply with her request to entrust her with his passport. Heller does not respond to her charming advances and even pulls himself away from the luxury hotel "Moskva" without being recognized. The disappearance of the foreigner caused a major scandal at the KGB , which even escalated to Defense Minister Malinowski . The Heller case becomes “official and political” and a defense struggle between the two superpowers. It is feared that Heller could penetrate to the secret missile launching bases in Siberia or Kazakhstan .

Heller, who has changed his hair color and appearance, has managed to escape from the guarded hotel in the uniform of a hotel boy and is picked up by the liaison Alajew. He takes on the identity of the party-loyal "model Russian" Pavel Semjonow. His destination is Komsa on the Yenisei near Krasnoyarsk .

The GRU tries to smuggle an agent into the headquarters of the CIA in order to establish contact with the major who is assigned to the Siberian missile launching bases.

Meanwhile, Ludmilla Barakowa is employed as a female political commissioner at the Holzkombinat II in Kusnowka . The fact that she is an extremely attractive woman creates great unrest. Ludmilla is coveted by Yefimov and is considered a bitter misanthropist who shot at German occupiers as a partisan in the Pripjet swamps .

Ludmilla takes the jeep to Kuzmowka to pick up Semyonov, who has got a job in the wood combine, from the station. But then she hears that the train derailed at Ajachtaska and that 23 people died. The whole thing then turns out to be a rumor. It was there that Ludmilla met Semyonov for the first time and, because of his arrogance, felt a deep dislike, even hatred, for him. The young German, however, is fascinated by the beautiful and wild Russian. When he arrived at the Stony Tunguska in the Kalinin II combine , the wood engineer quickly made friends with the leading people.

District Soviet Yefimov visits Kalinin II and reports that the derailment was sabotage. He's also worried about his coveted Ludmilla. Meanwhile, Heller receives an assignment from the radio station in the west to investigate the secret missile launching bases in Komssa. As if by chance, Efimov leads Semyonov and Ludmilla to the silos of the Soviet ICBMs. You will see the target calculation devices, the radar controls and learn how specific maps are drawn in Europe and the USA . Ludmilla plans to marry Eefimov and yet she is getting closer and closer to Semyonov. The two become lovers, who keep their relationship a secret from the others.

Winter is falling and the wood combine is snowed in three weeks early. The premature onset of winter is a catastrophe, as one is not prepared for it with the supplies. The 1200 men get restless and a mutiny is imminent. Efimov threatens to send the militia to stifle emerging riots with violence. It is decided with 50 loggers to plunder the food depot of the rocket brigade VI in Komssa. Semjonow decides on October 17th to end his old identity, to devote his life to love for Ludmilla, to be only Russian and to declare Franz Heller from Bonn dead. This decision also means resigning as an agent. To do this, he destroys all codes, documents and the like.

In Moscow , KGB Colonel Karpuschin faces great difficulties from Marshal Malinovsky , as his organization is unable to take Franz Heller. The efforts are intensified and a DF vehicle can locate a shortwave transmitter that is sending encrypted texts. The radio station is the furniture dealer Alaev. The KGB arrests Alaev and takes him to Lubyanka , the prison of the Soviet secret service, for interrogation . Alaev is tortured there for a long time. The KGB finds out that Fanz Heller is Pawel K. Semjonow. Semyonov has now secretly married Ludmilla and they have got supplies to flee from Kalinin II. He tells her the truth about his identity, which initially comes as a shock to Ludmilla. Both struggle with their internal conflicts. She with her irreconcilable hatred of Germans and he with his deep dislike for Russians, who were responsible for the death of his fiancée. But they overcome this and swear eternal love to one another. The game between the two is exposed, the KGB finds out and sends Colonel Karpuschin from Moscow to settle the matter. Pawel and Ludmilla are on the run through the snowy landscape. The vastness of Siberia prevents them from being taken prematurely. It's a daring venture. But Ludmilla swears eternal loyalty to her Pavel and that she would rather die with him than betray him a second time.

Alajew is worn down in the Lubyanka by constant torture, forced insomnia, brainwashing and nightly interrogations in bright lights. He can't take it anymore and runs his head against the cell wall until the top of his skull bursts. When they want to take him to the hospital, he dies. He will never be talked about again. Pavel and Ludmilla come to a fur farm, where Ilya Saveliwitsch Lagutin gives them shelter and sells them a sledge. Then they cross the Sredne-Sibirskoje, the Middle Siberian Plateau, a stony plateau on which they can, however, easily be spotted. Since it becomes too dangerous there and they are searched for by helicopters, they dive back into the endless forests, where they can hardly be spotted. Pawel tells Ludmilla about his life. About his childhood, that his father was with the SA and how he was hardened as an agent in the wilderness in the USA in order to be able to survive on his own in a hostile environment .

At the headquarters of the CIA in Bad Godesberg , people are concerned about the connection to Franz Heller, which was suddenly cut off. The failure of Alaev had dealt a severe blow to their intelligence service in the USSR. As a result, they had to bring more agents, who were parachuted down, there to compensate for the failure. Aerial reconnaissance photos taken from a U-2 are supposed to prove that Komssa has no rocket stations, only mockups. The focus is now on the area east of Orenburg , where a new space missile base is to be built. This is highly dangerous because these ICBMs threaten large cities in the USA, such as New York City . The Heller case is now ticked off.

The two refugees reach the Golez ridge and the Taimura River . Then they are tracked down by a large pack of wolves and can only protect themselves from them with a fire. They know that as soon as this goes out, the 30 starving animals will attack them. Yuri Fjodorowitsch Jesseij rescues her from this life-threatening situation and takes her to his camp called Nova Zvezda, which he shares with other feral people. They live with them like the prehistoric man Marussja Nasaroffa, an old woman among the camp residents, discovers Ludmilla's commissar's uniform in a box. This is the death sentence for Pavel and Ludmilla. They tie the two of them to reindeer and stab the animals in the points so that they run wild through the forest.

second book

The two lovers get away with life again. The hunt through the taiga continues. On the one hand there are Russian political commissars and on the other a top American agent who was once Franz Heller's best friend. In the course of their escape, they come together with a wide variety of characters. With a doctor, a village of ostracized people and German prisoners of war who now all have Russian families and no longer want to return to their old homeland

main characters

  • Franz Heller alias Pawel Konstantinowitsch Semjonow : sales representative from Bonn or as an agent with the identity of an engineer for wood surface finishing
  • Matweij Nikiforowitsch Karpuschin : KGB Colonel, Head of Section III, Security Service
  • Marfa Babinskaja : KGB agent
  • † Stepan Iwanowitsch Alajew : furniture dealer, middleman of the agent ring around Heller
  • Major James Bradcock alias Wilhelm Reinfeld : CIA spy
  • Ludmilla Barakowa : Political Commissioner and Franz Beloved
  • Maxim Sergejewitsch Efimow : District Soviet of Krasnoyarsk
  • Juri Fjodorowitsch Jesseij : fur hunter and forest man

linguistic style

“A strict man can be like hell. But a powerful woman, that's like living in the devil's ass ... "

- Ludmilla Barakowa appears as the new political commissar in Holzkombinat II in Kuznovka.

Historical context

Konsalik's narrative deals with the attempts by the Western allies during the Cold War to gain intelligence in remote Siberia about secret ICBM bases threatening targets in Europe and the United States. A momentous event occurred in 1960 when a U-2 was shot down near Sverdlovsk, where it had taken aerial photographs. It was assumed that many of these bases were located in the Siberian Military District of the Soviet Union, which were under the control of the Strategic Missile Forces (including the 33rd Missile Army). Some of these ICBM bases are known today.

Reviews

Love nights in the taiga is seen in large parts as a "schnulzenroman". In this novel Konsalik conjures up the beauty of Russia. In the afterword, Dagmar Stecher-Konsalik regrets that her father's books on Russia were not allowed to be read in the Soviet Union . The term "taiga" occurs in connection with Siberia in several Konsalik novels: Natalia, a girl from the taiga , Ninotschka, the mistress of the taiga , love nights in the taiga and a doctor in the taiga . The stories follow a stereotypical pattern of a German prisoner of war who falls in love with a dominant Russian woman in uniform and with large breasts . You develop a love that is already masochistic. Other stereotypes are typical characters such as Colonel Karpuschin and Ludmilla Barakowa.

Franz Heller is the German protagonist of the story. He will u. a. deployed to the USSR in 1942 due to his war experience to carry out a secret mission.

Text output

filming

The material was used in 1967 by Harald Philipp in the film of the same name, Night of Love in the Taiga .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Best-selling author Konsalik succumbed to a stroke. Spiegel Online from October 3, 1999
  2. ↑ The novelist Konsalik has died. "Storytellers for Adults" is forever silent. Rhein-Zeitung of October 3, 1999
  3. ^ Anti-communism and hostility to the Russians before and after 1945: The novels of the bestselling authors Edwin Erich Dwinger and Heinz G. Konsalik. In communism history
  4. ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the Taiga PDF edition
  5. ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga. License issue. Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 29. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9 .
  6. ↑ Komsa (121 km), from the northeast, between Verkhneimbatsk and Kangotowo; km 1,306
  7. ↑ … medium-sized, petite, but in the uniform of an almost aggressive femininity in Heinz G. Konsalik: Liebesnächte in der Taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 42. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9
  8. ↑ During the day they behave like stubborn donkeys and after dark like hot foxes. Heaven admit that Semyonov is quite a guy. in Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 50. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9
  9. ↑ It's easier to play with a hungry tiger than with an angry woman, say the Mongols. in Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 50. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9
  10. ↑ An American spy looked into the heart of Russia. in Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 90. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9 .
  11. ↑ You could push a button ... and at hindering points in Europe all hell broke loose and burned up millions of people in a single fire. in Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 91. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9 .
  12. ↑ You can't describe this love. She tears the stars from the sky ... in Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 73. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9 .
  13. ↑ That night Pavel Konstantinowitsch Semjonow had conquered heaven, but also tore up hell. He just didn't know it yet ... in Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 75. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9 .
  14. ^ Synonym for the state suppression apparatus by Ochrana , Cheka , GPU and NKVD
  15. ↑ a b book review of Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the Taiga on www.leseratten-blog.de
  16. ↑ Book review of Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the Taiga on www.buechereule.de
  17. ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga. License issue. Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. p. 44. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9 .
  18. ^ Soviet ICBM Bases
  19. ↑ Book review by Heinz G. Konsalik: Liebesnächte in der Taiga in www.buechertreff.org
  20. ↑ The jungle goddess is not allowed to cry. Der Spiegel 50/1976 from December 6, 1976
  21. ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: Love nights in the taiga . Lichtenberg Verlag, Munich 1966. Afterword. ISBN 978-3-641-14093-9 .
  22. ↑ Wladimir Kaminer: Uncle Vanya is coming: A journey through the night. Manhattan Publishing House. 2012. ISBN 978-3-442-54658-9 .
  23. ↑ Jost Hermand: Uncomfortable Past: The Effects of the Cold War on the Literature of the Early Federal Republic. Böhlau Cologne 2019. p. 255. ISBN 978-3-412-51463-1 .
  24. ^ Matthias Harder: Experience of War. To depict the Second World War in the novels by 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. p. 11