A Russian Requiem

Two weeks before the failed right-wing coup of August 1991, Anton Czesich, an American in his late forties who has spent a mostly disillusioning career working overseas for the U.S. government, arrives in Moscow to take charge of a volatile American food distribution program—a program administered by Julie Stirvin, the love of his youth. She and Czesich have their own history, their own protracted cold war. Many miles away, in the mining center of Vostok, Soviet bureaucrat Serghei Propenko, a former champion boxer, is in the midst of his own midlife crisis—partly personal, partly political. Modest and decent, surrounded by a household of strong-willed and politically astute women, Propenko is pinched between his traditional ambitions and concern for his very untraditional daughter, Lydia. As Czesich's and Propenko's fates intersect, it becomes clear that both men are partially paralyzed by the same suspicions and fears that crippled Soviet-American relations for so long. A Russian Requiem is a page-turner with depth, a finely crafted novel about the small piece of history each of us bears and the way our intimate lives reflect and echo in the politics of nations. Speckled with humor and irony, rich in both psychological and political drama, it carries the reader on a post-cold war voyage through the Russian — and American — soul. In a recent 2011 review, novelist Tony D’Souza wrote “...I can’t help but draw parallels between Merullo’s take on the last days of the USSR and the contemporary changing of the guard we are fortunate to be witnessing in North Africa, bloody as it’s been... Taking his cue from Graham Greene, Merullo crafts a political thriller with a profound moral compass, chronicling a former Soviet apparatchik’s conflicted emotions as he decides between the safety of his position and the real hopes of freedom he has for his country.” And, Kirkus Reviews, called it “A moving novel — with great cinematic potential — that brilliantly captures the historically tense moment of Russia on the verge of freedom, just before the attempted coup and the Party's last gasps.”

From the Author's Introduction to the Second Edition:
 
It is a pleasure to be able to add something here for the second edition of A Russian Requiem. So much has changed in the eighteen years since this novel first saw the light of day. When my wife Amanda and I and our daughters returned to Moscow recently, as guests of Ambassador John Beyrle, it was almost nothing like the city I first saw in 1977. The streets were choked with traffic, there were advertisements everywhere, an abundance of good eating places, skyscrapers, golf courses. And yet, beneath this disguise of modernity we still encountered an ancient Russian generosity and straightforwardness, the same qualities that had endeared us to that country when we worked there on USIA cultural exhibitions. 
 
So much has changed in the world, too, but the human urge toward freedom and happiness - really the heart and soul of this story - can be seen clearly in today's uprisings in the Middle East. Tyranny persists, in various forms, and the fight against tyranny persists, too. But human life is not only about how we are governed: whatever the political system in which they live, individuals still must work out the puzzle of their own existence. I first came to know the former Soviet Union during a period of terrible oppression, and then, with Amanda, during another period where that oppressive air was beginning to dissipate. It was a remarkable lesson - getting to see the best and worst of humanity at such an early age, gaining an understanding of the mindset of the autocrats and the pain of their victims, those who instill fear and those who sacrifice their own well being to combat it, those who preserve their moral integrity, and those who sacrifice it on the altar of power or material comfort. These lessons have marked both of us forever, as have the friendships we made in the U.S.S.R. I tried to put all of that into A Russian Requiem, all my own pain and fear and love and longing. The novel is very personal in that way, and has always been close to my heart.