An Incomplete Picture

Many of the news articles written about Sergei Koudakov seem to be somewhat one-sided.  After reading them you don’t know what Sergei was really like.  You don’t get an understanding of what Sergei’s life was like on a day-to-day basis . . . you don’t see the entire picture.

In the May 5, 1973 issue of The New Yorker magazine, Calvin Trillin wrote about Sergei.  It was a good article, well written.  It briefly covered Sergei’s history, defection, and his work with Underground Evangelism.  It talked about Sergei’s death, the inquest, and the aftermath.  It talked about how much money Sergei made and how Sergei was enjoying the American way of life.  But once again, you only see one side of Sergei.  If I didn’t know Sergei, I would have a very different picture of him in my mind.

I know Sergei’s life was not all roses.  I saw that.  The pressures from being a defector were at times difficult.  You hardly ever read about that part of his life in any of the newspapers or magazines.  I think that’s because Sergei was always positive about his new life in the United States.  His exuberance is what captured everyone’s attention.

My book is almost finished.  Final changes for A Rose for Sergei have been submitted to the Defense Department prepublications review office for clearance before open publication, even though my book is simply about our time together.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, the review is standard policy—Sergei and I met during the time I worked for the Federal Government.

As I near publication, I will post part of Chapter 1 on my blog along with a “coming soon” notice.  I sincerely hope you will have a better understanding of what Sergei was really like after reading A Rose for Sergei.

Thus said . . . this picture is almost complete.