Commie-block (slabsville) capital of Canada

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by thewave46

Hence why I set Vasily’s story in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Moscow has changed a lot since then.

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Despite the setback, Vasily had been somewhat interested to go, if just to see the so-called ‘free world’. His unaccented English was excellent, his French so-so, but passable.

His introduction to the free world’s automotive landscape had not gone well. A Dodge Aspen had been arranged for him. Such a hateful automobile. The air cleaner and car body sported the many dents of his unbridled rage at the Chrysler Corporation. It gave him ample practice of his English (and rather confusing French Canadian) profanity. He had to work not to slip back into Russian when under its hood. Nor did this vehicle respond to his bashing the same way his Lada had. When fear of wrench was put into Lada, it worked. When wrench was put to Dodge, bits broke off in rusty chunks. Capitalism, bah, he thought. If this was what capitalism produced, they could have it.

His superiors had given him marching orders: Get into the highest role possible at External Affairs and get the inside line on the government’s foreign policy. What he had observed had appalled him. He had expected a similar version of Switzerland or West Germany’s foreign affairs departments: A crew of competent diplomats with an eye to realpolitik. Reality had proved somewhat more disappointing. The Peter Principle run amok, and they drank swill called ‘coffee’ that had reminded him of the black stuff they had served him during his mandatory military service.

This is exactly what SSP needs: a serial drama. Don't stop.