Eagle, I don't want to form an alliance anymore.

"Ask away."

"What do you think is the root cause of the Soviet Union's—how should I put it—unfair treatment of Jews?"

Abramovich glanced at him, but perhaps sensing some sincerity in Slava's expression, he spoke.

“I think it’s a legacy issue.” He placed the whiskey glass on the bar and began gesturing with his hands.

"Anti-Semitism in the Tsarist era was open violence—massacres, settlement restrictions, legal discrimination. The October Revolution then legally abolished all of this, but societal prejudice did not disappear; it seeped into the capillaries of the bureaucracy. Stalin elevated it from popular prejudice to state policy—the purge of Jewish anti-fascist committees, the Doctors' Case, the anti-cosmopolitan movement..."

But even after Stalin's death, when these most extreme policies were abolished, institutional discrimination continued in a more subtle way.

Many early Bolsheviks were Jewish revolutionaries, such as Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, when anti-Semitism was not as severe. However, after the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Soviet authorities developed a distrust of Jews—they were suspected of having emotional identification with Israel and therefore unreliable in terms of loyalty.

Stalin therefore dissolved the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and discrimination against Jews began to intensify. The "Doctors' Affair" in 1953 brought anti-Semitism to a climax.

After Stalin's death, although the most extreme persecutions ceased, the institutional framework he established was not completely dismantled, but continued in a more covert form.

"for example?"

"For example, citizens' internal passports have a nationality section, and Jews are permanently marked as Jews—not Russians, not Ukrainians, but Jews."

This means that when we apply to universities, jobs, or study abroad, the first thing the reviewers see is our ethnicity. But for Jews... ever since the Soviet Union severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 1967, every Jew has been automatically suspected of being a potential Israeli spy or at least someone whose loyalty is questionable.

Slava recalled his own passport, which listed his ethnicity as "Russian"—an arrangement made by Andropov's men when they fabricated his identity. He never considered how different his fate would have been if that field had been filled with "Jewish."

“But what is your view of Israel?” Slava asked a question he himself was unsure whether he should ask, “Do you endorse Zionism—Do you subscribe to it?”

Abramovich's expression became subtle for a moment. It seemed that this question touched on the deepest contradictions in the hearts of many Soviet Jewish immigrants.

“You know,” he said, slowing his pace, “when I left the Soviet Union, I could have chosen to go to Israel or the United States.”

Israel offered far more incentives to intellectuals than the United States, but I still chose the US—I've been a communist for decades, and while I sympathize with the people of Israel, I cannot accept Israel's systematic genocide against the surrounding region in recent years.

He paused for a moment.

"However, I still understand those who choose to go to Israel. Many of them did not do so because they believed in Zionist propaganda—most Soviet Jews knew less about Zionism than they did about Marxism."

They went because they were told it was their country, a country that wouldn't label them as outsiders on their passports. When you've been treated like an outsider your whole life in one place, and someone tells you, 'This is your home,' it's hard not to be moved.

“Home is home after all,” Slava said.

"However, I remember the official statement was that they were not against Jews, but against Zionism—"

“Oh right, right, anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism,” Abramovich said, his face becoming a little tense.

“I’ve seen this tactic all over the United States. You can use the label of ‘Zionist’ to attack any Jew you don’t like without having to admit that you’re being racist.”

It's like saying, 'I'm not against Black people, I'm just against the Black Power movement.' It sounds reasonable, but the people being attacked don't see it that way.

Slava made a mental note of these words.

The Soviet Union's ethnic question was also very complex. If it lost communism, the bond that united all the nations, then the collapse of the union would not be far off.

However, the alliance's logic in dealing with ethnic minorities often still follows the same approach as Tsarist Russia—inciting conflicts and contradictions between ethnic minorities, just like how it dealt with Armenia and Azerbaijan. This pit was deliberately set when Khrushchev divided the ethnic autonomous regions, which indirectly led to the tragedy of the two countries plotting against each other's people after the alliance disintegrated.

As for the Jews... Uzbeks have their own constituent republics, Georgians have their own language schools, and even small northern ethnic groups of only tens of thousands have their own autonomous regions! But the Jews—an ethnic group with millions in the Soviet Union—have nothing. The so-called Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Birobidzhan is practically non-existent in the Far East; fewer Jews go there than Koreans.

“Mr. Abramovich,” Slava concluded, “I cannot apologize on behalf of the Soviet government for what happened in the past—it is not within my authority, nor is it the occasion tonight. But I want you to know that not every Soviet citizen considered it normal to treat their Jewish compatriots as ‘unreliable.’”

Abramovich clinked glasses with him.

...

Dinner began promptly at eight o'clock, and guests were seated according to the place cards.

To Slava's left was Professor Abramovich from Caltech, and to his right was a middle-aged man in a naval uniform, the stars on his epaulets indicating he was a major general.

He didn't think it was a coincidence.

Director Nancy was seated at another table, just two seats away from Nancy Reagan.

Halfway through the meal, Ronald Reagan entered the State Dining Room. He was wearing a dark blue suit instead of a tuxedo, seemingly indicating that he was just "dropping by."

The cunning Reagan was prepared. If the talks went well, he could publicize it as "the president had a friendly exchange with the Soviet representatives." If the talks broke down, he could say "the president came to the dinner to greet his wife."

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!

When the occupant of the White House walked in, all conversations were silenced, and everyone's attention was focused on the tall, 73-year-old man with a warm smile like the California sunshine at the entrance.

Reagan first walked over to Nancy, bent down and kissed her on the cheek, then began moving between tables, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with the guests. He would stop at each table for two or three minutes to say a few words, and the rhythm of laughter and flashing lights was like a carefully choreographed piece of music.

When he walked to the table where Slava was, everyone at the table stood up.

Reagan extended his hand and shook hands with Slava.

“Mr. Ivanov,” Reagan said, “welcome to the White House. I heard from Nancy that you quoted my ‘Ivanov and Anya’ analogy—do you believe that I came up with myself?”

My staff said, 'Mr. President, this is too sentimental,' but I think sometimes a little sentimentality isn't a bad thing, right?

Reagan blinked.

“Mr. President, that analogy is very good,” Slava replied, “although the real Ivan and Anya may not be as romantic as President Reagan described—Ivan standing in front of you spends more time queuing to buy things after get off work than chatting with Anya.”

Reagan laughed heartily, and the guests were amused by Mr. Ivanov from the 'Evil Empire'. The atmosphere was lively and pleasant, achieving the desired effect for both parties.

“Ivanov, I understand your experience,” Reagan said, patting Slava on the shoulder with a warmth typical of old-school men from the American Midwest.

“I grew up during the Great Depression when I was young. My family used to stand in line. I remember that line that never seemed to end when I was a child.”

“Ha! Mr. President, maybe one day Ivan won’t need to queue anymore,” Slava replied. “After all, solving the queuing problem doesn’t necessarily require changing the system; perhaps it just requires improving the management of the bakery.”

Reagan looked at Slava with admiration, perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps out of surprise, or perhaps simply out of the interest a natural actor has when he encounters a co-star who doesn't follow the script.

The president lingered at the table for about five minutes, during which he spoke briefly with Professor Abramovich about the progress of laser technology research in the SDI program.

Abramovich's answer was very cautious. As a condensed matter physicist, he had no direct connection with SDI, but he clearly did not want to discuss the topic in front of his Soviet guests.

After Reagan left, Slava sat in his chair for a while, not immediately returning to the meal that was in progress. He watched Reagan's back as he moved between the other tables.

This man's astonishing change in attitude toward the Soviet Union over the past year was never because he was kind, nor because the United States suddenly wanted to end the Cold War peacefully with the Alliance. It was all because the Alliance accepted his move and delivered a brilliant counterattack!

The evil capitalist empire has never given up its desire to destroy our alliance.

Reagan was a political genius whose madness and sincerity always served one goal—to put pressure on the Soviet Union in every dimension until it collapsed from within, without triggering a nuclear war.

Slava is trying to change this outcome.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The banquet ended around ten o'clock. The guests began to leave, and the cars lined up in front of the north porch to pick up their respective hosts.

When Slava and Nian walked out of the White House, the Washington night sky was clear and cold, with a few stars struggling to twinkle amidst the interference of city lights.

"How is it?" Slava paused on the steps and asked Director Nian.

"How about what?"

“The White House, the dinner, America, the whole thing.” Slava drew a large circle in the night sky with his arms.

Director Nian put the sunglasses she had taken out of her handbag back on. Although it was evening, she clearly felt that the sunglasses represented her true identity better than the evening gown.

She looked up at the ethereal white of the north side of the White House under the floodlights, thought for a moment, and said:

"The food was alright, but the desserts were too sweet."

"Isn't this it?"

"Then what else do you want me to say? That America is better than the Soviet Union so we should surrender?"

I didn't mean that—

“I know you don’t,” Director Nian began to walk down the steps, the hem of her velvet dress rustling softly on the stone steps.

"But the other side does have many things that they do better than us. The middle class in this era can support an entire family on their own. Putting aside the purchasing power of their currency, they can buy a much wider variety of things than we can. These are things we need to look at realistically."

I think Carter did a great job. Consumer goods were abundant, personal freedom was high, the research environment was relaxed, and social justice and welfare were given more importance than later. If the Soviet Union had been in power, then the United States would be my ideal communist society.

She continued teasingly:

"But all of this comes at a price. There are also a lot of facts in the United States that we don't see—this country was dropping napalm on Vietnam a decade ago, and its minorities only gained legal equality a decade or so ago, while actual equality is still a long way off."

The country's health insurance is also inadequate; a serious illness can bankrupt a middle-class family.

The gap between the rich and poor in this country has been widening over the past two decades, and Reagan’s economic policies are making it even wider.

Capitalism's inherent flaws make it forever crave exploitation and profit. America's current glory is entirely built on sucking the blood of the world. In South America, Central America, Africa... those domestically benign corporate groups have long since torn off their hypocritical masks. This is precisely what the alliance is fighting against.

The White House dinner was indeed lavish, but the slums of Washington are just blocks away, and the lives of the people there are something the White House would never let us see.

She turned around and continued walking towards the waiting car.

"Our system has problems—big problems—but the way to solve these problems is not to throw away the system and replace it with an American one, but to find a path that suits our national conditions. This is what the alliance will do in the future, something Andropov has just realized, and something I'm doing with you."

So don't forget your roots just because you had a nice meal at the White House.

Director Nian patted Slava's arm and walked towards the car first.

Slava stood on the steps of the White House, watching her retreating figure, pondering her words.

She's right.

But he also knew the other half she didn't say: fixing one's own system is a million times harder than throwing it away and replacing it with a new one, and they might not even have one ten-thousandth of the time left.

He walked down the steps and got into the car. The car drove out of the White House gates and turned onto Pennsylvania Avenue. The white spire of the Washington Monument looked like a finger pointing to the stars in the night sky, and the dome of the Capitol Building was lit up in the distance. The whole city was quiet and solemn, like an empire dreaming of freedom and democracy.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, people in another superpower are welcoming a new day.

Unbeknownst to Slava, the seeds he had planted in the black soil of Blagoveshchensk were finally beginning to sprout in various places.

Chapter 39 The Battle for the Inheritance

Upon his return from the United States, Slava was immediately sent by Gorbachev to promote agricultural policy reforms.

From late January to mid-February, large-scale agricultural production and research consortia similar to the Amur model began to be established in Kursk Oblast, Voronezh Oblast, and Krasnodar Krai. These three places were the main grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union, with much better fertility of black soil than Amur and far superior transportation infrastructure compared to the Far East.

Slava also compiled the pitfalls he encountered in Amur into a detailed guide to avoid them and sent it to the heads of the three new pilot sites.

He knew these pitfalls wouldn't disappear with a guideline, but at least the new pilot program could avoid some detours.

At the same time, the alliance's military reforms are also accelerating under the joint impetus of the military establishment and reformists.

It seems that Defense Minister Ustinov has finally made up his mind after the Excellent Shooter 83 exercise.

The serious deficiencies in the alliance's strategic early warning and command communication systems exposed by this NATO exercise led to a consensus between reformists and establishment figures within the military:

"If reforms are not implemented, the alliance will be in its most dangerous situation!"

As the coalition undertakes internal reforms and begins initial downsizing, it also begins withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan.

By early February, the first batch of over 2 troops who had returned from Afghanistan to Soviet territory had successfully returned home, sparking a new wave of discussion in Western newspapers.

Many Western commentators have compared the Soviet withdrawal to the US withdrawal from Vietnam more than a decade ago, except that the US "Saigon Fist" did not bounce back and hit the Allied forces in the face.

Although the coalition managed to mitigate the damage in Afghanistan, this will remain the greatest wound in the lives of the families of the more than two thousand soldiers who have died on this land.

This war in history did not end until the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet army paid a price of nearly 20,000 lives in the graveyard of empires in exchange for more than 1 million casualties in Afghanistan. The vast majority of these casualties were civilians, while the number of jihadists killed was only in the hundreds of thousands.

After the war, approximately 500 to 600 million Afghans became refugees and fled to Pakistan and Iran, while millions more were internally displaced.

In Vietnam, the US military suffered nearly 60,000 deaths in the jungles, resulting in over 800,000 Viet Cong casualties. If we include the remaining Vietnamese civilians and those in Laos and Cambodia affected by US bombing, the total number of casualties in this war would exceed 3.5 million! The large quantities of chemical weapons dropped by the US during its bombing of Vietnam continue to have an impact on Vietnam to this day.

This is the quagmire of war under the Cold War.

...

In early February, a new round of sporting events began in Sarajevo.

This is the 14th Winter Olympic Games, which opened in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. 1273 athletes from 49 countries participated, setting a record for the number of participating countries in the Winter Olympics.

This is the first Winter Olympics held in a socialist country, and also the first Olympics since the Cold War that was not boycotted by either side.

The Sarajevo Winter Olympics thus became a rare window—Eastern and Western athletes competed on the same field, with no empty seats, no protests, no political statements, only ice and snow, speed, and the limits of human capability.

The Soviet Union team ultimately topped the medal table with 25 medals, with particularly outstanding performances in figure skating and cross-country skiing.

Moscow television broadcasts highlights of the Winter Olympics every night, while people queuing outside state-run stores stamp their feet in the cold wind and discuss whether yesterday's cross-country skiing results and figure skating scores were fair.

Slava returned to her apartment one evening in mid-February to watch the Winter Olympics broadcast. The director was very enthusiastic about ice hockey, and she would jump up from the sofa every time the Soviet team scored a goal.

It was a rare peaceful night.

But the calm did not last long.

In late February, the Soviet General Staff's classified publication, *Military Thought*, published a lengthy analysis of NATO military exercises, beginning with a warning issued by Ustinov after the conclusion of the Elite Marksman 83 exercise—

“NATO exercises are simulating a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union in an increasingly realistic manner, which, if left unchecked, will greatly increase the risk of war caused by miscalculation.”

This article caused quite a stir within the military.