A quarter of an hour before the time for one of Stalin's Orders of the Day proclaiming a victory a special announcer broke into the programme and invited everyone to gather round and wait for an important announcement which was shortly to be made. The announcement was ultimately made, and very impressively it was done, but few people stopped to listen to it. The only announcement they wanted was that saying the war was over at last. The Russian propagandists had made the same mistake as Goebbels with his Sondermeldung and all its impressive accompaniments of Wagnerian music. Such things are all very well once or twice, but frequent repetitions, however good the news may be, dull the senses and breed contempt.
When VE Day did arrive the people of the Soviet Union remained in ignorance of it "for political reasons." Before it could be announced Prague had to be liberated by Soviet troops and as a result the Soviet Union had the dubious privilege of celebrating their VE Day twenty-four hours after the rest of the world.
The director had sent me a short-wave receiving set soon after our last interview and as a result I was able to keep in touch with world news, even though electricity cuts (sometimes we got only one hour's electricity a day) prevented anything like continuous listening. I managed to pick up enough to show me that the war was over and by some mysterious means the whole population of Moscow also seemed to be aware of it- though there had been no official announcement.
The morning after all the other Allies had celebrated the end of the European war, Ivan told me that there was a rumour that Stalin himself would announce the defeat of Germany from the top of Lenin's tomb. Accordingly we both went to the Red Square where we joined the crowd of thousands who had heard the same rumour. There was an atmosphere of tense excitement which heightened and grew almost unbearable when the loudspeakers announced that an important announcement would shortly be made. There was a corresponding emotional slump when all that was announced was the Order of the Day on the capture of Prague and the list of generals who had taken part in the "historic battle."
As there was obviously nothing to be gained by looking at the Kremlin wall, the crowd moved off into the neighbouring Revolution Square where they cheered members of the staff of the American Embassy who appeared from time to time on the balcony. It was not till that evening that the long-awaited announcement was made over the wireless that the war was over and "the flag of freedom floated over Berlin." By that time most of the enthusiasm had evaporated and, though it was somewhat revived by the booming of the victory salutes and the firework displays, the crowd seemed content to wander aimlessly about the town looking in vain for someone to cheer.
The end of the war had its own particular importance to me as it had to everyone. To most it meant that there was a chance of going home and rejoining their families. To me it meant that my affairs would be cleared up speedily and I should probably be off on my work for the Centre again.
PREPARATION FOR A MISSION
In the last chapter I digressed from the main story to indulge in anecdotes about Moscow. The main thread was broken off at the meeting with the director.
Before he left me that memorable night when I felt I was on trial for my life, he had said that I would have to lie fallow in Russia for some time until things had quieted down and I had been forgotten by the counterespionage service of other powers. I protested violently against this. I explained with great force and eloquence that Russia had had its Revolution and that I had no intention of sitting quietly in Moscow when postwar conditions would make the rest of the world ripe for revolution. If the Centre was not prepared to use me for espionage work I demanded to be sent back to England to return to legal Party work there. This "revolutionary" zeal seemed to impress the director and he told me to work out a few alternative plans for possible espionage work abroad and put them down on paper for him to consider. We parted, with him convinced, I think, of my flaming enthusiasm for the cause in general and Soviet espionage in particular. That was the impression I wished to convey.
In fact my first six weeks in Moscow had convinced me that Nazi Germany as I had known it was a paradise of freedom as compared with Soviet Russia. I was determined to get out of it as soon as possible and return to a world where freedom was more than a propaganda phrase. The only way that I could get out alive was to feign enthusiasm for any espionage plan put up, earn on in Moscow as a good Communist till I was posted elsewhere, and then get out of the clutches of the Centre as fast as possible. I had done my best to help the Russians win their war but after I had seen them and their methods firsthand and at home I was determined not to help them win their peace.