Tag: Under an Iron Sky

Another chapter in the plots and conspiracies of KGB’s Colonel Fabrizio Leonidovich Vianello!
Brought to you by Thomas Gaul, retired KGB (or CIA?) agent and Grognard Emeritus.

Time: 2:24 am Moscow time, August 21, 1985
Place: Kremlin, private office of KGB Colonel Fabrizio Vianello, extra-top-secret sanctum cubicle of KGB Colonel Vianello

KGB Colonel Vianello suppressed a massive yawn and contemplated his new work with with the self satisfied inner bliss of one who has completed the “perfect” 5-year plan, or in this case the plan to solve the problems of the initial war-plan against the capitalist swine that was NATO. Of course, the initial plan prepared by him and his team had been nearly flawless, but as ever, wreckers and pseudo capitalist leeches, or even worse, personal enemies of the Colonel, had failed to anticipate events correctly, or even actively worked to smear his plan. But what he had now completed would correct those errors of lesser minds.

In preparing to implement the “more correct” correct plan, Colonel Vianello gave to himself the mental congratulations for his justified foresight and genius. Not all his opponents could or should be sent to the gulag and forgotten. All, of course, must be sent to the gulag (for an enemy of his was obviously an enemy to the State) but some should be sent to the gulag and still used for the Glorious Soviet State.

And such had been the fate of former KGB Major Marco Josevich Cimmino. An early “genius” in the field of computers, his future had been bright. Too bright. He had sought to replace the Colonel and his team, claiming his computers would do the job better and more certainly, without the corruption of humans. Him, Colonel Vianello, soon to be hero of the Soviet victory, corrupt!! As if a few richly deserved rubles, dachas and women, were anything other than proper rewards of a grateful Soviet State! The Major had been investigated, found lacking in proper Communist ideology, properly denounced, and the gulag it was.

But such was the Colonels’ genius that, while orchestrating the Major’s fall, he had convinced him he was actually on his side. And, by arranging a few pieces of meat for the Major’s daily diet of gruel and extra blankets for the Siberian winters, he had succeeded in convincing the Major that, with the his knowledge of computers put to proper use under the Colonel’s guidance, rehabilitation was possible. So the Major had labored 75 hours a week for months with his “computers” to produce what was needed by the Colonel.

The generals would receive what they had been clamouring for. Extra resources! Tanks! Planes! Artillery! Ammunition for all the baying hyenas with more stars on their collars than brains in their head!

Or so it would appear. Truly perception was reality with the masses. And, now, “IT” was ready. With a push of the special button on his computer, Operation Potemkin was launched. ….

A new chapter in the story of KGB Colonel Vianello, introducing Gosphaza Barbara – his loyal, virtuous wife.
With war in Central Europe not going as expected, everybody has to review their own survival plans…..

Brought to you by Grognard Emeritus Thomas Gaul!

Time: The day after the party, officially proclaimed as “Celebration in Anticipation of the Party’s Elimination of Revisionist Swine”

Place: Summer dacha of KGB Colonel Fabrizio Vianello, bedroom of Gosphaza Barbara Vianello, wife and partner to KGB Colonel Vianello

Gosphaza Vianello sat wrapped in her Italian sheets, seemingly asleep, but actually wide awake. She had learned many times the value of “pretend” during her time as the Colonel’s wife. As she lay in her Paris bought lingerie, she thought intensely about her next course of action. Her life, perhaps, and certainly her life of ease and luxury, would depend on this decision and, it was difficult to know which way to go.

Her husband, the Gullible One, had passed out at the party, the vodka making a fool of him, as it did most men. She had allowed and even encouraged this, as she knew something he did not. For all that he prided himself on his “secret” smile (which she had deciphered 3 days after first dating him), she knew he would babble like an Italian when drunk enough and he thought himself safe in bed. Like his mistresses who he thought she knew nothing about, his secrets lasted no longer than she wanted them to. Mostly, the mistresses were a useful distraction for him and her when she wanted to take a “treatment” in Spain. Ah, those Spanish “treatments” the massages, the hands, the feet, the back, and then, slowly, the…

Firmly she brought herself under control. Fun was fun, but a critical decision must be made. The war, and the Colonel’s “Plan”, was in full fury. Difficult for her to know who was winning, even with her access to the Colonel’s secrets. She did not truly care who won the war but rather whether the Colonel would survive and with him her life of luxury. He had survived many times, due mostly to her subtle guidance and certain “arrangements” she had made with KGB Generals, and he might or might not survive again. The most important question was, “Should she stay or should she denounce him and move on”?

She had known he had been worried about the investigations into “war shortages” and with good reason. His dealings had brought in much capital (unlike her husband, she did not even pretend to be a Socialist) for both and, for her, furs, jewels, special shopping sprees and “treatments” in Europe. She obviously made no complaints about the activities that kept her in the style to which she was accustomed. And, of course, she had gathered enough evidence against him that at any time she could denounce him and PERHAPS not be eliminated.

But it was that PERHAPS that worried her. If he fell, could she truly survive? And not just survive, but continue her life of comfort? If he fell, and she survived, and she could move on to the next foolish but high-ranking male, all was well and good. He would be shot, of course, but such was life in the Soviet Union. She would look good in black, and there would, of course, be a State funeral, with many connected and handsome KGB, Party or Kremlin officials needing to comfort a grieving widow.

However… he was not dead yet and might survive, with her help of course. He did have some abilities and his latest endeavor with this “computer” of his might be enough. Though she little understood the paper she had found when rifling through his “secret” boot compartment, it did seem to have promise. And, if he DID succeed in deflecting the investigations…..

She made up her mind. Better the Devil you knew. She would play the dutiful wife. He would believe she was still loyal and, in her own way, she was. He would believe her to be what she wanted him to believe her to be. For now, she would stick by him. For now……

The 3 big maps you’ll find in the box! Actual size 180×95 cm, matte plastified paper.