The Road to Calvary (part II) - post IV

The end of part II comes with the reversal in fortunes once again with the Reds galvanised by the Red Terror launching total war on their enemies proving to be too strong for the Whites.

Friends become enemies and comrades bitter rivals that deserve to be shot. Only the determination of the Reds in Moscow with the vision of the Red Terror can change the circle of despair. Once that starts the story becomes one of retribution again but this time with a sense of permanence. The options are running out for the forces of resistance. Hope of foreign intervention start to fade and the successes enjoyed by the Whites start to be reversed.

Katia has disappeared from the story along with Roshchin but Telegin reappears to meet Dasha and is betrayed by her father. The doctor has chosen his side but has a heart attack on discovering that he has backed the wrong horse and the second part ends with Telegin re-entering Samara. He draws up to the doctor’s house, which he last had to flee from or face certain death, and finds it abandoned and the doctor and his wife nowhere to be seem.

That sense of desolation and a sense that the end has come to those who wanted defeat for the Communists starts to pervade the last few pages and is an interesting starting place for part III.

More to come…