The Russian Major: A Chronicle of the Cold War
by Phillip KerriganPublish: Apr 10, 2021Historical Fiction Book Overview
It’s the late 1980’s and Glasnost, Perestroika, a failing Communist system in the USSR and surging American economic power and military might are putting enormous and unrelenting pressure on Russia’s military commands and systems. And it is the military men who may ultimately, unleash unimaginable forces of destruction on mankind, and they are at the trigger end of the pressure build up.Are these people and systems capable, are their systems fail safe and fool proof? Major Ivan Sergeivich Milkhalkov is in the Strategic Rocket Forces of the USSR and has been intensely trained to obey orders. Now in a remote posting at a nuclear launch site, separated from his pregnant young wife Ivan is beginning to feel uneasy about the mass destruction at his fingertips, and the systems that control it. He is in control of just one missile silo. His training and exposure to the nuclear systems are overwhelming him. His military family background only allows him one ideological point of view which he can’t escape. His friendships of his youth and his career force him in different directions with which he has to cope but still keep centered on his responsibilities.In the late 1980’s underground dissident movements are also causing problems for the USSR government. Their unseen connections into Russian society may have far reaching consequences if they aren’t stopped in time. It is the Cold War, and Mutually Assured Destruction is the policy on which the USSR and the USA rely on to maintain peace.Is the antiquated technology which was responsible for the Chernobyl disaster inconsistent with the political and military demands for perfect fail safe? Are the systems sufficient in the nuclear arsenal? Or is another nuclear catastrophe a possibility?
