Automaton ballad

In response to the large-scale exercises of the Soviet nuclear forces in 1982, US President Ronald Reagan announced the creation of a missile defense system ( SDI ). As an excuse for the need to deploy missiles in Europe, Western propaganda used the incident of the destruction of the Korean Boeing, which violated the USSR air border on September 1, 1983. As a result, in the autumn of 1983, disarmament negotiations between the USSR and the USA were disrupted. On December 1, 1983, 9 Pershing-II missiles were delivered and put on combat duty at the US Air Force Base Ramstein (West Germany).

After the breakdown of the negotiation process, the Soviet Union began military operations. Obviously, initially the war was fought by conventional means. It is impossible to establish from the text of the story which of the warring parties was the first to use nuclear weapons.

As a result of the massive use of nuclear weapons, a “nuclear summer" has come. The mechanism of its onset is unclear. According to the assumptions made in the story, due to the use of nuclear weapons, the activity of volcanoes increased. Significant emissions of volcanic gases into the atmosphere led to the greenhouse effect . As a result, bananas, creepers and other tropical plants grow in post-war Siberia. Mutant animals, mostly predatory and aggressive, are filling this new habitat.

Significant geological and geodetic changes have occurred. The Volga Sea , the Caspian Ocean , the flooding of many territories (South China, Europe, Latin America) are mentioned.

During the conflict, elements of statehood of all the opposing powers were completely destroyed. During the story, these elements are in the process of recovery, however, not one of the state entities in Siberia is trying to declare itself the successor of the USSR. These quasi-states are small in size and do not exceed the pre-war regions . One of the most influential is the Order of Templars (other names: Order, Temple) - a paramilitary theocratic formation created by former party functionaries, social relations in which are modeled on those in medieval Japan .

Nothing is known about the fate of the United States and Western Europe after the conflict.

People

• Swiss (Black Hunter, Victor) . Killer , the best in the Far East. It has a high level of education. Its main clients are leaders of quasi-state formations of post-war Siberia and the Far East, the main victims are individual bandits and gangs that cause problems to the authorities. Age 30-35 years.

• Secret (Tanie, Tatyana Ilyinichna) . The slave is the concubine of the Order. Age about 20 years.

• The old man . Swiss educator, before the war - master gunsmith. Like Switzerland, it is highly educated. Age 50-60 years.

• Aisman (Sergey Shemyaka) . "The black ranger," or the looter, as he calls himself. His activities are akin to the activities of a stalker - the search and sale of items of great value in the post-war world: medicines, weapons, ammunition. Age 23 years.

• Anna The daughter of one of the hierarchs of the Order. Age 16-18 years.

• Enrique (Komarov Eduard Genrikhovich) . The top guard of the Order, before the war - sergeant of the border troops. Age about 40 years.

• Hierarch Diao (Diaghilev) . A senior hierarch of the Order, before the war - a party functionary from Moscow. Age 60-65 years.

• Hierarch Shio (Shitov) . The hierarch of the Order, before the war - a party functionary from the province. Age 55-60 years.

Weapons

• Sasha . AKS-74 , Aisman's weapon.

• Max AKMS , the weapon of Enrique.

• Emma M16A1 assault rifle, Anna’s weapon.

Anna, the only and beloved daughter of one of the hierarchs, flees from the Order. Enrique runs with her. “Solve this problem” is entrusted to the hierarch Diao and the hierarchy Shio. Diao decides to hire a Swiss to eliminate the fugitives who insulted the Order with their escape. The moral principles of the Swiss do not allow such an order to be fulfilled, but the history and reasons for his escape seem interesting to him. Therefore, he falsely agrees to fulfill the assignment and takes a deposit. Then he abducts the Secret, which may have information about this - she was the concubine of Hierarch Boer, Anna's father. Having destroyed the chase sent by the Temple, the Swiss questions the Secret using psychotropic drugs, but the information received does not bring him closer to the solution.

Nevertheless, this information interests him - shortly before Anna’s escape, the Temple radio station received a radio message in German. Assuming that the broadcast was made by one of the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland , the Black Hunter decides to get to Western Europe. He does not throw a secret, takes it with him and after a while falls in love with it.

They arrive at the place of permanent residence of the Swiss - an abandoned military airfield. Besides the Swiss, the Old Man lives there. They are discussing the possibility of saving life in Western Europe. The Swiss decides to get to Europe by air - the technically sound and combat-ready front-line Su-24 bomber, which the Swiss can control, has been preserved at the airport. However, before, wanting to avenge the suffering of the Mystery and prevent further strengthening of the Order, the Swiss bomb and completely destroy the Temple itself - the main fortress and the actual capital of the Order of the Templars. As a result of this, they do not have enough fuel to get to Europe, and they make an emergency emergency landing in the European part of the former USSR.

Meanwhile, Anna and Enrique arrive in one of the quasi-states in Western Siberia. There they hire Aisman to take them to the Big Island, the remains of a large regional center, completely destroyed during a nuclear war. Aisman fulfills the order, and then, intrigued by the goal pursued by Anna on the Big Island, joins the fugitives. During a joint trip, Sasha falls in love with Emma.

In the ruins of the Big Island, Enrique dies from an unknown disease. Anna explains to Aisman the purpose of them with Enrique escape and travel to the Big Island - somewhere here is a balloon that can fly to Europe. She does not explain the practical need for a flight, but Aisman, carried away by Anna, agrees to follow her. During a skirmish with the half-wild inhabitants of the Big Island, Emma dies (collapses).

Two pairs of heroes are found somewhere in the European part of the former USSR. Anna is sure that the Swiss received an order to kill her. As a result, an exchange of fire ensues between Aisman and Swiss, during which Aisman and (by tragic chance) Mystery die. The surviving Anna convinces the Swiss to follow her - she needs to go to Moscow. Seeing no other way, she reveals to the Swiss all her plans: her father’s safe kept the scheme and access codes to the temporary storage of the USSR Diamond Fund , where all its contents were transferred before the war for security purposes. When the radiogram came in German, she stole this scheme and fled, hoping that she could take possession of diamonds and move to Europe.

Together they make their way into the ruins of Moscow and find storage. There Anna, driven by greed, kills the Swiss. Having entered the room with diamonds, Anna wants to shoot a showcase and pick up diamonds as a burst from Sashka, but no shots are fired. Then Anna turns the machine around, deciding to smash the glass with her butt. After waiting for the moment when his trunk will be directed at Anna, Sashka pulls the trigger and kills her, since Anna was the culprit of the death of Emma. Sashka himself remains in the underground storage forever.

The story implicitly mentions Andrei Makarevich (?) And his song “Turn”:

The song “Turn” was written by Makarevich in the late 1970s ^[3] , that is, before the hypothetical war of the USSR and the USA.

Commenting on the activities of the chief mayor, Sashka notes:

This passage is perceived as an allusion to the film Kill the Dragon , created in the USSR in 1988. However, this film is an adaptation of the play " Dragon " by Yevgeny Schwartz , created in 1942-1944. and first introduced to the general public in 1962.