LIUBOV - Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia - page 43

“I don't think this was human error. This was ordered not by God but by our leaders.
But we have the ability to forgive. That's how we live on.”
His wife agrees.
“Love exists in this country. And it is impossible to be without it.”
I am not sure what to make of this couple's range of emotions. Sergei's allegations seem
far-fetched. But this is Russia. This is the country where a former KGB spy, Aleksandr
Litvinenko, said allies of Putin indeed carried out terrorist plots in the country to rally sup-
port behind him. He also accused Putin of arranging for a well-known journalist, Anna
Politkovskaya, to be assassinated. Shortly after making that claim in 2006, Litvinenko was
fatally poisoned in Britain.
I am not convinced that Russian officials planned to crash that plane. I do think Sergei
and Liubov Klyukin speak for many in their country. They view their leaders with great
suspicion. But they feel a sense of duty to endure, and believe that every difficulty makes
you stronger. And in times of hardship the impulse is not to turn your anger into action, but
to turn inside, protect the people close to you, and feel the warmth and strength from the
people you do trust.
Sergei and I walk to the door and begin putting our shoes back on. “David, this is for
you.” Nikita's father has a red scarf in his hand. It says, in Russian, “Lokomotiv. Our team,
forever.” The names of all the players are there. Sergei begins to cry as he points to his
son's name. “Thank you,” I tell him, putting my hand on his right shoulder. “I will treasure
this and display it proudly in America.”
After leaving this apartment, there is one more stop I want to make in Rybinsk. It is
not in any guidebook, but there is a small memorial just outside town, honoring victims
of one of Stalin's gulags. The infamous labor camps were primarily located farther east, in
remote Siberia. But a few were here in western Russia, including the Volgolag camp near
Rybinsk. It was first opened in 1935 and housed one hundred thousand prisoners at a time,
many of them convicted of political crimes. That's according to Dmitri Macmillen, who
recently did a student research project called, “In Search of the Rybinsk Gulag.” The camp
apparently provided laborers to build the dam that flooded Mologa. Nearly nine hundred
thousand prisoners died from “hunger, hard labor, abuse and failed escapes” over eighteen
years, Macmillen wrote. “The production of a mere megawatt of power in the first years
of the camp's existence came at the expense of forty human lives, a futile sacrifice, only
exacerbated by the realization that the hydroelectric station achieved a minimal level of
electric production.”
Sergei and I wave down a taxi. Our driver, a young guy in a black leather jacket, has nev-
er heard of this place. “Gulag,” Sergei keeps saying. My colleague finally makes a phone
call to a local museum, hands the phone to our driver to hear the directions, and we are on
our way.