(The 22-Story House of Soviets in Kaliningrad, formerly Konigsberg)

The Very Small Group at the Writer’s Circle did not immediately gravitate to the Fire Ring down the slope from the Bunk House on this first day of Piedmont Summer. The Ring is now unlikely to be used for a few months as the Piedmont’s soggy humid season arrived. Instead, the members of the VSG took a furtive look at the closed door of the Universal Access Comfort Room and decided to get the small talk out of the way before Management’s Self Defense Attorney was composed enough to venture into a supervisory position on possibly erroneous opinions.

“Decision Day at SCOTUS?” That was one line of debate, since the High Court has left a few things hanging that could contribute to a certain social unease. We don’t know if they will issue anything today. Or Ever. The one who usually keeps “their” notes checked something off on a digital pad.

“Kaliningrad?” There were exactly three shrugs. The occupant of one component of those three shoulder-motions had once planned rational, comprehensive strikes on what had been the westernmost Oblast of the Soviet Union in some other struggle “they” did not want to justify to current legal staff. Those circumstances had changed, of course, but the 450,000 current occupants of the Baltic enclave were accustomed to that. They are, for the most part, Russians imported to replace the Poles (from the Polish Corridor days) and the Prussians for five hundred year period prior to that. During the Cold War days there was a uniformed Russian presence of nearly half the same number to confront the 100,000 Americans on the NATO side of things.

The current number of troops has fallen to around 25,000, but there is no recent estimate available to Refuge Farm’s creative section on how many were withdrawn to support the Special Military Operation in what used to be Ukraine.

International concern remains concentrated on what is happening to the south, where Russia appears to be leveling the territories of Donbas and Luhansk building by building. The Lithuanians, residents of a former Soviet client state have decided to stop transit of train traffic from what is now Russia across what used to be Soviet territory to provide food to Russians living in what used to be a German town called King’s Mountain. Or, Konigsberg in the language that used to be spoken there. Or something featuring umlauts over the letters.

There is an intellectual heritage from that town, that helped shape Europe, or was. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant was raised there when it was the capital of East Prussia. His legacy stressed religious devotion, humility and a literal interpretation of the Bible. His home town also used to feature a grand Royal Castle which was demolished in much the same manner as the former Ukrainian cities in the Donbas. So was Kant’s tombstone, which was later replaced by a more modest version in keeping with the new landlords.

Renamed in 1946 for Comrade Mikhail Kalinin, a Hero of the USSR, the ice-free port is still home to the Russian Baltic Fleet. It is also a monumental city, since the triumphant Soviet occupiers decided to construct the 22-story House of Soviets to replace the obliterated martial heritage represented by the rubble of the Prussian palace. It is an imposing but unoccupied building, sometimes termed “the ugliest building on Russian soil.” That is a useful phrase the VSG did not attempt to deconstruct, since that is what the building is doing to itself, due to the collapse of old tunnels under the new foundations.

Not withstanding uncertain footing, Comrade Kalinin’s city is still armed to the teeth. If the Lithuanians do not life the gates to permit the trains to transit, there is another really ugly branch-and-sequel possibility that could ignite in these turbulent times in place in an eastern Europe that has been ravaged twice by conflict in the last century.

Third times the charm, right?

Anyway, the ritual of Summer’s arrival was celebrated in the traditional manner before the rest of the group straggled downhill to participate in the Production Meeting, which was working on assembling some haunting images from correspondent Marlow’s Key West archives. It is always summer down there, sometimes more than others, and with the arrival of the Solstice, we will get those approved by the legal staff and move forward as the days now start to get shorter. Or darker, anyway.

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
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