The old man, who was left at the impoverished home for the aged, and who was known by false name Sedov, was actually the legendary academician, a star of the Soviet science, a proud recipient of the numerous government rewards, and also a former member Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. That was a career-zenith anyone could dream of in this country, but that was thirty years ago.

Как ученый он занимался тогда загадкой органической жизни, но как член ЦК компартии курировал все области биологии и даже химии в десятках академических институтов. В начале восьмидесятых институт под его непосредственным руководством вышел на эпохальное открытие, которое он не только не решился нигде опубликовать, он даже не обмолвился словом об этом с коллегами за стенами его лаборатории. И правильно сделал.

As a scientist Sedov was occupied then by the mysteries of organic life, but as the member of Ts-Ka of his Party he administered all fields of biology and its researches in dozens of laboratories and institutions. In the early eighties the famous laboratory under his direct leadership was on the verge of epochal discovery, which could bring results worthy of Nobel Prize. Although, Sedov refused to publish anything; he and his colleagues never uttered a word about the matter of their research outside their laboratory. That was very right thing to do, as it would have had revealed later.

Речь шла о клонировании. Неотличимом, как бы факсимильном копировании на молекулярном и генетическом уровне любых живых существ. Где-то в мире уже пробовали похожее: клонировали овечек, собачек и прочих животных, но те долго не жили и вскоре умирали. Но советский академик-коммунист мог теперь клонировать, – ксерокопировать и чуть ли ни отправлять по факсу – Человека. Требовались только обрезки его ногтей или волос, да пара мазков из интимных мест – его или близких родственников. Но если можно было получить что-нибудь из его собственных внутренностей, или из головы, то было еще лучше.

The theme of their epochal discovery was the cloning, that is indistinguishable, as facsimile copying of any living beings, but at the molecular and genetic level. There was some experimenting with cloning also abroad; cloned lambs, doggies and other animals were born in some laboratories, but they didn’t live long and died in extreme anguish. Soviet renowned scientist and ardent communist Sedov attained then an unbelievable advancement in genetics and practical cloning; he could not just clone, but could now make some sort of fax-copies, and almost send them by wire – of the human beings. To make a perfect human clone he needed just clipped off scraps of nails or a lock of hair, and a pair of smears taken from the private parts, preferably of original human person’s, but his immediate kin’s would also could do. The clone would turn out healthier if could be used tissues of his intestines, but still better from his head.

Почувствовав холодок в позвоночнике от открывающихся перспектив своего открытия, академик мгновенно засекретил все материалы по этим темам на уровне Первого отдела своего института. На следующий же день он, как член ЦК, записался на прием к тогдашнему шефу всесильного КГБ товарищу Юрию Андропову.

Через неделю он вошел к нему в кабинет на Лубянке, спокойным и уверенным шагом. Академик рассказывал, объяснял, как умел, самым простым языком, а тот только молча и терпеливо смотрел на него сквозь очки, не задавая никаких вопросов. Но потом он прервал академика на полуслове.

– Кого вы хотите клонировать первым?

Having felt a chill in a backbone at the prospects of his discovery, the academician instantly proclaimed all information on this subject as classified material. He called the First department of his laboratory, a branch of secret police KGB, to be the watchdog of his top secret research. The next day Sedov, as a member of Party’s Central Committee, applied for an appointment with the powerful chief of Soviet secret police KGB, comrade Yuri Andropov. In a week Sedov entered with self-assured stride the office in the most dreaded building during gulag years on Lubyanka square.

The academician explained KGB chief as simply as he could the essence of his discovery. The tall elderly man just silently and patiently watched him through his glasses, asking no questions. Then he suddenly cut short the academician, “Whom do you intend to clone first?”

Академик запнулся. Он никогда не думал о первых подопытных, как о людях с именем и фамилией, они представлялись ему всегда, как ученому, чистыми и голыми, как Адам и Ева.

– Мы не думали еще о самых первых. Я полагаю, это оставить на усмотрение руководства нашей партии.

– Хорошо. А вы можете копировать, клонировать, или как это вы зовете, – словом, оживить всех старых большевиков, умерщвленных Иосифом Сталиным? Всю старую гвардию, без исключения.

Academician faltered: he never thought of that. At least he never thought about his human clones as of real people with regular names and surnames of their prototypes. Being a scientist, he always imagined them being nude and virgin as biblical Adam and Eva.

“Well, we haven’t yet planned that. I mean … may our Party decide that, because of immense importance and implied consequences of such action.”

“OK, can you clone, or copy, or whatever – can you resurrect all the Old Bolsheviks massacred by Joseph Stalin? Can you resurrect entire old Lenin’s guard?”

– Я думаю, да… можно попробовать… – оторопев, ответил академик.

– Нам теперь как никогда, как воздух нужен их энтузиазм, революционный порыв и большевистское мужество.

– Да, мы это сможем сделать, – отчеканил с подъемом академик. – Их генетический материал был дальновидно и надежно сохранен советскими учеными. Он в отличном состоянии: ткани тела, срезы мозга…

– Хорошо. Пока об этом никому. Вы поняли? Теперь это государственная тайна. О моем решении вам сообщат. Пока идите и работайте.

Struck dumb, scientist said, “I think, yes, we can possibly try. Why?”

“These days of moral decay we need as never before, as an air in our lungs, their enthusiasm, their revolutionary gust, their Bolshevist courage. They would kind of vaccinate all of us, all our country. They would inspire our Party with a new life, with a new flame and ideas!”

“Yes, comrade Andropov, we could do this, that is a great honor for us,” uttered the academician, coining the words. “Their genetics materials had been wisely preserved with an incredible far-sight by Soviet scientists in the twenties; it’s in excellent condition: the body tissues, brain slices. I know it as a curator of Organics laboratory which oversee the body of immortal Lenin in his mausoleum.”

“Fine. Yet, don’t you breathe a word to anyone. Do you understand? All I said is a top state secret. You will be informed of my decision. Go to your work, and don’t waste any time.”

Академик ждал, когда ему об этом сообщат, почти год. И вот действующий генсек, правивший страной более двадцати лет, сошел в могилу у кремлевской стены на Красной площади. И следующим, Третьим за историю, генсеком был избран в политбюро партии бывший шеф КГБ товарищ Юрий Андропов.

Academician waited nearly a year for this decision to be relayed to him, but the government-direct-line telephone in his office, vertushka, was silent. Suddenly – as can be sudden the death of a sick eighty-year old – died current Secretary General who ruled the country for more than twenty years. It also triggered the coming death-harvesting of gerontokratia in the Party’s Politburo. He was buried with a pomp and artillery salutation in the grave near the Kremlin wall on the Red Square. The next Secretary General, the third in history of the Party, was elected by the intimate circle of old members of Politburo. They elected KGB chief Yuri Andropov.