Sophia Elahi RPC Blog

This week I read four more chapters of The Persecutor by Sergei Kourdakov.  This week’s chapters were a little more graphic than past chapters and were honestly a little harder to read because of the things Kourdakov described.  In this essay I am going to talk about how Kourdakov uses contrasts to strengthen his narrative.

In one chapter Kourdakov and his team were sent to break up a meeting of Believers who were planning to baptize new members.  The baptism was meant to happen in the late afternoon, but Kourdakov and his men were already at the location in the early morning.  They decided to turn the day into a picnic.  They brought sandwiches and vodka, as well as their guitars so they could sing songs and such.  Kourdakov described how it was a nice day, perfect for a picnic.  One page later and there are bloody and graphic descriptions of what he did to the Believers.

He does this in another chapter where he gets invited to a banquet with other cadets from his naval academy and high ranking officials.  All of the officials get their own private rooms with fancier food and drinks.  While wandering, Kourdakov gets invited into one of these private rooms, which led to him seeing the not so pretty side of Communism.  All of the officials were black out drunk.  Most, if not all of them, were passed out.  Orlov, the man who invited Kourdakov in, started to bash Communism and the government in his drunken state.  No one was there to stop him because everyone was drunk.  This appalled Kourdakov and he ran out.  To him, Communism was his religion, his only belief since childhood.  To hear these high ranking officials bash his religion, the one they are supposed to support, was world shattering for him.  In this chapter we really saw how deeply Kourdakov believed in Communism and how much he believed in it.   

Kourdakov is a very gifted writer.  The way he words his sentences and uses contrasts to describe situations is very unique and addictive.  I may not like certain things that he does and describes, but I am enjoying the book and cannot wait to continue next week.

This week in class I read more of Sergei Kourdakov’s autobiography “The Persecutor.”  In this essay I’m going to talk about decisions Kourdakov made that led to his failed assignment.

If you have not read the book here is some background.  Kourdakov joined the Soviet Union Navy at the age of 18 and immediately starting climbing in rank.  He had self-motivation and had developed a good reputation for himself.  One day a man from the Secret Police came to Kourdakov and recruited him.  Kourdakov, and 14 of his friends, became a unit working for the Secret Police.  They were only called in to do small jobs like breaking up bar fights.  These small assignments were actually training for something bigger, breaking up the Believer’s (God worshipping people) meetings.  The first raid against the Believers did not go the way Kourdakov’s superior wanted it to go and the men were sent back to bar fights.

Honestly there are quite a few things that led him to fail the assignment.  If he never joined the Navy he might have never been recruited for the Secret Police and never would have an assignment to fail.  Even if he had joined the Army, he probably would have gotten recruited.  With Kourdakov’s motivation and reputation he would have risen in ranks, like in the Navy, and would become known by the Secret Police. 

If his reputation and motivation is the reason he became well-known by the higher commanders, what choices did he make that gave him the motivation?  His motivation to always get to the top stemmed from an incident that happened to him as a child.  Kourdakov, an orphan, was placed in a children’s home with other orphans and children who were taken from their parents.  When Kourdakov was young a famine struck the Soviet Union.  One of his closest friends, Sasha, died because of the famine.  That was the day Kourdakov learnt that in this world only the strongest survived.  This drove Kourdakov to always be the best and strongest.  He was determined to survive.

He started to throw himself into schoolwork and eventually got noticed by his teachers.  The head of his school placed him in charge of the Communist Youth Group of his town.  After that Kourdakov, still determined to be the best, worked hard to make his youth group the best in the district.  In the book Kourdakov talks about how ambitious this goal was since the district he was in was rather large.  But when you are motivated you can do anything.  He won the award of best youth group in the district.  With this reputation, it was no wonder he started to rise in rank after joining the Navy.

The only way Kourdakov would not have been noticed by the Secret Police is if he joined his friend’s crime syndicate or if he became a normal civilian.  I personally think that if he joined civilian life he would excel at whatever he was doing, but he would not be happy.  With his ambition he would not be satisfied until he was at the top.  Knowing this, I would assume he would have joined his friends’ crime syndicate and become the head of a gang.

As you can see, there are multiple choices that led to the failed assignment.  It is funny to think that so many things happened because of one event that impacted Kourdakov as a child.  I wonder what would Kourdakov done with his life if he never met poor Sasha.  Would he have turned out as motivated and hardworking?  Or would he have turned to drugs and vodka like his friends? 

I suppose we will never know.

This week I have been reading Sergei Kourdakov’s autobiography titled The Persecutor.  After reading about eight chapters of the book I realized that Sergei had some major turning points in his life as a child.  Between the disappearance of his Father and the death of his Mother and the adventures he had in the various children’s homes he lived in.  In this essay I am going to talk about some major turning points in my life.

I Moved Countries

If you have been following my blog for a while or if you have read previous essays, you probably already know this story since I have written multiple essays about this topic already.  If that is the case, feel free to move onto the next section.

I was born and raised in Stamford, Connecticut and up until my 10^th birthday, I had my life planned around the fact that I would be staying in the US.  Boy was I wrong.  A month before my 10^th birthday my parents told me we would be moving across the world to Singapore, the country where my Mom was born and raised. 

For a 9 (almost 10) year old kid who had planned my whole life in Connecticut, this was world shattering.  But after a while I got excited about the move and started counting down the days until we would pack up and leave.

I celebrated my 10^th birthday with close family friends and two weeks later my parents and I left Connecticut for Singapore.

Despite my initial sadness about leaving my old home, I settled in quickly and made a ton of new friends.  If I never left Connecticut I never would have met my amazing homeschool community and made friends with other children who homeschool.

Covid-19

I am pretty sure the Covid-19 pandemic was a turning point for everyone.  Covid was, and still is, a huge bummer.  At the time that I am writing this the Singapore government has implemented new regulations to try to lessen the sudden spike in cases.  These regulations have basically put everyone back in lockdown.

Last year, when Covid first started, and Singapore entered our lockdown (aka circuit breaker or CB), all of my extracurricular activities were cancelled.  My swimming and dance classes halted and it was impossible for me to meet up with my friends.

But despite Covid ruining everything, I am sort of thankful for Covid (NOT COMPLETELY! DO NOT THINK I LIKE ALL OF THIS! I DON’T!).  If I never went into lockdown I never would have bonded with my two best friends.  I bonded with a lot of other kids too, who, like me, were going insane because of being stuck inside for two months.

None of my lockdown friendships lasted after we went back to our somewhat normal routines.  None of my friendships except two.  The two that survived are now my two best friends who I love and cannot live without.

Conclusion

As you can see, in the past three years I have two major turning points in my life, each one resulting in new friends.

Thanks for reading!