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5. Propaganda Machine

Amid rising tensions within the commune, Slavkin builds his Propaganda Machine. Read by Barbara Flynn.

Amid rising tensions within the commune, Slavkin builds his Propaganda Machine.

Early in 1914, 22-year-old Gerty Freely travels to Russia to work as a governess, little-knowing the huge upheavals in the world and in her own life that lie ahead.

In London, 1974, Gerty begins a memoir for her daughter Sophy, looking back at that extraordinary time of war, revolution and civil war.

Most of her memories are centred on a young inventor, Nikita Slavkin, who mysteriously disappeared in 1919 and was subsequently celebrated in Soviet culture as The Vanishing Futurist.

“No word has been heard from him since […] Yet the idea persists that one day he will reappear.”

Charlotte Hobson's novel abridged by Jeremy Osborne.

Read by Barbara Flynn.

Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2020.

14 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Fri 25 Sep 202012:04
  • Fri 25 Sep 202022:45
  • Fri 20 Jun 202508:30
  • Fri 20 Jun 202513:30
  • Fri 20 Jun 202519:30
  • Sat 21 Jun 202503:30