My name is Genezhov Schlomo Gureivich. I was born in Mogilev back when Ukraine still had "The" in front of it. It was a rough life living in Mogilev with my name.
Its ironic, really. All my life I'd tried desperately to overcome the prejudice against my kind in the Party and had almost made it. I was a "Starshy" Lieutenant in the Navy, based out of Vladivostok, half a world away from my family in many ways. I was of the relatively minor Party rank appropriate for one my people attempting to make believe I wasn't one, and just beginning to have enough influence to perhaps shield my family from the worst of the harrassments, back in Mogilev. I had almost thought I had escaped the burden of being a Jew in the Motherland.
I should have realized. I should have known that no matter what I did, no matter how much I proved myself to the Party, They wouldn't care. It had been proven time again in the Great War. I thought I would be different, though. I thought, maybe, I would be able to show them that a Jew could be a good man in the Party.
For all of my hard work. For all of my loyalty. This was how they repaid me. In the dark of the night at the trained hands of the Committee for State Security. The pistmas came under cover of darkness and took my parents and my baby sister. Took them to God wouldn't know where. Most likely someplace not too far from my home port.
They claimed my father was transmitting state secrets over one of those new computers that were just beginning to be seen outside of the military. What a joke! My father? The old man still couldn't believe we had men living in a space station. No, he was transmitting no state secrets. He didn't even know any state secrets. He'd been a low level machinist since his father was wisked away during the Purge. And my baby sister...Miriam, so sweet. So beautiful. She should have been a beauty queen. Instead...no, what those izvergie did to her I will not tell. It would be a sin to relive that.
They told me my father was a traitor to the Motherland. They told me they were sure a good Party member like me would understand. They suggested I take a few weeks away from my ship. They suggested that if I was smart, I would forget it had happened and concentrate on my promising career.
I went home. I went into the small flat which was our home, thanks to my Membership, and for the first time in my life, I prayed. I prayed to Adonai, the God Party members were not supposed to believe in. I begged him, give me the means. Give me the ways to exact revenge on the betrayers.
I do not know if Adonai heard my plight, or if it was some other being. I do know that something heard me, though, heard me and granted my request. I was given great powers. Powers which permitted me to deal retribution with the very darkness They hid in to abduct my family. And they paid. Oh, did they pay. The Party refused to acknowledge my exsistance, but Committee members throughout the Motherland whispered about The Temnota in fear. They, who feared nothing, feared me.
In the end, it was all for nought. The Party crumbled under its own corrupted weight and They ended up in direct control of everything. Even the so called President is one of Them.
Now...Now I live in Paragon City, in America. I attempt to cleanse the blood from my soul with righteous deeds. I attempt to bring hope with my Temnota.
If only Miriam was here, to live in America and see me performing Tzadaka every day.
My name is Genezhov Schlomo Gureivich. I was born in Mogilev back when Ukraine still had "The" in front of it. It was a rough life living in Mogilev with my name.
Its ironic, really. All my life I'd tried desperately to overcome the prejudice against my kind in the Party and had almost made it. I was a "Starshy" Lieutenant in the Navy, based out of Vladivostok, half a world away from my family in many ways. I was of the relatively minor Party rank appropriate for one my people attempting to make believe I wasn't one, and just beginning to have enough influence to perhaps shield my family from the worst of the harrassments, back in Mogilev. I had almost thought I had escaped the burden of being a Jew in the Motherland.
I should have realized. I should have known that no matter what I did, no matter how much I proved myself to the Party, They wouldn't care. It had been proven time again in the Great War. I thought I would be different, though. I thought, maybe, I would be able to show them that a Jew could be a good man in the Party.
For all of my hard work. For all of my loyalty. This was how they repaid me. In the dark of the night at the trained hands of the Committee for State Security. The pistmas came under cover of darkness and took my parents and my baby sister. Took them to God wouldn't know where. Most likely someplace not too far from my home port.
They claimed my father was transmitting state secrets over one of those new computers that were just beginning to be seen outside of the military. What a joke! My father? The old man still couldn't believe we had men living in a space station. No, he was transmitting no state secrets. He didn't even know any state secrets. He'd been a low level machinist since his father was wisked away during the Purge. And my baby sister...Miriam, so sweet. So beautiful. She should have been a beauty queen. Instead...no, what those izvergie did to her I will not tell. It would be a sin to relive that.
They told me my father was a traitor to the Motherland. They told me they were sure a good Party member like me would understand. They suggested I take a few weeks away from my ship. They suggested that if I was smart, I would forget it had happened and concentrate on my promising career.
I went home. I went into the small flat which was our home, thanks to my Membership, and for the first time in my life, I prayed. I prayed to Adonai, the God Party members were not supposed to believe in. I begged him, give me the means. Give me the ways to exact revenge on the betrayers.
I do not know if Adonai heard my plight, or if it was some other being. I do know that something heard me, though, heard me and granted my request. I was given great powers. Powers which permitted me to deal retribution with the very darkness They hid in to abduct my family. And they paid. Oh, did they pay. The Party refused to acknowledge my exsistance, but Committee members throughout the Motherland whispered about The Temnota in fear. They, who feared nothing, feared me.
In the end, it was all for nought. The Party crumbled under its own corrupted weight and They ended up in direct control of everything. Even the so called President is one of Them.
Now...Now I live in Paragon City, in America. I attempt to cleanse the blood from my soul with righteous deeds. I attempt to bring hope with my Temnota.
If only Miriam was here, to live in America and see me performing Tzadaka every day.