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Page 201
Chapter Twenty-five
Moscow/November 30
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The nation mourns a Hero of Russian Science.
CAPTION ON IZVESTIA WIREPHOTO OF THE FUNERAL PROCESSION OF MIKHAIL IVANOVICH ORGONEV, RUSSIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS DESIGNER.
The cortege moved slowly and deliberately down snow-banked Kujbyseva Street, past the decayed rococo grandeur of the GUM department store, on to Red Square. The deep winter wind lashed the mourners with an edge of steel and snapped the red flags the military had massed.
The bone-chilling weather suited the mood of the Russian President as he marched in the funeral procession for Mikhail Ivanovich Orgonev. The only pleasure he felt today stemmed from the scarcity of onlookers on the streets. Whether it was due to the weather or the unwillingness of the citizenry to salute a man who had designed so many instruments of mass killing, Muscovites had stayed home for the most part. If ever, Aleksandr Cherny thought, the Soyuz needed a lesson in the attitude of the people of Moscow, this grand funeral for a

 
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