Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

4. Transformation

Pasha and Sonya return and the Kobelevs’ house becomes the Institute Of Revolutionary Transformation. Read by Barbara Flynn.

Pasha and Sonya have returned to Moscow and the Kobelevs’ house becomes the Institute Of Revolutionary Transformation.

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 ѿý Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2020.

14 minutes

Last on

Fri 20 Jun 2025 03:30

Broadcasts

  • Thu 24 Sep 2020 12:04
  • Thu 24 Sep 2020 22:45
  • Thu 19 Jun 2025 08:30
  • Thu 19 Jun 2025 13:30
  • Thu 19 Jun 2025 19:30
  • Fri 20 Jun 2025 03:30