Author Notes to

Lenin in Odessa

 

The reaction of one reviewer astounded me. He couldn’t tell my “alternate” history from the “real” events of the Russian revolution. Yet the last lines reveal that things did not turn out all that differently, given Stalin’s character and drive to rule. A circuitous route to the same outcome was my goal, and this enables the story to overcome the gratuitous nature of many alternate histories. The “collapse of the wave function,” as physicists would say, is here driven by character.

But what most intrigued me in the crafting of this story went unnoticed: the story is told by Stalin; yet he imaginatively enters the point of view of Reilly, and manages to predict his behavior. We get two points of view in a first person narrative. Writers should take some pride in their cleverness and craft, in doing what seems prohibited in a first-person story without breaking the rules.

J. R. Dunn wrote in Short Form that it was “the best alternate history piece I’ve seen in years… the story is damn near perfect.” Other honors included being listed on the 1991 Nebula Awards preliminary ballot, and Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection.