Page 176 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

medal for him when he graduated (which he did get).

My grandmother raised her little son enjoying tranquility and grand-dad at last
achieved his long awaited dream to become engrossed in his favourite Alitus forest
every day.
Thus, everybody was more or less happy and nobody wanted to leave this truly
"divine place" and start on a journey again. They decided to give an opportunity to my
dad to finish the school he liked so much and my grandmother’s little son Valery to
grow up a little more in order to endure a long journey better.

Days ran on unnoticed, months passed, making years, and the Seriogins still lived
at the same place, as if forgetting all their promises, which, certainly, was not true. It
simply helped them to get used to the thought that maybe they could never keep their
word given to Princess Elena... All Siberian horrors were far behind, tranquil everyday
life became customary and it sometimes seemed to the Seriogins that no terrible
sufferings ever happened, as if they had dreamed them in a forgotten nightmare long
ago...
Vasiliy grew, becoming a handsome young
man, and it often seemed to his foster-mother that
he was her own son, because she truly loved him.
My dad called her mother, because he did not
know the truth about his birth and loved her
strongly in return, like he would love his real
mother. He behaved the same way toward my
grand-dad, who he called father. He sincerely
loved him from the bottom of his heart.
So, everything gradually sorted out and the

conversations about distant France became rarer
and rarer until one fine day they totally ceased.
There was no hope of getting there and most Seryogin's family
likely the Seriogins decided that it would be
better, if nobody re-opened that wound anymore...
Meanwhile my dad graduated from school with honours and entered the Literary
Institute by correspondence. He worked as a journalist in "Izvestia (News)" to help the
family and dedicated his free time to writing plays for the Russian Drama Theatre of
Lithuania.

Everything was all right, except for one very painful problem. My dad was a
magnificent speaker (I remember from my earliest years that he indeed had a huge
talent for that!). That is why the Komsomol committee of our town did not leave him
alone, trying to make him its secretary. My dad objected to it as hard as he could,
because he hated the revolution and communism with all his heart and everything that
followed from these "teachings" (even without knowing about his origin, because the
Seriogins decided not to tell him for the time being)... Naturally, he was a pioneer and
a Komsomol member at school, because it was impossible then to enter any higher
educational establishment, like institute or university, without it, but he categorically
refused to go further than that. Also there was another fact which terrified him: the

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