Cuba, my love,

Isle of purple dawn…

And it seemed as if both Fidel and the blacks on the posters, breaking free from colonialism, were intimately linked to the life of Borissov, to their own existence. It seemed as if the world was about to be shaken and an endless festival would begin, here and everywhere on earth.

To crown it all, Gagarin had taken off into space.

And at the Party Congress Khrushchev made the pledge: "We shall build Communism in twenty years."

At the end of this happy year two important events occurred in the Demidov family. In November they had a daughter and just before the new year they had bought a Zaria television set.

At the maternity ward the doctor said to Ivan: "Now listen, Ivan Dmitrevich, you may well be a Hero here, all the town knows you. But I'm going to speak frankly. With a war wound like that no one should have children! Her heart missed a beat three times during the birth…"

But it was a time for optimism. They had no thoughts of anything troublesome. On New Year's Eve Ivan and Tanya sat in front of the television, their arms around each other's shoulders, to watch Carnival Night, starring the popular actress Gurchenko, then in the flush of youth and trilling away merrily. They were perfectly happy. In the dim light the dark green glint of a bottle of champagne glowed on the table. The snow crunched under the feet of passersby outside. From the neighbors' rooms could be heard the hubbub of guests. Behind the wardrobe in- a little wooden cradle their newborn was sleeping silently and diligently. They had called her Olya.