A Gentleman in Moscow: Book 2, 1924, Anonymity Summary & Analysis

The narrator discusses some of the advantages of invisibility, and how many stories have centered on heroes having this power. But fewer tales have been told about invisibility as a curse. The narrator states that Anna cast just such a curse on the Count after their date in 1923. In the weeks that follow, the Count notices that he seems to be disappearing from view of other guests or going unnoticed by staff members. One day the Count crosses the lobby and it takes a full minute for Vasily to notice him at the concierge desk.

The Count asks Vasily where Nina is. He responds that she is in the card room, and the Count goes to seek her out. He finds her sitting at the card table and attempts to get her to go on a new adventure with him, to no avail. She is singularly focused on a math project: making a list of all prime numbers.

The Count begins to help Nina, looking over her list. He points out that 1,173 is not a prime number because its digits add to a number divisible by three, and therefore it is divisible by three. She is astounded by this simple trick and goes over her completed papers.

The Count leaves Nina to her work and decides to read the paper before his dinner with Mishka, but he is surprised by the repetitiveness of the newspaper. He thinks to himself that the Bolsheviks dwell on the same subject matter every day, with such a narrow set of views and the same vocabulary that he feels he has read it all before. He suddenly realizes that he has read it all before, because it is yesterday’s paper.

The Count tosses the paper aside and looks at the clock, seeing that Mishka is now fifteen minutes late for dinner. Unlike the Count, Mishka has been busy after the 1923 RAPP congress, as was commissioned to edit and annotate an anthology of Russian short stories. Additionally, Mishka’s interest in Katerina has blossomed into a full romance.

Arkady passes the Count in the lobby before realizing that he has a message for the Count from Mishka: Katerina is under the weather, and thus Mishka will be returning to St. Petersburg early and will not be joining his friend for dinner. The Count tries to mask his disappointment, but realizes that Arkady has already turned his attention to another guest.

The Count goes to the Boyarsky alone and finds he must wait a few minutes for his table. The USSR has recently been recognized by Germany, England, and Italy, and so the Metropol is becoming busier and busier with foreign guests. The Count notices a man with a pointed beard march down the hallway with purpose, and Andrey signals for a waiter to seat him immediately.

The Count asks Andrey if the man with the beard is that same Commissar who had been in a fistfight in the Boyarsky with a Belarusian man a few days prior. Andrey realizes quickly that the table towards which the waiter is heading with the Commissar is next to a table where the Belarusian man is sitting. Andrey redirects them and thanks the Count for his tact and quick thinking.

The narrator explains that the Count has been a master of seating tables since he was fifteen. He used to help his grandmother plan her dinner arrangements, where considerations of various family feuds and eccentricities were essential. The Count had labored over these seating puzzles, telling Helena that if Paris had not been seated next to Helen, the Trojan War would never have happened. But the Count also thinks to himself that now the old Russian aristocrats have wound up just like Hector and Achilles.

After waiting a few minutes, the Count sits at his table and selects the osso buco (a cut of meat) for the evening. He is shocked, however, at the appearance of his waiter—the Bishop, who has been promoted from the Piazza to the Boyarsky. The Bishop seems to understand the Count’s dismay, but the Count tries to be gracious. The Bishop asks how the Count wants his osso buco, which the Count finds to be a ridiculous question, considering it is a dish of stewed meat. Additionally, though the Count orders a very specific wine, the Bishop continues to ask him whether he will be having red or white.

When the Count tries to specify that his wine selection is a red wine, the Bishop explains that there are only two wine options: red or white. The Count summons Andrey and asks how the Bishop came to work at the Boyarsky. Andrey explains that he was promoted by Mr. Halecki, likely due to the fact that he has a friend with some influence.

When the Count tries to explain his trouble with ordering wine, Andrey brings the Count down to the wine cellar. Andrey shows him that the labels have been removed from every bottle in the cellar. Andrey explains that a complaint was filed with the Commissar of Food, explaining that the wine list runs counter to the ideals of the Revolution. Thus, the Boyarsky will serve only red and white with a single price in order to equalize the wines.

The Count asks who filed the complaint, and Andrey states that it may have originated with the Bishop. The Count remembers the incident at Christmas when he had corrected the Bishop’s wine recommendation, realizing that this action may have been taken in revenge. When Andrey turns to go back to the Boyarsky, the Count observes that each bottle is unique—an “ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself.” The Count grows depressed, realizing that like the wines, he has been cast into anonymity; that his traditions have become a relic of the past.

The narrator explains that usually it takes generations for traditions to fade, and so individuals rarely feel that their entire way of life is obsolete. But political turmoil can cause an abrupt evolution, and the Count is struck by the realization that the Bolsheviks will not rest until every vestige of his way of life has been “uprooted, shattered, or erased.”

Just as the Count turns to leave, he takes one more moment to search among the bottles. He systematically scans the shelves until he comes to a stop. He selects a bottle among the thousands, holding it up and smiling at the two crossed keys embossed on the glass: the insignia of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, which his family would use to toast late relatives. The Count decides that on June 22nd, 1926—the tenth anniversary of his sister Helena’s death—he will drink to her, and then kill himself.