A Gentleman in Moscow: Book 4, 1952, America Summary & Analysis

On a Wednesday evening in late June, the Count and Sofia walk into the Boyarsky. It is his night off, and they are ushered into the dining room by Andrey. Anna Urbanova is sitting at a nearby table with a few fans. Recently, she had been lured back to the stage, which was a stroke of fortune for the fifty-year-old actress. This was also fortunate for the Count, as she was now in residence at the Metropol for months at a time.

The Count and Sofia study their menus and order. They then begin to play a game that they have made up entitled Zut. Zut’s rules are as follows: the first player proposes a category, like stringed instruments or famous islands. The two players go back and forth until one of them fails to come up with a fitting example of the category. Victory goes to the first player who wins two out of three rounds. The Count proposes famous foursomes as the first round, and the two go back and forth until Sofia is unable to come up with a set.

Sofia comes up with the second category: animals that are black and white. Sofia is on the verge of losing when she comes up with herself (as she has dark hair with a strip of white hair where she hit her head). As Sofia counts down the seconds, the Count is interrupted by a professor from Leningrad State University. He asks for the Count to join him for a drink after dinner in suite 317. The Count agrees. When he turns back to Sofia, she declares his time is up.

The Count and Sofia’s first course is served, and they never play while they eat, so they put the tying round on hold. Sofia remarks that Anna is in the restaurant, and asks why the Count never invites her for dinner. The Count laughs nervously and asks if he should invite Charlie Chaplin as well, trying to close the conversation. Sofia continues, saying that Marina thinks that the Count is worried that Sofia would be scandalized. The Count is shocked to hear that she and Marina discussed their relationship. Sofia tells him that Marina says he likes to keep his “buttons in their boxes,” meaning he likes to keep his relationships separate.

The second course is served, and the Count states that Emile has outdone himself, once again hoping to change subjects. Sofia says that Anna thinks the Count is set in his ways. At this, the Count nearly coughs up his entire swallow of wine. Sofia says that she and Anna have known each other for years. The Count is aghast and gets up, turning to go upstairs.

As the Count heads for the stairwell, he bumps into Anna. He tells her that he can’t believe that she and Sofia have been conversing behind his back. He tells her that wanting to keep one’s buttons in their boxes is not necessarily a bad thing. He goes upstairs.

The Count knocks on the door of his old suite, which he has not visited since that fateful day in 1926 when he stood on the parapet. He follows the professor into the sitting room, where he finds Richard, to his surprise. Richard explains that he wanted to speak with the Count in private before he leaves, as he will be working out of the embassy in Paris for a few years.

Richard then explains that relations between America and Russia have been less than ideal after the war, and that when Stalin dies, things will be unpredictable. Depending on the next person in charge, the doors of the city could either be flung open to the world, or bolted shut. The Count says that they must hope for the former; Richard agrees that they certainly cannot hope for the latter, but either way it is helpful to anticipate the events to come.

Richard asks the Count if he is willing to keep an eye on political events at the Metropol and report back. The Count politely declines, asking that they not speak of this again. Instead, the men spend the next hour catching up. The Count tells Richard about Sofia’s progress at the Conservatory; Richard tells the Count about his young sons. At nine o’clock, they part ways.

Almost nine months later, in March 1953, Stalin dies in the aftermath of a stroke. Over a million citizens stand in line to watch as his coffin is transported. Western observers wonder why so many would stand in line to see the corpse of a tyrant, but the attendees mourn the loss of the man who led them to victory against Hitler and drove Russia to be a world power, and also because a new era of uncertainty is now beginning.

Eight different men could reasonably claim the right to be the next leader. The favorite is the progressive Malenkov, who is appointed as both Premier of the Party and General Secretary of the Central Committee, like Stalin had been. But a consensus forms that no man should be allowed to simultaneously hold these two positions, and so he passes his General Secretary position to Nikita Khrushchev, setting the stage for a battle between the two.

Later in the evening, the Count lies in Anna’s bed, debating what he and Richard had spoken about. The Count says that if the Former (opening the city doors) is even a remote possibility, the forces of the Latter (bolting them shut) will never win. Anna doesn’t disagree with the Count, but says that in New York, there would never even be a question of closing the city’s doors.

The Count comments that it sounds like Anna wants to live in America. She counters that everyone wants to live in America, if only for the conveniences: clothes washing machines, dishwashing machines, vacuum cleaners, toasters, televisions, automatic garage doors. The Count says that if he were a garage door, he would miss the old days. He says that the best conveniences are sleeping until noon and having someone bring in a breakfast tray, or having a carriage waiting at the door of a party to take you to another. He says that at one point, he had them all, but in the end, it was the inconveniences that mattered the most. Anna kisses him on the nose.