The New Year can bring resolutions, revelations, and uncertainty but one event is a constant in my life. Since I was a post-graduate I have been a member of The Study Group on the Russian Revolution, which holds its annual conference in the first week of January. It provides delegates with the chance to hear new research on a broad range of subjects connected to late Imperial Russia, the Revolutions in 1917, the Civil War and covers social, political, military and cultural topics. Over the years it has been held in various university cities in the UK and even in Belgium. This year it was in Southampton.
After the conference this year I spent an extra night in the hotel as there wasn’t a flight available until the following day. I arranged to go out to dinner with a colleague in similar circumstances and agreed to meet in the foyer at an agreed time. As I went towards the lift to go down from my room at the appointed time two young boys, about 10 years old, were also waiting for the lift. One decided he would take the stairs and shouted, ‘Race you!’ as he disappeared round the corner.
Game on! I thought, as the lift doors opened. ‘Quick, push the button!’ I encouraged the other boy. He smiled shyly and shrugged. ‘He will probably win’, he said, resignedly. Down went the lift and … stopped on the first floor! Oh no! Now we had most certainly lost the challenge. However, no one was waiting to get on! ‘Your friend pushed the call button as he ran past!’ I gasped.
‘Oh no he wouldn’t do that’ he replied aghast that I would suggest it! However, as we reached the ground floor and the doors opened there was his friend leisurely tying his shoe laces, as if to tell us he had been waiting a long time. My traveling companion looked at me with sadness and realisation in his eyes ‘He did, didn’t he!’ He had discovered treachery!
Significantly Different 