Summary: A Gentleman in Moscow

Dur­ing the sum­mer month of June in the year 1922, an assem­bly of Bol­she­vik Rus­sia judges Count Alexan­der Ros­tov to a con­tin­u­ous exis­tence under restric­tion with­in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. Ros­tov, a noble­man, could have faced a lethal ver­dict, but his ear­li­er pro-rev­o­lu­tion­ary verse named “Where Is It Now” nudges the pan­el’s res­o­lu­tion. After the Count is trans­ferred to a small cham­ber, pre­vi­ous­ly uti­lized by per­son­nel, he is main­ly left in peace. The Metropol Hotel pre­serves its grace through­out the ensu­ing three decades, act­ing as a space for the new admin­is­tra­tion’s lead­ers to indulge in for­mer­ly aris­to­crat­ic lux­u­ries, as well as a place to amuse and mon­i­tor for­eign reporters and dig­ni­taries. Amidst the res­i­dents of the hotel is Nina, a spir­it­ed nine-year-old girl who acquaints the Count with the con­cealed cor­ners of the edi­fice. Over time, the Count becomes anx­ious as Nina’s inter­ests progress from princess­es to the activ­i­ties of bureau­crats and union lead­ers. With the pas­sage of time, the Count cross­es paths with Anna Urbano­va, a dis­tin­guished per­former. Despite an icy ini­tial meet­ing, they quick­ly form a tight bond and share many close moments with­in the hotel. The hotel starts to recov­er from a post-rev­o­lu­tion­ary decline as the Sovi­et Union gar­ners acknowl­edg­ment from the West­ern world. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, an encounter with an incom­pe­tent serv­er, dubbed the Bish­op by the Count, leads to issues as the serv­er ascends the hier­ar­chi­cal struc­ture of the hotel. His griev­ance results in a decree that all wine, irre­spec­tive of its age, must be vend­ed with­out labels and at a soli­tary price. This inci­dent, cou­pled with the anniver­sary of his sis­ter’s pass­ing, prompts the Count to pon­der sui­cide, which is for­tu­nate­ly thwart­ed by a time­ly inter­ven­tion. In the fol­low­ing days, the Count secures a job as a serv­er at the hotel and even­tu­al­ly ascends to the role of head­wait­er. His life takes a dras­tic turn when he encoun­ters Nina once more, who entrusts her daugh­ter, Sofia, to the Count while she seeks her hus­band who has been exiled to Siberia. With guid­ance from Mari­na, the hotel dress­mak­er, the Count rais­es Sofia. As Sofia grows up, she nur­tures a gift for piano play­ing which pro­pels her to enroll at the Moscow Con­ser­va­to­ry. Dur­ing this peri­od, the Count learns of the demise of his dear com­rade, Mish­ka. When Sofia has the chance to tour Paris, the Count aids her in defect­ing to the Occi­dent. The Count him­self escapes the hotel with the assis­tance of Vik­tor Skadovsky and even­tu­al­ly finds him­self at his for­mer famil­ial estate, where he is reunit­ed with Anna Urbanova.

introduction

The nar­ra­tive com­mences with an excerpt from a 1913 poet­ic piece, “Where Is It Now?” by Count Alexan­der Ilyich Ros­tov. The cen­tral motif of the verse inquires about the where­abouts of “pur­pose”. It men­tions var­i­ous loca­tions where pur­pose is absent, such as “Peter’s Square” and “Vronsky’s sad­dle­bags.” The verse fun­da­men­tal­ly cri­tiques the aris­to­crat­ic class. At the age of thir­ty-two, Count Ros­tov is sum­moned before a gov­ern­men­tal Emer­gency Com­mit­tee. He is ques­tioned about a verse he craft­ed in 1913, his choice to depart for Paris in the sub­se­quent year, and his return to Moscow five years lat­er. The Count responds to the inter­ro­ga­tions with casu­al com­po­sure. When asked if he returned to join the Rev­o­lu­tion, he asserts that his com­bat days were over. The Com­mit­tee spares his life but con­fines him indef­i­nite­ly to the Metropol Hotel, his abode for the past four years. If he were to depart from the hotel, he would face execution.

Book 1

After sur­viv­ing an inquiry, the Count is escort­ed back to the Metropol, where he is moved from his third-sto­ry apart­ment to a com­pact space on the sixth sto­ry. He metic­u­lous­ly picks a few items to bring along, includ­ing a writ­ing desk, a pair of scis­sors resem­bling an egret, and a por­trait of his sib­ling Hele­na. Dur­ing the trans­fer, he rem­i­nisces about his kin and his past. In his fresh quar­ters, he enter­tains a few guests, among them the hotel’s head wait­er, the gate­keep­er, and the seam­stress. Post their depar­ture, the Count unveils a hid­den stash of gold coins in his desk. The fol­low­ing day, he beck­ons a mon­ey chang­er and they strike a deal. In spite of his con­fined cir­cum­stances, the Count still par­takes in meals at the hotel’s din­ing area and finds means to obtain his pre­ferred indul­gences. The Count has a fixed appoint­ment at the hotel’s bar­ber­shop. On a cer­tain day, anoth­er patron shears part of the Coun­t’s mous­tache off in objec­tion to the Coun­t’s pref­er­en­tial treat­ment. Sus­pect­ing the indi­vid­ual might be an offi­cial, the Count opts to com­plete­ly shear off his mous­tache. With­in the hotel, the Count fre­quent­ly lunch­es in a ground-floor din­ing cham­ber he dubs the Piaz­za. One day, a young girl named Nina Kuliko­va joins him unin­vit­ed and ques­tions his absent mous­tache. They engage in a dis­cus­sion about roy­al­ty and duels, which the Count sub­se­quent­ly recounts at the hotel bar. Nina invites the Count for tea and the two swift­ly become pals. The Count dis­cov­ers that Nina also resides in the hotel and has been explor­ing it with a pil­fered passkey. Togeth­er, they uncov­er con­cealed spaces and even vis­it the Coun­t’s for­mer suite. Moti­vat­ed by their find­ings, the Count estab­lish­es a covert study by link­ing his room to an adjoin­ing one. Sub­se­quent­ly, Nina per­suades the Count to eaves­drop on a guild gath­er­ing tran­spir­ing in the hotel’s ball­room. Post the assem­bly, the Count mourns the loss of Nina’s curios­i­ty in princess­es, but is remind­ed that chil­dren’s fas­ci­na­tions change rapid­ly. The Count is request­ed by the hotel’s direc­tor who reveals that the per­son­nel will no longer address him as “Your Excel­len­cy”. Dur­ing the exchange, the Count stum­bles upon a hid­den cup­board con­tain­ing exquis­ite­ly craft­ed items. He is sub­se­quent­ly vis­it­ed by an aged school com­rade, “Mish­ka” Mindich, and they rem­i­nisce about their past and rumi­nate on the future. As Christ­mas looms near, the Count gifts Nina his grand­moth­er’s opera glass­es while she aston­ish­es him with the filched hotel passkey. Fol­low­ing a coin­ci­den­tal encounter with a youth­ful vio­lin­ist in the lob­by, the Count retires to bed and dreams about his prospec­tive fate.

Book 2

On the anniver­sary of his house impris­on­ment, the Count pre­pares for a meet­ing with Mish­ka, in town for a con­gre­ga­tion of writ­ers. In the hotel lob­by, he halts two canines from pur­su­ing a one-eyed feline, cul­mi­nat­ing in a brief, frigid dia­logue with the dogs’ attrac­tive own­er regard­ing man­ners ver­sus lin­eage. Mish­ka, attired in a new coat and fresh­ly groomed beard, recounts the delight of a recent poet­ry recital and his inter­ac­tion with an up-and-com­ing young poet­ess, Kate­ri­na Litvi­no­va. He prompt­ly departs, inca­pable of join­ing for sup­per. Short­ly after, the Count receives an invi­ta­tion from the lady with the canines, who turns out to be Anna Urbano­va, a renowned actress. Anna orga­nizes a pri­vate din­ner and astounds the Count with her down-to-earth demeanor. Their dia­logue about their ori­gins con­cludes with Anna kiss­ing the Count and invit­ing him to her bed. Post their ren­dezvous, he departs her quar­ters, feel­ing akin to a specter mean­der­ing in the serene, unin­hab­it­ed hall­ways, encoun­ter­ing sole­ly the one-eyed cat. Near his cham­ber, he unearths a lad­der lead­ing to the rooftop, where he encoun­ters a labor­er, also from Nizh­ny Nov­gorod, rel­ish­ing cof­fee and bread with hon­ey craft­ed by near­by bees. Anna, irked that the Count hung up her blouse, starts leav­ing her gar­mentson the floor. Fol­low­ing a rep­ri­mand from her elder dress­er, she throws all her gar­ments onto the street only to retrieve them lat­er. The Count, mean­while, receives less atten­tion from the hotel staff as they serve inter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors. He impress­es Nina with a remark about prime and non-prime num­bers. From the bar­tender, Andrey, he learns how the Bish­op, with con­nec­tions, tran­si­tioned to a hotel serv­er role and enforced a rule man­dat­ing all wine to be sold with­out labels at a fixed price. This under­stand­ing enlight­ens the Count about how swift­ly life can alter. In remem­brance of his late sis­ter Hele­na, he choos­es to raise a glass on the 10th anniver­sary of her pass­ing. Two years pass, ush­er­ing in trans­for­ma­tions both with­in and out­side the hotel. The Count pre­pares to pay trib­ute to Hele­na’s mem­o­ry, vis­it­ing suite 317 for the final time, set­tling his debts, and orga­niz­ing his bur­ial attire. He observes Nina con­duct­ing sci­en­tif­ic exper­i­ments, shares a final drink with a Brit at the Shalyapin, and dis­clos­es the events that led him to Paris in 1918. At mid­night on the rooftop, he pro­pos­es a toast to his depart­ed sis­ter when Abram, the handy­man, inter­rupts him. Abram’s hives are once again teem­ing with bees, and their hon­ey car­ries hints of apple blos­soms. After bid­ding Abram farewell, the Count seeks the com­pa­ny of Andrey.

Book 3

Com­menc­ing his day with cof­fee and exer­cis­es, the Count is soon inter­rupt­ed by a cryp­tic enve­lope labeled “Four o’clock.” This serves as a covert mes­sage from Anna Urbano­va, who awaits him upstairs. The Count holds a dis­tin­guished role as the head­wait­er at Boyarsky’s, over­seen by Chef Emile. Togeth­er with Andrey and Emile, he con­venes to strate­gize the evening’s din­ner, orga­niz­ing the seat­ing to pre­vent any clash­es among offi­cials and diplo­mats. They also delib­er­ate on a fresh recipe involv­ing saf­fron. A let­ter from Mish­ka damp­ens the Coun­t’s spir­its, reveal­ing Mishka’s heart­break over his for­mer lover, Kate­ri­na. The Count is tak­en aback by Nina’s trans­for­ma­tion, now a part of the Young Com­mu­nist League, divulging her inten­tions to mod­ern­ize farms in Ivano­vo province. He frets over her deci­sions, but Mari­na reas­sures him that life will even­tu­al­ly guide her. Spend­ing some per­son­al time with Anna, now ascend­ing in her act­ing career, they exchange tales of mar­itime escapades and reflect on their past. Lat­er, sum­moned by Osip Gleb­nikov, a Par­ty offi­cial, the Count is asked to enlight­en Osip about the West­ern world. The Count con­sents to the pro­pos­al. At mid­night, the Count, Andrey, and Emile rel­ish a bouil­l­abaisse con­coct­ed from a long-planned recipe. They rem­i­nisce about their past, unveil­ing Andrey’s pre­vi­ous life as a cir­cus per­former. The Count shares his belief that life will ulti­mate­ly direct every­one, includ­ing Nina. The ensu­ing day, Nina entrusts Sofia, her daugh­ter, to the Coun­t’s care as she plans to trail her appre­hend­ed hus­band to Siberia. The Count read­i­ly embraces the respon­si­bil­i­ty. Sofia adjusts to her fresh exis­tence at the hotel, and the Count swift­ly dis­cerns how to address her require­ments. Their rou­tine is filled with diverse activ­i­ties, includ­ing set­ting up Sofia’s new bunk bed, engag­ing in hide-and-seek, and address­ing the after­math of an episode involv­ing live geese. The Count con­tin­ues his tutor­ing ses­sions with Osip, this time con­tem­plat­ing Amer­i­can cul­ture and cin­e­ma. Mean­while, an unfore­seen vis­it from Mish­ka, who resided in the shad­ows in Yavas after serv­ing forced labor, casts a bleak out­look on Rus­si­a’s future. Their dia­logue evolves at the Shalyapin bar with Cap­tain Richard Van­der­while, cul­mi­nat­ing in the insight that what tru­ly mat­ters endures, though pre­dict­ing these ele­ments proves chal­leng­ing. The course of the day alters when Sofia tum­bles down the ser­vice stairs, sus­tain­ing a head injury. Rush­ing her to the hos­pi­tal, the Count arranges for her treat­ment along­side Osip. Reluc­tant­ly leav­ing Sofia at the hos­pi­tal, he returns to the hotel to dis­cov­er gifts from Richard Van­der­while. Sofi­a’s mishap leaves a pro­nounced impact on the Count, Andrey, and all indi­vid­u­als at the hotel. Despite the obsta­cles, life at the Metropol per­sists, delin­eat­ed by Sofi­a’s recu­per­a­tion, Andrey’s vis­it to her, and the immi­nent changes in their lives.

Book 4

At sev­en­teen, Sofia, now a dis­cern­ing and unas­sum­ing young lady with dark hair, is dis­cov­ered in the ball­room with Piazza’s orches­tra con­duc­tor, Vik­tor. The Count had engaged in a con­ver­sa­tion about the swift mat­u­ra­tion of chil­dren with Vasi­ly but is per­turbed upon hear­ing about Sofi­a’s com­pa­ny. Pri­or to Sofia clar­i­fy­ing that Vik­tor is sole­ly pro­vid­ing her with a piano les­son, the Count inter­venes. Sofia deliv­ers a poignant per­for­mance of Chopin’s renowned noc­turne, evok­ing emo­tions linked to thoughts of her moth­er. The Count reflects on his moments with Nina in the ball­room. Lat­er, observ­ing a young archi­tect sketch­ing the Piaz­za for a tourist pam­phlet and defend­ing its slight­ly worn appear­ance, he argues that it is the guests who gen­uine­ly define a space. That night, he shares a drink with Richard, a fre­quent guest from the Amer­i­can State Depart­ment, with whom he has devel­oped a friend­ship. Recall­ing his encoun­ters with Vik­tor and the archi­tect, the Count com­pares his adapt­abil­i­ty in his con­fined envi­ron­ment to moths chang­ing hues in response to their sur­round­ings. Con­cur­rent­ly, Vik­tor selects a Bach piece for Sofia to mas­ter, Mish­ka assem­bles a book by can­dle­light, and the archi­tect con­cep­tu­al­izes an elab­o­rate image of a bustling eatery. Before din­ing at the Boyarsky, Sofia and the Count indulge in a game they devised called Zut. Fol­low­ing din­ner, he is tak­en aback to learn that Sofia and Mari­na are privy to his asso­ci­a­tion with Anna. After sup­per, he finds Richard await­ing him in his for­mer suite under the pre­text of a poet­ry dis­course. Richard voic­es con­cerns about the future U.S.-Soviet rela­tion­ship post-Stal­in’s reign, propos­ing that the Count fur­nish infor­ma­tion about social gath­er­ings in Moscow. The Count respect­ful­ly declines, eschew­ing involve­ment in espi­onage or hearsay. The sub­se­quent year, Stal­in’s demise pre­cip­i­tates the joint lead­er­ship of Malenkov, the pro­gres­sive inter­na­tion­al­ist, and Khrushchev, Moscow’s erst­while may­or. Fol­low­ing a try­ing day grap­pling with the Boyarsky’s nov­el order track­ing sys­tem, the Count receives heart­en­ing news: Sofia emerges vic­to­ri­ous in her Con­ser­va­to­ry com­pe­ti­tion. Anna and Sofia relay the news, and the Count, Emile, and Andrey com­mem­o­rate the achieve­ment with a cake. The Coun­t’s rev­el­ry is inter­rupt­ed by Vasi­ly, who alerts him to the Bish­op and anoth­er gen­tle­man approach­ing his quar­ters. The stranger bears a mis­sive instruct­ing Sofia to join the youth orches­tra in Stal­in­grad, but Anna inter­cedes, assert­ing that the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture has designs for Sofia in Moscow. Post their depar­ture, the Count encoun­ters Kate­ri­na, who imparts news of Mishka’s decease. She leaves the Count with a par­cel con­tain­ing a hand­craft­ed com­pendi­um of bread-relat­ed apho­risms titled ‘Bread and Salt,’ Mishka’s final endeav­or. The Count mourns his com­rade and con­tem­plates his exchange with Katerina.

Book 5

The Bish­op, upon unearthing the Triumvirate’s dai­ly con­gre­ga­tions, assumes con­trol of them. Approach­ing the close of 1953, he per­sists in effect­ing vex­a­tious bud­get reduc­tions. Sub­se­quent­ly, the Count covert­ly perus­es Andrey’s 1954 cal­en­dar before pin­point­ing a forth­com­ing con­se­quen­tial event: a din­ner involv­ing two influ­en­tial com­mit­tees. Lat­er, at the Shalyapin, the Count observes a nov­el Amer­i­can, “Pudgy” Web­ster, jest­ing about ped­dling vend­ing machines in Moscow. Vik­tor joins, dis­con­cert­ed by Sofi­a’s reluc­tance to par­take in a good­will tour. Fol­low­ing­Hav­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with Sofia, she express­es her unease about per­form­ing with­out the Count. He reas­sures her that he would be able to hear her play even from the moon. Sofi­a’s deci­sion to be in Paris in June ini­ti­ates a count­down for the Count. He under­stands the impor­tance of using his time wise­ly. In March, he goes to the bar­ber­shop, asks for a shave, and while the bar­ber is absent, he takes the “Foun­tain of Youth” bot­tle and an extra razor. With the razor, he cuts into the pages of Montaigne’s Essays. In May, the Count sneaks into an Ital­ian couple’s room using Nina’s key and steals some clothes. Lat­er on, he requests Web­ster to deliv­er a let­ter to Richard in Paris. Sub­se­quent­ly, he retrieves a cap from the Ital­ian couple’s room, nar­row­ly escap­ing being caught. Towards the end of May, Sofia tries on a stun­ning blue dress for her upcom­ing trip to Paris. The Count is struck by her trans­for­ma­tion from being a child to a woman. Short­ly after, the Bish­op moves the meet­ings to his office and insists that Andrey, not the Count, over­see the upcom­ing com­mit­tee din­ner. Fol­low­ing the meet­ing, the Count asks for a moment to speak with Andrey. Dur­ing the com­mit­tee din­ner, Andrey expe­ri­ences a sud­den hand tremor, prompt­ing the Count to step in. An orches­trat­ed spec­ta­cle by Khrushchev unfolds dur­ing the event: the city’s pow­er briefly shifts to a new nuclear plant. The Count shares his plan with Sofia and she reluc­tant­ly agrees to place her trust in him. After Sofia men­tions a change of venue in Paris, the Count pre­pares a new map and they share a meal togeth­er. Fol­low­ing din­ner, Sofia bids her farewells before leav­ing in a taxi. The Count then writes five let­ters, recon­nects with Osip — now a high-rank­ing KGB offi­cial, and they watch Casablan­ca. The Count is remind­ed of Sofia’s immi­nent jour­ney to free­dom. He then takes a pass­port from a Finnish cou­ple and dis­cov­ers the Bish­op with an out­dat­ed Paris map in his room. Swift­ly, the Count con­fronts the Bish­op in his office, armed with two loaded pis­tols, com­pelling the Bish­op to destroy incrim­i­nat­ing doc­u­ments before being con­fined. The next evening, the Count steals a rain­coat and fedo­ra, wait­ing in the lob­by. Mean­while, Sofia deliv­ers a remark­able per­for­mance in Paris, under­goes a trans­for­ma­tion, and seeks asy­lum at the Amer­i­can Embassy, deliv­er­ing a pack­age of gold coins to Richard. As chaos ensues at the Metropol with inces­sant phone calls, the Count leaves the hotel.

afterword

At the St. Peters­burg sta­tion café, the Count engages with Vik­tor for one final favor. Soon after, Vik­tor heads to Vyborg near the Fin­land bor­der, leaves behind a hat, fedo­ra, and a Fin­land guide­book with torn-out maps in a pub­lic restroom, and returns to Moscow. The Count mys­te­ri­ous­ly van­ish­es when KGB offi­cers arrive at the Metropol for an inves­ti­ga­tion, leav­ing his com­pan­ions bewil­dered. Mari­na, Audrius, Vasi­ly, Emile, and Andrey receive farewell notes from the Count, each accom­pa­nied by a gold­en coin as a part­ing ges­ture. The fol­low­ing day, Osip, a senior KGB offi­cial, learns about a Con­ser­va­to­ry stu­dent flee­ing to Paris and her guardian miss­ing from the Metropol. Uti­liz­ing infor­ma­tion from the detained hotel man­ag­er, inves­ti­ga­tors find evi­dence in Vyborg indi­cat­ing the escape of the guardian into Fin­land. With a sub­tle grin, Osip quotes Casablan­ca, “Round up the usu­al sus­pects.” After walk­ing for sev­er­al days, the Count arrives at his for­mer fam­i­ly estate in Nizh­ny Nov­gorod Province. He comes across two young chil­dren, a boy and his sis­ter, play­ing among the apple trees. Fol­low­ing them to the loca­tion where Idle­hour once stood on the land, now reduced to ash­es, the Count bids the chil­dren farewell and heads to a near­by vil­lage where Anna Urbano­va patient­ly awaits him in a tav­ern, at a seclud­ed table for two.