September 11, 2025 • 11 mins
The Communist’s Secret is Book 2 of the Leningrad Trilogy. Driven by a blind devotion to the Communist Party, self-centered Katya Karavayeva has broken the most important rule in Soviet society: never say anything that can be used against you. On the heels of that betrayal, Nazi Germany invades and the Soviet Union mobilizes. Katya hopes to halt her downward spiral by joining the volunteer militia, but within a few short weeks finds herself under attack.After escaping with another volunteer, Katya spends weeks on the run before landing in a town under Nazi occupation. There, she finds a place and a purpose and learns to fight a different kind of war, repaying German brutality with a harsh justice of her own. All the while she struggles against her inner demons and dreams of reunion with her daughter and forgiveness from her husband - the one she betrayed.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, how are you doing today, Suzanne?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm doing great or great? Great to be here with you, Yeah,
I'm doing terrific.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, I'm very excited to share a conversation with you
because I love the way that what the lifestyle that
you once had and you've turned it into writing now.
And I love that when it appears on a page,
because now I feel like I'm a part of not
only your life, but something that really really has a
storyline to it.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah. Well that's how I felt about it too, Really,
that is you know, yeah, having that great that background
I had, you know, having been in Moscow as a
college student.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I mean, and then you know, my time has kind
of gone negotiating with the Soviets and other European countries.
All of that really set me up to be able
to write, you know.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Having that understanding of negotiating with a major powerhouse country.
I mean. The thing about it is so is that
then you sit down to write about it, don't you
have to negotiate with your creative imagination as well? In
order to bring this forward. It's one of those do
I need to put this in the story, Yes I should,
And do I have to do it?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You should, So, how did you negotiate with yourself?
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Oh, that's that's absolutely the case.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I mean, I think, you know, in writing historical novels,
you really really have to negotiate with yourself about what
you include and what you don't include. And I think,
you know, regarding my first this is my second novel,
it's part of a trilogy. Regarding these books, I'm very
I think it's you know, it really wasn't that difficult
(01:32):
for me, because what I'm trying to take from my
experience really is my passion for democracy. That you know,
my time in Moscow and talking to average people who
you know, were so afraid of their government and never
able to say what they wanted in public right, and
then negotiating with the Soviets later on. It's just I'm
(01:55):
such a believer that democracy really is the best form
of government for human beings.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
We want to be free, we want.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
To be able to say what we want and live
as we want and not be you know, under the
thumb of any kind of dictatorship or fascist, communist state,
whatever it might be. So it was easy for me
to take that as kind of that's kind of my
motivation for writing these books.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And also of course Soviet history.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I mean, very little is written about the Soviet experience
in World War Two, and so relative you know, relative
to France, Germany, Great Britain, the US. Right, So I
just saw, I saw a kind of a need as
well an opportunity, you.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Know, as well as so. So, yeah, so that's kind
of how it happened.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I can totally relate with that. And the reason why
is because they always say that the Korean Wars have
forgotten war. No, I'm thinking that the World War Two
is now becoming the forgotten and it needs authors like yourself,
because I mean, you talk about Nazi Germany invading the
Russian territory. They've got to get their stuff together as
quickly as possible, and you write about this.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, well, and actually there's a lot behind that that
I did not write because you know, in a SoCal
novel you can't you can't go into all the details, right.
I mean, the fact is a big part of the
reason that you know, the Soviet Union was so unprepared
had to do with the there was a pack in
(03:22):
nineteen thirty nine between the Soviets and the Germans, and
that pack lulled Stalin into complacency, right, He just he
really did not think.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
That that the Germans would ever.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Attack, and he had a ton of intelligence telling him
the Germans are coming, the Germans are coming, and.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yet he refused, he refused to recognize it, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So so yeah, just fascinating. There's so much there. There
really is so much history there, and there are a
lot of good stories you can create and maintain you know, authenticity,
and maintain a true you know, underlying it all right.
I mean, my characters are all fictitious, right, none of
(04:06):
these people ever existed, but many of the things they
go through, you know, were things that people who lived
there did go through. So you know, so yeah, it's
a fun, fabulous way to write I think about the past.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
The way that you write about Katya. I mean, I
mean volunteers to go into the militia. I mean that
right there in itself tells you, Okay, if I don't
make a move, we we are going to be in
big trouble. And I love the way that you know,
you speak of the volunteers, not somebody who was drafted.
But Katya really did volunteer to get in.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Yeah, she did.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And it was a very unique situation really because there
were people, of course who volunteered for the Red Army
and went in there were you know, I mean millions
of people did that. I mean mostly mostly young men,
of course, but you know, there was this opportunity. They
also they called it the volunteer Corps, but they also
(05:02):
called it the people's militia. It wasn't a militia like
we think of it carrying a rifle or that kind
of thing. It was people who went out and worked
to try to help defend the main cities, is really
what it was. And so Kasa was digging these enormous
tank trenches in the ground that they hoped tanks would
fall into right as they were coming towards towards Leningrad.
(05:24):
And her motivation is, you know, partially, I mean in
large part motivated because she's motivated because she's trying to
find a way to get back into the good graces
of the Communist Party. She's disgraced herself and really betrayed.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Her family by speaking when she shouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
And all that. So anyway, but yeah, like I'm fascinated
by the Volunteer Corps, these people who just went out
and were digging for day and sleeping in the open,
and you know, I mean, it's just, yeah, it's something
I think in the West we can, especially in the US,
can't even imagine really doing.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Please do not move. There's more with Suzanne Perry coming
up next. The name of the book The Communist Secret
from author Suzanne Perry. I love the idea that you
put the focus on a woman, Katia. And the reason
why is because my own mother during World War Two
here in the United States, her job was building or
creating the bullets that they were using in Germany. We
(06:21):
don't hear the female stories of those that you know
that that helped out the nations.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, yeah, no, they we don't that much.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
And you know, especially in the case of you know,
in the case of the Soviet Union, there were you know,
women who fought. I mean it was you know.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
The actually the best.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Female sniper in history was a Russian working with the
Red Army and she had some three hundred something, you know,
Nazi kills. And anyway, you don't you don't hear these
stories that much. And so this is really you know
a part of my motivation too, is it's a bit
of education in the US, we don't. The Soviet perspective
(07:04):
in World War Two is hardly taught. You might get
two or three sentences, but that's about all it's all about,
you know, it's all about Western Europe, it's about the US.
And of course the US was fighting a huge war
in the Pacific at the same time, so you know.
But yeah, so I love writing about women too.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
The only the only stories I got about Russia when
in the eighth grade, mister Hall, the only thing he
would ever talk about is that, well, you know, the Russians,
they've got a bad over there. They've got you know,
their toilet papers like newspaper, And that was what I
envisioned my entire life. Is what he planted inside my imagination.
And you give us a completely different story of the
of the real people that are from that country.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah. Yeah, and in many ways, of course, I mean,
people are just saying the world over right, they have
the same motivations. They have families, they love their families.
They you know, they want to have a good job,
they want to have some security, they want to enjoy life,
you know, but many of the things were denied Soviet
citizens for many years.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
They could never travel. You aren't allowed to leave.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
The country to you know, if you if you happen
to have enough money to be able to do.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
That, which was a rarity too. You know, the government
provided you with a job, and you didn't have.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Much say so in that job whether you would take
that job or not. You know, you so all of
those things, you know, those aspects of life.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
I think it's I.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Think it's important for you know, especially for Americans to
realize that, you know, democracy is something very precious and
it really it really gives us, and any human being
in democracy, you know, has many more opportunities, you know,
than than do people in those kinds of situations. I mean,
(08:47):
the dictatorship that Vladimir Putin has set up is different somewhat.
It is you know, people do have some say in
like what kind of job they have, that kind of thing,
but they have no right to speak the truth or
to have a contrary opinion. You know, they have to
support the state, you know, in everything. So it's not
(09:08):
so far off from what Stalin did, actually so at
a little less brutal. I mean, Stalin killed millions.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
And millions in the Gulag, and.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Putin isn't killing millions, but he's sure killing a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So when you when you write a period piece like this,
how do you keep your imagination and your knowledge out
of the present away from a period piece like this,
because I mean, you look at what's going on right
now between Russia and North Korea. I mean back in
you know we're talking. You know, you go back to
Nazi Germany, and that wouldn't have never happened.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, I you know, I actually
the truth is, I don't find it difficult to return off.
I get so immersed in, you know, in what I'm writing.
It is, like, I mean, it's one of the coolest
things about being a writer, at least for me, is
I am totally gone for that three or four hours
(10:01):
or whatever that I'm sitting there and creating scenes. I mean,
I haven't pulled out because I have to do some
research that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
But you know, I really I really don't let them
too much distract me.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I don't know why that is, but yeah, I just
I really I really get in right into it. Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
The name of the book, The Communist Secret. It's a
second out of three in a trilogy where can people
go to find out more about you, Suzanne, because I
really want them to start at book number one.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, okay, well, thank you. So I have a website.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It's www dot suzanneperywrits.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Dot com, so that is a great place to start.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Also, I'm on Instagram with the same the same name,
Suzanne Perry writes, if people want to follow me and
see what I what I post about. Yeah, And of
course they can get their book anywhere. They can get
the book anywhere they can find books, you know, any place.
So well, wow, go to your indie bookstore and order it.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You've got to come back to this show any time.
I'm in the future, Suzanne. I love your storytelling. I
love the way you're bringing history forward to a modern
day generation.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, well, thank you, and I would love to come back.
I really appreciate the opportunity. Oh, it's terrific.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
You'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Okay, all right, all right, I'll do my best you
doo okay, thank you, all right,
Hi, how are you doing today, Suzanne?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm doing great or great? Great to be here with you, Yeah,
I'm doing terrific.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, I'm very excited to share a conversation with you
because I love the way that what the lifestyle that
you once had and you've turned it into writing now.
And I love that when it appears on a page,
because now I feel like I'm a part of not
only your life, but something that really really has a
storyline to it.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah. Well that's how I felt about it too, Really,
that is you know, yeah, having that great that background
I had, you know, having been in Moscow as a
college student.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I mean, and then you know, my time has kind
of gone negotiating with the Soviets and other European countries.
All of that really set me up to be able
to write, you know.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Having that understanding of negotiating with a major powerhouse country.
I mean. The thing about it is so is that
then you sit down to write about it, don't you
have to negotiate with your creative imagination as well? In
order to bring this forward. It's one of those do
I need to put this in the story, Yes I should,
And do I have to do it?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You should, So, how did you negotiate with yourself?
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Oh, that's that's absolutely the case.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I mean, I think, you know, in writing historical novels,
you really really have to negotiate with yourself about what
you include and what you don't include. And I think,
you know, regarding my first this is my second novel,
it's part of a trilogy. Regarding these books, I'm very
I think it's you know, it really wasn't that difficult
(01:32):
for me, because what I'm trying to take from my
experience really is my passion for democracy. That you know,
my time in Moscow and talking to average people who
you know, were so afraid of their government and never
able to say what they wanted in public right, and
then negotiating with the Soviets later on. It's just I'm
(01:55):
such a believer that democracy really is the best form
of government for human beings.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
We want to be free, we want.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
To be able to say what we want and live
as we want and not be you know, under the
thumb of any kind of dictatorship or fascist, communist state,
whatever it might be. So it was easy for me
to take that as kind of that's kind of my
motivation for writing these books.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
And also of course Soviet history.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I mean, very little is written about the Soviet experience
in World War Two, and so relative you know, relative
to France, Germany, Great Britain, the US. Right, So I
just saw, I saw a kind of a need as
well an opportunity, you.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Know, as well as so. So, yeah, so that's kind
of how it happened.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I can totally relate with that. And the reason why
is because they always say that the Korean Wars have
forgotten war. No, I'm thinking that the World War Two
is now becoming the forgotten and it needs authors like yourself,
because I mean, you talk about Nazi Germany invading the
Russian territory. They've got to get their stuff together as
quickly as possible, and you write about this.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, well, and actually there's a lot behind that that
I did not write because you know, in a SoCal
novel you can't you can't go into all the details, right.
I mean, the fact is a big part of the
reason that you know, the Soviet Union was so unprepared
had to do with the there was a pack in
(03:22):
nineteen thirty nine between the Soviets and the Germans, and
that pack lulled Stalin into complacency, right, He just he
really did not think.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
That that the Germans would ever.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Attack, and he had a ton of intelligence telling him
the Germans are coming, the Germans are coming, and.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yet he refused, he refused to recognize it, you know.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So so yeah, just fascinating. There's so much there. There
really is so much history there, and there are a
lot of good stories you can create and maintain you know, authenticity,
and maintain a true you know, underlying it all right.
I mean, my characters are all fictitious, right, none of
(04:06):
these people ever existed, but many of the things they
go through, you know, were things that people who lived
there did go through. So you know, so yeah, it's
a fun, fabulous way to write I think about the past.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
I really enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
The way that you write about Katya. I mean, I
mean volunteers to go into the militia. I mean that
right there in itself tells you, Okay, if I don't
make a move, we we are going to be in
big trouble. And I love the way that you know,
you speak of the volunteers, not somebody who was drafted.
But Katya really did volunteer to get in.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Yeah, she did.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And it was a very unique situation really because there
were people, of course who volunteered for the Red Army
and went in there were you know, I mean millions
of people did that. I mean mostly mostly young men,
of course, but you know, there was this opportunity. They
also they called it the volunteer Corps, but they also
(05:02):
called it the people's militia. It wasn't a militia like
we think of it carrying a rifle or that kind
of thing. It was people who went out and worked
to try to help defend the main cities, is really
what it was. And so Kasa was digging these enormous
tank trenches in the ground that they hoped tanks would
fall into right as they were coming towards towards Leningrad.
(05:24):
And her motivation is, you know, partially, I mean in
large part motivated because she's motivated because she's trying to
find a way to get back into the good graces
of the Communist Party. She's disgraced herself and really betrayed.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Her family by speaking when she shouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
And all that. So anyway, but yeah, like I'm fascinated
by the Volunteer Corps, these people who just went out
and were digging for day and sleeping in the open,
and you know, I mean, it's just, yeah, it's something
I think in the West we can, especially in the US,
can't even imagine really doing.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Please do not move. There's more with Suzanne Perry coming
up next. The name of the book The Communist Secret
from author Suzanne Perry. I love the idea that you
put the focus on a woman, Katia. And the reason
why is because my own mother during World War Two
here in the United States, her job was building or
creating the bullets that they were using in Germany. We
(06:21):
don't hear the female stories of those that you know
that that helped out the nations.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, yeah, no, they we don't that much.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
And you know, especially in the case of you know,
in the case of the Soviet Union, there were you know,
women who fought. I mean it was you know.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
The actually the best.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Female sniper in history was a Russian working with the
Red Army and she had some three hundred something, you know,
Nazi kills. And anyway, you don't you don't hear these
stories that much. And so this is really you know
a part of my motivation too, is it's a bit
of education in the US, we don't. The Soviet perspective
(07:04):
in World War Two is hardly taught. You might get
two or three sentences, but that's about all it's all about,
you know, it's all about Western Europe, it's about the US.
And of course the US was fighting a huge war
in the Pacific at the same time, so you know.
But yeah, so I love writing about women too.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
The only the only stories I got about Russia when
in the eighth grade, mister Hall, the only thing he
would ever talk about is that, well, you know, the Russians,
they've got a bad over there. They've got you know,
their toilet papers like newspaper, And that was what I
envisioned my entire life. Is what he planted inside my imagination.
And you give us a completely different story of the
of the real people that are from that country.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah. Yeah, and in many ways, of course, I mean,
people are just saying the world over right, they have
the same motivations. They have families, they love their families.
They you know, they want to have a good job,
they want to have some security, they want to enjoy life,
you know, but many of the things were denied Soviet
citizens for many years.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
They could never travel. You aren't allowed to leave.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
The country to you know, if you if you happen
to have enough money to be able to do.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
That, which was a rarity too. You know, the government
provided you with a job, and you didn't have.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Much say so in that job whether you would take
that job or not. You know, you so all of
those things, you know, those aspects of life.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
I think it's I.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Think it's important for you know, especially for Americans to
realize that, you know, democracy is something very precious and
it really it really gives us, and any human being
in democracy, you know, has many more opportunities, you know,
than than do people in those kinds of situations. I mean,
(08:47):
the dictatorship that Vladimir Putin has set up is different somewhat.
It is you know, people do have some say in
like what kind of job they have, that kind of thing,
but they have no right to speak the truth or
to have a contrary opinion. You know, they have to
support the state, you know, in everything. So it's not
(09:08):
so far off from what Stalin did, actually so at
a little less brutal. I mean, Stalin killed millions.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
And millions in the Gulag, and.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Putin isn't killing millions, but he's sure killing a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So when you when you write a period piece like this,
how do you keep your imagination and your knowledge out
of the present away from a period piece like this,
because I mean, you look at what's going on right
now between Russia and North Korea. I mean back in
you know we're talking. You know, you go back to
Nazi Germany, and that wouldn't have never happened.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, I you know, I actually
the truth is, I don't find it difficult to return off.
I get so immersed in, you know, in what I'm writing.
It is, like, I mean, it's one of the coolest
things about being a writer, at least for me, is
I am totally gone for that three or four hours
(10:01):
or whatever that I'm sitting there and creating scenes. I mean,
I haven't pulled out because I have to do some
research that kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
But you know, I really I really don't let them
too much distract me.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I don't know why that is, but yeah, I just
I really I really get in right into it. Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
The name of the book, The Communist Secret. It's a
second out of three in a trilogy where can people
go to find out more about you, Suzanne, because I
really want them to start at book number one.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Yeah, okay, well, thank you. So I have a website.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It's www dot suzanneperywrits.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Dot com, so that is a great place to start.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Also, I'm on Instagram with the same the same name,
Suzanne Perry writes, if people want to follow me and
see what I what I post about. Yeah, And of
course they can get their book anywhere. They can get
the book anywhere they can find books, you know, any place.
So well, wow, go to your indie bookstore and order it.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
You've got to come back to this show any time.
I'm in the future, Suzanne. I love your storytelling. I
love the way you're bringing history forward to a modern
day generation.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Well, well, thank you, and I would love to come back.
I really appreciate the opportunity. Oh, it's terrific.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
You'd be brilliant today.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Okay, all right, all right, I'll do my best you
doo okay, thank you, all right,
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