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As Kourdakov was writing his book he used many contrast to tell us how different things worked in his book. One of these was communist meetings and Sunday afternoons. As a communist Kourdakov hated Christians or as they called them Believers. I don’t think that any one knows that reason accept if you lived back there when it was happening. They raided the Christians meeting and gave them hard beatings they would never forget. Kourdakov did not get much days off accept for some Sundays. On a Sunday morning Kourdakov’s boss told him to get his men and go to a specific area in the woods because there was going to be a Christion Baptismal meeting there. Kourdakov and his men treated it like a normal day off in the woods drinking and playing their guitars and other stuff they did like that until the raid.

Another contrast that was discovered in the book was Kourdakov’s private life and his public life. His private life was working in the KJB or the secret police. Kourdakov was told by his boss to keep the things that they do (beating and taking specific Believers) a secret because if the public found out what they did they might revolt against them. besides his private life was his public life. Kourdakov liked drinking vodka with his cadets because they were like family to him (His parents died, his brother had left him, and he was raised in many different orphanages). Almost everything he did was with his cadets and no one expected him of any wrongdoing. We would never had known this if he had never contrasted his private life and his public life. These contrasts made his book very interesting.

In the beginning of Sergei Kourdakov’s autobiography “The Persecutor” Kourdakov wrote down that he jumped off Russian boat into the ocean off the coast of Canada into a humongous storm. You may be asking some questions like what led to this failed assignment and why did he jump off pf a Russian boat? This paper is about the choices he made that led to this failed assignment. He chose whether to join the Army or Navy, joining a crime syndicate or staying clean, and telling the truth about suicide or telling a lie. I will tell you about all of these one at a time in this essay.

First whether to join the army or to join the navy. Kourdakov’s father and grandfather were both in the army but soon enough at an enemy camp they were worked to death. Soon enough when Sergei got old enough he wanted to go and work in the army. First he asked some people if he should and they all said that it is a hard life in the army and to stay away from it. Everyone said “You come out of the army and you start as a factory worker. What kind of future is that?” After a while he asked some people who were once working in the navy for information about their life in the navy so he joined the navy instead.

As a teenager Kourdakov joined a crime syndicate. According to the dictionary a crime syndicate is “a loose affiliation of gangsters in charge of organized criminal activities.” It is also another name or word for a mob or mobsters. A crime syndicate makes money by drug trafficking, arms smuggling, extortion (threatening people to get what you want), theft, and financial crime. Because of joining this syndicate he did very well as a KJB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) agent (which later in his life he got honored for).

As when Kourdakov was in the army a good friend committed suicide by jumping out of a three story building and dying. Kourdakov’s boss told him to lie about it and say to everyone that he was drunk and didn’t know what he was doing. He did what his boss told him to do and lied to everyone about his friend dying. Kourdakov tried to help his friend, but he didn’t accept and committed suicide. In case if you ate wondering suicide is the act as if one killing himself. Suicide is terrible so if you ever see someone trying to committe suicide try to help them.

I have not finished this book yet but I hope to soon and find out how many other turning points he had in his life besides just these. Probably jumping off a Russian boat into the ocean in a blazing storm was the biggest turning point in his life. So far this book has been very interesting so please read it.

What I remember most from “A BUS OF MY OWN” is when Jim Lehrer is telling the story about when he was a child playing on a pinball machine. Jim’s dad and a friend went to go get something to drink so his dad gave him a coin to go play on the pinball machine. He goes to play on it but as soon as he starts it he regrets it because he has to go the bathroom. He never won a game before, but then he won for the first time ever! He kept playing and playing and playing until he won so much games that he peed in his pants! He did not want to go to the bathroom that he thought that if he left the machine somebody would come by, see all the games won, start playing, and then not believe Jim if he told him if it was his games that were won. He won more and more games until he saw his dad come in that he got so scared that he ran for the bathroom as fast as he could. His dad went into the bathroom and told Jim to come out cause it was time to go but if he did not want to talk that was fine. His dad was still talking when Jim rushes out and runs some blocks away. I remember that story because in my opinion it is the most funny story in the book. If you have kids tell them to read this story or read “A BUS OF MY OWN.”

From the book A BUS OF MY OWN written by Jim Lehrer, Lehrer did a lot of bad things like smoke, eat unhealthy, and getting angry. One morning he woke up and wasn’t feeling well. that was a heart attack. Thankfully he survived or this book wouldn’t be written and that heart attack also changed his life. I will give a list of things that Lehrer changed about his life in this paper.

Fritos, cheese Whiz, chili, pepperoni pizza, Milky Ways, Butterfinger chips, peanut butter (chunky); hamburgers with fries, tuna-salad sandwiches with fries, bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches with fries, fried chicken with fries, barbecue ribs, beef and/or sausage with fries; Dr. Peppers, chocolate chip ice cream, butter brickle ice cream, real potato chips, cottage-fried potatoes; scrambled egg with melted cheese, green peppers and onions; chocolate milk shakes, corn dogs, chilly dogs; biscuits with butter, waffles with hot maple syrup and butter, pancakes with hot maple syrup and butter; salt, fudge, black coffee, and pastrami sandwiches with mayonnaise are a list of bad foods that he ate before his heart attack. After his heart attack he started eating foods like carrots and celery sticks with nonfat yogurt dip, melba toast, vegetarian baked beans, cute little tips of raspberry’s and strawberries and blueberry’s, apples great glasses of orange juice, decaf coffee, water cornbread, green beans, peas, peas!, spinach casserole, caffeine-free diet soda pop, unbuttered and unsalted popcorn, toasted pita bread, oatmeal, oatmeal! Over half of all of these foods I listed are good, but not all healthy.

The main reason for his heart attack I think was that He smoked a lot. Instead of throwing away the butts of cigarettes he kept them in a shoebox to get a whiff out them later. He was so dedicated to smoking that he smoked his pipe in the ambulance to the hospital! After his heart attack on his list of things he would or wouldn’t do was smoke.

He also wrote down in his book that he would work out. He worked out in the hospital work out room every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In his list he wrote down that he would take a nap every and never get angry again. He also made a list of bus signs that he would go after. They are Overland Greyhound, Bowen Motor Coaches, Southeastern Stages, American Bus lines, and Dixie-Sunshine Trailways. Charlie Berman and Harry Smith were two kind people in the hospital that helped Lehrer. After his heart attack he was a completely good and changed man. My brother Owen Pitts wrote a paper like this last year in 2020 when Lehrer died. I hope you liked this paper.