Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 01: ‘The Rabbit’

*“In which the Red Army are tasked with assisting the Telegraph Service of the Soviet Union in the investigation and repair of damaged lines at MTSKh-37.”*

## Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 01: ‘The Rabbit’

### Players

Dominic Allen as Maj. Yuri Kopolev
Joseph Chance as Sr. Sgt. Dr. Vissarion ‘Beo’ Ivanovich Iuskov Liubimova
Danann McAleer as Sr. Lt. Grigor Fyodorov

### Podcast Link

MTSKh-37 01

A division of the Red Army at Depot 145 is assigned to the Telegraph Service in their investigation of inoperative lines at Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37. Tensions run high and morale low; a horrible discovery is made.

## Synopsis (Spoiler Warning)

### Intro

After a brief introduction to the place and time setting and of the player characters via audio clips, the episode opens with a party interrogation and investigation into the incident, with initial questions directed at a certain German doctor and the remainder bringing Rulyova up to date on the event.

### Scene 1: A Sad State of Affairs

After receiving the assignment to investigate the broken lines at Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37, the three task agents arrive on the still-cold day of March 11, 1933 to find Depot 145 in poor condition: the station itself in disrepair with drunkenness rife among the men. The GRU agents’ task list consists of 7 points:

1. Investigate possible kulaks at MTSKh-27.
2. Eliminate any counterrevolutionaries.
3. Restore the telegraph lines.
4. Aid Party representatives in maintaining order and discipline.
5. Promote collectivization drive.
6. Secure hoarded surpluses and punish hoarders.
7. Expand accord between agriculture and industry.

As his superior is sick, Sr. Lt. Fyodorov is the senior Red Army officer liaising with the agents. The Army has been ordered to aid them in acquiring any resources they need. Although this takes far longer than it should, the men gather their requisitioned supplies, two divisions of soldiers, and the Army doctor Sr. Sgt. Dr. Liubimova and start on the road to MTSKh-37. As they toast the Party, Kopolev makes a note of positive steps on task #7. The drive itself is unpleasant; they pass by Bogodosk, which is quiet as the majority of the residents have been labeled *kulaks* (see the Scenario Glossary) and shipped off to the gulags. They hurry the convoy along as peasants start to gather. At a second, unnamed *kolkhoz*, they pause while the soldiers deal with their dysentery; more starving peasants start to gather, and they leave hurriedly as it gets uncomfortably crowded.

### Scene 2: Graveyard

Further down the road, the soldiers stop at another *kolkhoz*, Degmatorsk; it is a ruin of a village, but they stop and make camp to avoid traveling through the night on the bad roads. It makes the Red Army uncomfortable, which Kopolev picks up on; there were counterrevolutionary elements here, Fyodorov tells him, and it’s clear to Kopolev that the soldiers had a hand in something terrible. Kopolev decides they need to investigate the barn and general area further based on his suspicions. The soldiers try to calm their nerves.

> Remember, the shadow of the gallows is lighter than the rope.
>
> Beo

The barn looks like it was burned, and just as the two GRU men start to step inside, they hear a rifle shot. Alerted, they make their way back. The Red Army soldiers try to sort out what has happened while a commotion starts up.

### Scene 3: The Rabbit

Hearing shouting as well as the gunshot, the officers try to calm the soldiers down. The two on guard are both shaken, one to the point of vomiting. Answering Fyodorov’s question regarding what happened, they explain they shot a rabbit for extra food, but in going to look at the result they found something horrifying they are unable to describe. Fyodorov goes to look at the rabbit’s corpse. It is wrong in almost all ways, and the stench is overwhelming — as though dead far longer than the mere five minutes reported. The doctor and GRU agents meet back up with the lieutenant, who describes the rabbit as a simple mutated specimen, but of course they insist on seeing it for themselves. Triepinov suggests that Dugov could use his medical knowledge to understand what has happened with the rabbit’s body; Kopolev insists on documentation in the case of counterrevolutionary elements. Tensions rise steeply, and Beo eventually decides to calm everyone down with yet more vodka. Kopolev assigns Dugov to a full report of the rabbit’s condition. They argue about whether or not to take it with them, an absurd pretext for probing their suspicions about each others’ motives. Fyodorov asks Blochinstev to put it in a box, and after the private’s hesitation, picks it up himself. The stench clings to his hands, coming back even after washing them with vodka. They try to get some sleep.

## Important NPCs

* Dugov: a “junior telegraph” (actually GRU) officer assigned to the investigation mission
* Kovalevskii: a Red Army Sergeant from Georgia; as a division leader, he is most often called on for various tasks.
* Blochinstev: a Red Army Sergeant; the other division leader.

## Places

* Degmatorsk: a kolkhoz under MTSKh-37. At the time of the scenario it is an abandoned graveyard of a place, burned and scarred

## Quotes

DAN: ”January Dan. Danuary, if you will.”

”FYODOROV” (DANANN): ”To lose that many lovers in one instance is hard, you know?”

BEO (JOSEPH): ”Don’t be a child. Do you want your mama? Shut up—Everything will be all right. I’m not going to slap you yet, but I’m thinking about slapping you.”

DOM: (*after Dan’s description of the rabbit*) ”No.” (*pause*) “No.”

KOPOLEV (DOM): ”I’m not an anthropology—archeolog—palentologist, whatever looks after dead rabbits that are strange. Cryptologist.”
DANANN: “Mixologist.”
”BEO” (JOSEPH): “I was going to say necrolapirologist, but fair enough.”

FYODOROV (DANANN): ”What are you worried about? You want me to call your grandmother for you?”

## Trivia

* The German doctor may be Dr. Johannes Bergmann (from The Crack’d and Crook’d Manse); however, he is not formally introduced in this episode.
* Rulyova, in a cameo by Jeany Sparks, is most likely the Postmaster Natasha Rulyova we meet in The House in the Woods, which takes place 9 years prior to the events of MTSKh-37.
* Cthudonym: “Commissar of the Party Lore.”
* Film cast: Michael Fassbender as Kopolev; Brian Cox as Beo; Paul Bethany as Triepinov; Neil Maskell as Fyodorov.