Cruel twist of fate

[PaulB]

Today in 1953 in a cruel twist of fate, the brilliant composer Sergei Prokofiev died. Just a few hours later, his chief tormentor Iosip Vissarionovich Dzugashvili, the Georgian who had re-invented himself as Stalin also died. So poor Sergei didn't get even an hour's pleasure knowing he'd outlived this brutal pig.

Stalin's reach was so all-pervading that when Prokofiev's friend Shostakovich learned he had been denounced in the press, he would stand with a packed case by the lift in his apartment every night so as to minimise the disruption to his family when the NKVD came to arrest him and make him 'disappear'. That never happened due to another twist of fate that benefitted the other great composer. The man designated to be Shosti's chief interrogator told him he was too busy to interrogate him on the Friday so asked him to present himself at the police station on the following Monday. After a sleepless weekend, Shosti said his goodbyes to his wife and child and did indeed present himself at the police station but to his surprise, he discovered his chief interrogator had clearly displeased someone and had himself been arrested never to be heard of again!

 

[swee'pea99]

Watched a film recently called In Darkness, about a Polish sewage worker, Leopold Socha, who 'did a Schindler', hiding a group of Jews in the tunnels during the Nazi occupation. As the credits report at the end, a year after the war, he was out cycling with his young daughter when a Soviet truck lost control and, in pushing his daughter out of its path, Socha was killed. As they also grimly report, there were those who suggested that this was some kind of divine retribution for his actions.

 

[gbb]

Assuming the post is open to offerings of cruel twists of fate...
Circa early 1970s? a lad was killed outside our school, can't remember the circumstances but i think he was hit by a car.

His elder sister was a friend of my then girlfriend, now wife and approaching each anniversary, she became increasingly upset, almost losing it, drinking and getting into a terrible state.

She was hit by a car and killed (aged 19 or 20 i guess).....on the anniversary of her brothers death. Rumour had it she was blind drunk and wandering about on an unlit road.

 

[wheresthetorch]

Today in 1953 in a cruel twist of fate, the brilliant composer Sergei Prokofiev died. Just a few hours later, his chief tormentor Iosip Vissarionovich Dzugashvili, the Georgian who had re-invented himself as Stalin also died. So poor Sergei didn't get even an hour's pleasure knowing he'd outlived this brutal pig.

Stalin's reach was so all-pervading that when Prokofiev's friend Shostakovich learned he had been denounced in the press, he would stand with a packed case by the lift in his apartment every night so as to minimise the disruption to his family when the NKVD came to arrest him and make him 'disappear'. That never happened due to another twist of fate that benefitted the other great composer. The man designated to be Shosti's chief interrogator told him he was too busy to interrogate him on the Friday so asked him to present himself at the police station on the following Monday. After a sleepless weekend, Shosti said his goodbyes to his wife and child and did indeed present himself at the police station but to his surprise, he discovered his chief interrogator had clearly displeased someone and had himself been arrested never to be heard of again!

If you haven't read it already, I'd recommend this book. It's a dramatised account of Shostakovich's life and is an interesting, if disturbing, read.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Not got the details to hand but I read of an RAF pilot who attacked a German bomber over SE England in WWII. It jettisoned it's bombs and turned to try and get back over the Channel but he shot it down. One of the jettisoned bombs killed the RAF pilot's brother on the ground, the only casualty.

 

[PaulB]

If you haven't read it already, I'd recommend this book. It's a dramatised account of Shostakovich's life and is an interesting, if disturbing, read. View attachment 340943

That's where I got the Shosti story from.