Long shot: Two Reader's Digest articles

Cafe Society
1

Article 1: Late 1980s to early 1990s. This was about a Soviet soldier who was taken to the place where the Romanovs were executed. As my memory tries to recollect, his supervisor tells him to look and remember, the idea [I think] being that he was trying to imply to him that this was a shameful part of their history without actually saying it.

Article 2: Mid 1970s to mid 1980s: This was an article about a very dangerous mountain climb. It wasn’t Everest, K2, or any of the highest peaks, although I do recall it was pretty high. The gist of the article [I think] was how it had a much higher death rate for climbers that Everest, K2, et al.

Aaaaand. . . to forestall some smartalecky wiseacre : The GQ is ‘Can anyone help find the issues these appeared in?’

2

#1 may be “Last mystery of the czar,” printed in Reader’s Digest in 1995. The abstract:

It may include the story you mentioned.

There’s also “The boy who dreamed of a palace,” September 1993.

#2 sounds like it might be “Meanest mountain on earth”, May 1978, but there’s no abstract. Somebody’s selling it on eBay.

I found these through my library’s database, Gale PowerSearch. Maybe your library might have a more extensive search that contains the text of these articles.

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Thanks. Those sound very promising.

4

But since it’s about stories, it goes in CS.

5

Is the mountain Annapurna? That might help with your search.