Novelist Georgy Vladimov has long dreamed of returning home to Moscow, the city he was forced to leave by Soviet authorities in 1983, and he did so triumphantly Monday night. Fresh from the relative obscurity of his home in Germany, Vladimov, 64, collected this year's Booker Russian novel prize and $12,500 for his novel, ""A General and His Army,"" in a ceremony at the House of Architects. In his acceptance speech, Vladimov -- the first emigr? to win the prize, now in its fourth year -- said a strange confluence of fiction and fact led him to believe that victory might be his. ""When I found out that this ceremony was set for Dec. 4"" -- the date in 1941 when the central events in the novel actually took place -- ""it seemed to me that the jury members were under the influence of some strange power, and that the stars were aligned to my benefit.