She could not help but agree, the caviar and toasted bread easily sliding down, aided by an exquisite Georgian Mtsvani wine.
There were other items, such as she hadn’t seen in wartime, and in quantities undreamt of since the morning the Nazi tanks crossed the border in 1941.
Kaganovich had already briefed her that there were others, important others, who would arrive later.
Which begged a question.
“So, Comrade General… I assume you have me here early for a good reason, not just my company?”
Kaganovich inclined the glass in acknowledgement.
“Indeed, Tatiana, indeed. I believe the time has come to fully enlighten you, which will be a painful journey for you, I’m afraid.”
“Enlighten? What is there that I don’t know already? You have my support. What more do you need?”
“Your commitment.”
She drained her glass and refilled it before speaking.
“You have my support, Comrade General.”
“And yet, despite what has been wrought upon your family… upon you personally… the lies and deceptions practised by those in authority… you’re not yet fully with us, are you, Tatiana?”
“My sons? You mean my sons?”
The wine glass was emptied in the blink of an eye.
“My sons died for the Motherland… “
They both knew the lie spilled too easily from her lips.
“No, Tatiana… they didn’t… you know they didn’t so why do you persist in lying to yourself?”
She took a deep draught from the refilled glass and became a vulnerable mother for just a moment.
“Perhaps it is easier for me to cope that way?”
“Perhaps it is.”
“Yes, perhaps it is… You’ve told me that my son Vladimir was lost due to anger against Makarenko… or the needs of the state, with the sacrifice of Ilya and Oleg in the dirty machine of espionage… but they died in uniform… for the Motherland… that is my solace, Comrade General.”
“And you, Tatiana? What of yourself? What you have become as a result of their actions?”
“What I have become?”
“Yes… I have eyes and ears, Tatiana. You know what I talk of.”
“Ah… the drink… yes, I know… it helps me…”
“Not just the drink.”
“What?”
“Yuri… the other men… you have been transformed by the actions of others.”
“No… no… by my own actions. Mine… mine alone…”
“No.”
“What’s happened is my fault. I blame myself.”
“No, Tatiana.”
“No?”
Kaganovich leant over and placed a tender hand on her arm.
“Oh no, Tatiana. I’ve some things to show you. It’ll be hard for you… but I think you must understand what’s brought you to this dark place in your life.”
She finished her glass and set it down without thought for more.
Kaganovich produced the full files he had either copied or stolen from Beria’s own records and had beefed up a little here and there, just to add a little more weight to his effort to bring the woman fully into the plan.
She had heard it before… at least in the main… but a file was something she understood. It had a weight all of its own.
She read.
Read of the Chateau… of her son Oleg and his proclivities, encouraged by Beria, who then traded his life on a whim that might bring Franco onside, but was never really expected to.
In Beria’s own handwriting, the evidence of his hatred for her making his decision easier.
The death of her beloved Ilya at the hands of the English traitor lauded by both Stalin and the bespectacled devil, again Beria’s note outlining the celebration the news brought.
“Bastards.”
Kaganovich had bided his time.
“There is more…”
He handed over an army document that included an order from a senior NKVD general, effectively ordering Yuri’s unit to be placed in the most dangerous positions on the battlefield. Pretending to be an order designed to afford him the maximum number of opportunities to win the coveted Hero Award, it screamed at her from the pages as just another attempt by Beria, or even Stalin, to inflict more hurt upon Nazarbayeva’s family.
A report from NKVD General Gustenov reported success in passing on the order, and confirmed that no suspicion was apparent as to the reasons behind it.
“Bastards… the fucking bastards… “
Much of what Nazarbayeva had clung to over the last months started to peel away as she understood that her boys had not died for anything but the hate that a man in power bore her, and Stalin’s indifference to her suffering and pain.
“Bastards!”
“There is more.”
As she looked at Kaganovich, a tear spilled from her left eye.
He knew he had her.
“Please come with me, Tatiana.”
She accompanied him to one of the bedrooms, which had been cleared of everything except two chairs and a projector.
She sat down and Kaganovich started the machine rolling.
As soon as the oil lamps came into view she knew what she was about to watch.
The tears rolled down her face as she struggled to maintain control, not against anguish, but against the overwhelming feeling of anger.
She watched as she was defiled by Beria and his colonels, absorbing each bestial act with a harder clench of her teeth and driving her nails into the palms of her hand to distract herself with pain.
The soundtrack provided more horrors, more awfulness…
“I’m sorry, Tatiana…”
She looked at him and his heart chilled in an instant.
Her look was one that he had never seen before but that, somehow, he wholly understood.
She had changed and was no longer the woman she had been when she arrived at the dacha; vulnerable, weak, worn down by her excesses…
Now she was simply a woman who understood what she had been subjected to…
…and what she would do to revenge herself upon those responsible.
Stranov came into the film and subjected her to sexual violation in every way possible.
“I’ve seen enough, Comrade General.”
Nazarbayeva stood and briskly walked out.
Kaganovich switched off the projector and turned to follow, walking straight into the muzzle of Nazarbayeva’s automatic.
“What part do you have in this?”
His hands above his shoulders instinctively, Kaganovich felt real fear, for the woman’s eyes were cold in her fury.
“None.”
“And you have this film how?”
“One of my men found it and brought it to me.”
“When?”
“Recently.”
“Don’t lie. When?”
“A couple of months back, Tati…”
“And you choose to show me now? To give me those documents now! You show me the fucking film now? You’re playing me, Comrade General… playing me for your own ends!”
He knew he had no option but to be truthful, for her eyes made it plain that the gun was not just an ornament in the present situation.
“At first, I simply didn’t know what to do. And then, when you came into our secret world, it seemed… well… it seemed that if you were told at the right time, you’d be more committed to our cause.”
“So, you admit that you intend to use me for your own purposes then?”
“Not like that, Tatiana, it’s simply not like that… Mudaks!… yes… it is… but for the right reasons, woman… you must see that?”
“Why the fuck would I see that, Comrade General?”
The pistol drew closer to his face as her rage increased, which did nothing for the watery feeling in Kaganovich’s bowels.
“Because we need you so badly. You’re the key, the one who can unlock everything so we can take control of the Motherland and save her from these fucking monsters… these men who play with our lives like chessmen on a board.”