Maxy looked embarrassed but pleased. He put the food on the grass and sat down. “Well? Who’s first?”
“You!” they both said at the same time—and then they laughed.
“No,” Maxy said, “I want to hear your news first, and how I can help you. But I just wondered…what was it like being home?”
“Fine,” she answered. She sat down on the grass, enjoying the way the dappled beams made puzzle shapes on Maxy’s face. The sun heated the pine resin so that it sweetened the air.
He broke up the black bread, cut a slice of cheese and offered her both.
“How’s your boyfriend down there?”
“Oh, I see what you meant. About being home.”
“No, no, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just…”
“Curious? He’s the same as he was before, but I’m not sure how long I’ll stay down there. Meeting Roza and Pasha, researching Sashenka”—she was surprised at how nervously he seemed to be listening to her words—“has changed things a bit, changed me in fact. So I’m thinking of staying in Moscow this summer. I might get on with my research or, if you’re kind to me, I might even help you out a bit at the foundation…”
“That’s great!” Maxy smiled so sunnily at her that Katinka wanted to laugh. But she discovered that his pleasure delighted her, though she resolved not to show it. He was too pleased with himself as it was.
“Anyway,” he said, changing tone, returning to business, “what did Satinov’s daughter give you?”
Katinka pulled the envelope out of her jacket, undid the string at the top and drew out an old file from the archives. “I’ve only glanced at it. It’s the missing file.”
Top Secret.
To: J. V. Stalin; L. P. Beria
Report of the Commission of Inquiry on behalf of Central Committee—Comrades Merkulov, Malenkov, Shkiryatov—on the official misconduct concerning the Highest Degree of Punishment of Object 83 at Special Object 110 on 21 January 1940. Report filed 12 March 1940.
Katinka noticed the doodlings—circles, rhomboids and crescents in green crayon—around the heading, and gasped: “It’s Stalin’s own copy.”
“Right,” said Maxy.
“How did Satinov get it?”
“That’s easy. After Stalin’s death in fifty-three, each leader wanted to save his own skin so they all rifled through the archives to remove any especially incriminating documents. Usually they burned them. But Satinov kept this.” He studied the document carefully, absentmindedly putting a cigarette in his mouth, striking a match but forgetting to light it.
“Now let’s interpret this. The Highest Degree of Punishment is execution with a single bullet to the back of the neck. The Special Object One Hundred Ten is Beria’s special prison, Sukhanovka, the former St. Catherine’s Nunnery at Vidnoe, where Sashenka and Vanya were tried and executed. It was so secret that prisoners there were known by numbers, not by their names, so Object Eighty-three is—”
“Sashenka,” interrupted Katinka. “It was her number on the death list.” She leaned over and started to read. “First they interviewed Golechev, the prison commandant…”
Commission: Comrade Commandant Golechev, you were responsible for the completion of the Highest Degree of Punishment on sentenced prisoners on 21 January 1940. The Highest Degree was to be witnessed on behalf of the Central Committee by Comrade Hercules Satinov. Why did you begin early and in such a disorderly and un-Bolshevik way?
Golechev: The Highest Degrees were carried out in the professional manner expected of an NKVD officer.
Commission: I warn you, Comrade Golechev, this is a serious offense. Your conduct helped our enemies. Were you working for the enemy? You may well face the Highest Degree yourself.
Golechev: I confess before the Central Committee to serious and foolish mistakes. It was my birthday. We started drinking early, at lunchtime, and drinking helps when there’s a Vishka to conduct. Cognac, champagne, wine, vodka. At midnight it was time to bring the prisoners down, but Comrade Satinov was late and we couldn’t start without him.
Commission: Comrade Satinov, why were you, the witness, so late?
Satinov: I was taken ill, seriously ill, but I reported my illness to the commandant and arrived at Sukhanovka as soon as I could.
Commission: Comrade Satinov, you knew some of the convicted prisoners, especially Sashenka Zeitlin-Palitsyn. Were you suffering from a neurasthenic crisis caused by bourgeois sentimentality?
Satinov: No, on my word as a Communist. I simply had food poisoning. In our times of struggle and war, Enemies of the People must be liquidated.
“You get the picture?” asked Maxy. “The NKVD guards are wildly drunk; Sashenka, Vanya and more than a hundred others are awaiting execution; and Satinov is so upset that he is too sick to attend. So what happens?”
Golechev: As we drank, our talk turned to the depravity of our female Enemies, most particularly Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn—the famous Sashenka. We’d heard about this traitor’s repellent, snakelike depravity, how she used her devious female wiles to seduce and entrap other traitors, and since Comrade Satinov was not yet present, we, under the influence of alcohol and our disgust for her betrayal, decided to begin with her. We brought her up to my dining room and…
In green pen, beside this statement, Stalin had written one word: Hooligans.
“Now we hear from Blokhin,” said Maxy.
Commission: Comrade Major Blokhin, you were designated to conduct the Highest Measure of the 123 prisoners on this list, yet you complained about the commandant’s conduct.
“Blokhin was Stalin’s top executioner,” Maxy explained. “In the case of the Polish prisoners at Katyn, he personally executed about eleven thousand men in a series of nights.”
Blokhin: At midnight, I arrived ready to begin my duties as Chief of the Command Operations Section in the Highest Degree of this list of 123, but I wish to report to the Central Committee that I found the commandant and his officers drunk in the presence of Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn, who was being treated in a highly unprofessional way, against the noble Chekist morality. She was already partially disrobed. I protested strongly. I offered to carry out the sentence myself at once but I was sent away. I tried to call Comrade Satinov. When he arrived I reported everything to him. These drunken and bungling amateurs made a mockery of my Chekist professionalism and skill in this special and sensitive work. They were taking bets and shouting. At approximately thirty-three minutes after midnight, they forced Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn outside into the courtyard near the officers’ garages, which is lit up very brightly by searchlights. The temperature was approximately minus 40 degrees.
Golechev: When she was outside, we performed the Highest Degree, the sentence of the Military Collegium against Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn, but in our drunkenness and because of the unprofessional lateness of Comrade Satinov…we did so in an unacceptable, frivolous and depraved manner. Yes, I admit we were curious about her as a seductive agent of the Japanese Emperor and British lords, and as a woman.
Katinka felt cold. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “Did they rape her?”
“No. If they had done, it would say so here,” said Maxy. “But they were certainly excited by her beauty, her reputation as a seductress. They’d heard of the transcript of Sashenka and Benya.”
Satinov: I arrived at 3:06 a.m. and noticed something strange in the courtyard near where my driver parked my car. I admit before the Central Committee that my lateness was partly the cause of this misconduct. Commandant Golechev was drunk and tried to conceal what he had done. I summoned Major Blokhin and reviewed the List of Prisoners to Face the Highest Measure. I noted the absence of Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn. I ordered Commandant Golechev to take me to her. Afterward, I ordered Commandant Golechev and Major Blokhin to begin at once. The prisoners were brought down to the cell designed for this purpose and I observed the Vishka of 122 prisoners as the witness of the Central Committee. Major Blokhin put on a butcher’s apron and conducted himself very competently. As a devoted Communist, I delighted in the liquidation of these Enemies, traitors, scoundrels and bastards.