Collaborators (9 page)

Hesitates.

And yet . . .

Bulgakov
What?

Stalin
Nothing.

Bulgakov
You're worried.

Stalin
No!

Bulgakov
What is it?

Stalin
Well . . . they signed them.

Bulgakov
Yes, but that doesn't mean –

Stalin
They signed them!

Bulgakov
Joseph – you said yourself – it's impossible. They cannot be true. There is nothing to worry about.

Stalin
Oh God, I feel sick. The betrayal!

Bulgakov
Calm down. Please. Perhaps it's all a misunderstanding.

Stalin
Misunderstanding! Confessing to conspiracy to murder me, disband the Party, and install the puppet leader of a combined Anglo-German military dictatorship. What scale of misunderstanding are we talking about here?

Bulgakov
Well – you know – someone said something to someone else who said something else to someone else that got taken out of context and overheard and then someone else said something and . . . you can imagine it all ends up in a mess. And then you get these! Worthless. Nothing.

Stalin
You think so?

Bulgakov
Yes.

Stalin
You're not just saying that to make me feel better?

Bulgakov
You've known these men for years.

Stalin
Yes.

Bulgakov
Three of your very, very best friends.

Stalin
Yes.

Bulgakov
So, if you ask me, they're obviously innocent. But – for everyone's peace of mind, not least yours – it's not going to hurt to make a few, simple enquiries?

Stalin
A few . . . simple enquiries. No, you're right. That's not going to hurt, is it?

Bulgakov
No. Not hurt anyone. So let's stay calm.

Stalin
Yes. Calm.

A beat.

They signed them!

Bulgakov
Joseph! . . . Calm.

Stalin obeys.

Now watch.

He takes a pen and scribbles in the margin of one of the confessions.

‘Make further enquiries . . . J.S.' That'll sort it all out.

Stalin
Mikhail . . . What can I say?

Lost for words, he hugs Bulgakov.

Then he steps back and picks up the latest manuscript from the desk.

He presses it into his hand.

Exit Stalin.

Bulgakov turns and approaches the bed.

He sees that it is empty.

He calls offstage.

Bulgakov
Yelena? Yelena! I'm home. Please – come back to bed.

No reply.

Enter Vladimir and Stepan.

Stepan raps on the table as they stride.

Vladimir is holding a bloodstained handkerchief to his cheek.

Vladimir
Bulgakov!

Bulgakov
Vladimir – what the hell do you want?

Vladimir
We need your car!

Bulgakov
What?

Vladimir
Your car. Now.

Bulgakov
Are you all right?

Vladimir
What? This – shaving, that's all. Listen, your driver will accept orders only from you, so please – we need you to come with us.

Bulgakov
So where are we going?

Vladimir
To make an arrest.

Bulgakov
An arrest! Who?

Vladimir consults a list.

Vladimir
I don't know. Some loser. We've been up all night. About one in the morning. The phone rings. It's my boss, screaming at me. ‘Someone's been plotting against Stalin. Get out there. Make further enquiries.' So we've been all over town, begging rides from one place to another. How do they expect us to arrest people – without a car? What way is that to run an organ of state security?

Bulgakov
You're right. It's ridiculous.

A beat.

Vladimir
You got the scene?

Bulgakov
Yes. Of course.

He delves into his coat.

Vladimir
Gimme.

Bulgakov hands over the latest instalment.

He watches Vladimir skim through it. Still dabbing at the cut.

Bulgakov
You weren't shaving.

Vladimir
Some women get upset when they think they're never going to see their husbands again. Not that mine would complain! This is good. I like it. He's in prison. But they can't break him. In fact he converts the guards to Marxism! I love it!

Stepan hurries offstage.

He returns with a Man and Woman in their nightclothes, both in handcuffs.

Vladimir consults a list.

Am I right? You are the General Secretary of the Turkmenistan All-Union Communist Party?

Man
Yes, I am.

Vladimir
And you are his wife?

Woman
Yes.

Vladimir
In town for the congress?

Man
Yes. That's correct.

Vladimir
You have a return ticket to Turkmenistan?

Man
Yes.

He produces it from his pocket and Vladimir snatches it away.

Vladimir
You may claim a refund, Comrade.

Man
What have I done?

Vladimir
Conspiracy to assassinate Stalin, wreck the economy, overthrow the government, restore the Tsar. And so forth.

Man
Please – I'll confess. To anything. But let my wife go. Please.

Vladimir
Shut up.

Man
Please, let her go!

Stepan punches the Man once in the stomach. The Man sinks to his knees.

Bulgakov pulls Vladimir aside.

Bulgakov
Vladimir! That man is an old Bolshevik! He probably stormed the Winter Palace.

Vladimir
So?

Bulgakov
He doesn't seem a very likely traitor.

Vladimir
Oh, how naive you are. Listen, Mikhail: a man may appear innocent. He may even be ‘innocent' as the term is conventionally understood. But he will have what we call objective characteristics which clearly point the other way.

Bulgakov
Objective characteristics?

Vladimir
In this case: that he is in a position of power.

Bulgakov
And that's enough to make him a potential traitor, is it?

Vladimir
More than enough.

Bulgakov
His wife? What about her?

Vladimir
She has the objective characteristic of being his wife.

The Woman turns to Bulgakov.

Woman
Please, Comrade – tell your men – we have done nothing wrong. We are good citizens.

Vladimir
That's how it works when you make enquiries.

Vladimir and Stepan exit with the Man and Woman.

Bulgakov is alone on the stage.

Enter the two Actors.

Actor One is in prison uniform.

Actor Two wears a police hat and jacket.

Actor Two
Dzughashvili! You have corrupted too many guards to your treacherous ideology!

Actor One
So what? Are you going to beat me? I do not care. You can never break me!

Actor Two
No – we are sending you to Siberia and from there you will never come back! Ha ha ha!

Exit Actor Two.

Enter Grigory stage right.

Grigory
Mikhail!

Bulgakov
Grigory – what are you doing out here?

Grigory
Looking for you.

Bulgakov
For me?

Grigory
I need your help.

Bulgakov
Tell me – anything I can do –

Grigory
My work is banned now. I'm banned! Everything I've ever written and everything I ever write in the future.

Bulgakov
Oh Christ.

Grigory
Unless I give in – unless I deliver a suitably damning self-criticism.

Bulgakov
Grigory –

Grigory
I refused. So I'm allowed to go on breathing, but that's it, that's the limit of my permissible creative activity. They buried me alive, Mikhail.

Bulgakov
I'm sorry.

Grigory
Can you help me?

Bulgakov hugs Grigory.

Exit Grigory.

Actor One
They can send me to Siberia, but they will never break me. I am not Dzughashvili any more. I am Stalin!

Exit Actor One.

Bulgakov turns back towards the table, cupboard, etc.

Bulgakov
Hello? Hello? Anyone home?

No one. Then he has a idea.

He slides open the cupboard.

Sergei – will you come out?

Sergei emerges cautiously.

Where is everyone?

Sergei
Mrs Bulgakov – she has gone out – distributing food.

Bulgakov
Oh. Well, that's fine. That's all right. We have plenty.

Sergei
And Vasilly and Praskovya – they both went to work yesterday – but they never came back.

Bulgakov
Never came back?

Sergei
No.

Bulgakov
What does that mean?

Sergei
I don't know. They didn't come back.

Bulgakov
How strange. Not like them at all. Still, they'll be back soon. I'm sure.

Sergei
Mr Bulgakov – can I tell you about something? It happened at work.

Bulgakov
Of course.

Sergei
The manager of the factory. He couldn't meet the targets. It wasn't his fault. We worked hard, extra shifts – so did he. But it still wasn't enough. So he lied. Claimed we had made more tractors than we really had. It was the wrong thing to do, but . . . He was found out, of course. They were coming to arrest him but he committed suicide.

Bulgakov
I see.

Sergei
What do you think of that?

Bulgakov
Well, it's obviously a tragedy, for the man and his family.

Sergei
They said he was a wrecker, a saboteur, and that's why the targets weren't being met.

Bulgakov
Yes . . . Well . . . I suppose, you have to look at it from the point of view of the authorities. Clearly
this man had . . . objective characteristics. That's what it is. That's why he was under suspicion. That's how enquiries work. Of course, there's no way that I could have known that.

Sergei
I'm sorry, Comrade, I do not have your education –

Bulgakov
Of course. You see, a man may appear innocent, but his position, of power and responsibility, means that he must inevitably be suspect. Think about it: the factory fails to meet its targets, he lies, and then he commits suicide before he can be arrested. Possibly to protect someone else. You put it all together . . .

Sergei
He left a note on his desk, denouncing the whole system.

Bulgakov
Well, that fits in, doesn't it? Don't you think so? It has to, doesn't it?

Sergei
Like Praskovya and Vasilly, then?

Bulgakov
What about them?

Sergei
They have objective characteristics too, I think.

Bulgakov
No.

Sergei
He was a landowner. A possible Tsarist?

Bulgakov
Vasilly is harmless.

Sergei
And she teaches history – perhaps she subverts through counter-revolutionary propaganda.

Bulgakov
That's not necessarily how it will be taken. There is, I'm sure, a perfectly innocent explanation for their absence.

Silence.

Sergei
The suicide note – left by my boss – when the police came, they arrested anyone who had read it.

Bulgakov
That's just a precaution. That's all.

A beat.

You didn't read the note, did you, Sergei?

Sergei stares at Bulgakov. Turns away.

The sound of a knock at the door.

Sergei scuttles into his cupboard and pulls it fast.

Enter the Driver.

Driver
Your car is ready, sir.

Bulgakov
Thank you – I'll be out in a moment.

Exit the Driver.

Sergei.

No response.

Enter Yelena.

They both stop and look at one another.

A frosty silence from Yelena.

Bulgakov moves as though everything is normal.

Bulgakov
Did the food go down well?

Yelena says nothing.

Yelena –

Yelena
Men and women are being arrested, for nothing at all. Every morning, another apartment is empty. And the first question they are asked is: who is in this conspiracy with you?

Bulgakov has no reply.

Yelena walks across to the gramophone.

She places a record on, winds it up, and drops the stylus in place.