Read Tatiana and Alexander Online
Authors: Paullina Simons
Tags: #Historical Fiction, #Saint Petersburg (Russia) - History - Siege; 1941-1944, #Fiction, #Romance, #Historical, #General, #Love Stories, #Europe, #Americans - Soviet Union, #Russians, #Soviet Union - History - 1925-1953, #Russia & the Former Soviet Union, #Soviet Union, #Fantasy, #New York, #Americans, #Russians - New York (State) - New York, #New York (State), #History
Tatiana and Alexander (50 page)
All her small paths of faith had led her to an alive Alexander.
And now what?
Upon her return Tatiana immediately called Sam, but he could not find out what had happened to the Soviet prisoners from Colditz. The Soviet military wasn’t speaking, relations were icy, and though Sam had contacted two other privates who were with Markey at Colditz, they had not heard an English voice from the Soviet prisoners and Markey had not spoken to them about it.
“Contact Soviet Department of Defense and ask what happened to Soviet officers at Colditz.”
“What should I say? Have you got that Alexander Barrington stowed away somewhere?”
“You’re just joking. You know you can’t mention him by name.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’m not allowed to actually make any inquiries on his behalf.”
“Sam, call our Defense Department.”
“Anyone in particular at the Defense Department? Maybe Lieutenant Tom Richter?”
“Yes, if he has answers. Ask him what happened to the Soviets at Colditz. If he doesn’t know, ask what happened to Soviet officers in Germany.”
“Tania, you know what happened to them!”
“I want to know where they were taken,” she said. “And there is no need to shout.”
“Even if I did find out, what are you supposed to do with that information?”
“Why you always worry about my part? Just do your part.”
She didn’t reschedule her plans with Edward.
A few days later, she called Sam again. He told her that a major general in Patton’s army said that last year the Soviets were rounding up all of what they called their nationals and keeping them in transit camps until they could transport them back to the Soviet Union.
“How many is everyone?”
“The major general did not say. He did not hazard a guess.”
“Can you?”
“Even less than him.”
“Where are these transit camps?”
“All over Germany.”
Tatiana was thoughtful.
“Tania, for certain he is in the Soviet Union by now. Liberation of Colditz was nearly ten months ago. But regardless of where he is, the Soviets aren’t giving
their
men back to us no matter how nicely we ask. They won’t give
our
men back to us! We have soldiers MIA on the Soviet side. They aren’t giving us any information at all.”
“Alexander is MIA,” Tatiana said.
“No, he isn’t! The Soviets know precisely where he is!” And quieter, Sam said, “Tania, haven’t you heard the death statistics for the Soviet POWs? They’re staggering.”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m still holding death certificate you placed so much faith in. You told me he was most certainly in lake.”
“This is worse.”
“How is this worse? We just have to find where he is.”
“He is in the Soviet Union!”
“Then find him in Soviet Union, Sam. He is American citizen. You have responsibility to him.”
“Oh, Tatiana! How many times do I have to tell you? He lost his citizenship in 1936.”
“No, he did not. Sam, I have to go. I have patients. I will talk to you tomorrow.”
“Of course you will.”
The Nuremberg Trials, February 1946
“
COME ON, LET’S GO
out,” Vikki said petulantly. “What are you listening to that for? Let’s go to a movie, or a coffee bar, or for a walk.” She pounded the kitchen table. “I’m so tired of it. We’ve been listening to it for months. We’re never getting a television, I just want you to know that.”
Tatiana had her ear to the radio as she was listening to the audio transcript of the Nuremberg trials.
“I’m not listening just for sake of something to do,” said Tatiana, turning up the radio. “I’m listening because it’s riveting.”
“Do you see me riveted? The war is over, they’re all guilty, they’re all to be hanged, when is enough enough? It’s been going on for months. The generals have all been convicted. These are just the lackeys. I can’t take much more.”
“Can you go for walk?” Tatiana said without turning her head. “Go now, and stay out for two hours.”
“You’ll be sorry if I leave for good.”
“Yes. But not if you leave for two hours.”
Vikki, with a harrumph, sat in the chair next to her. “No, no. I want to hear.”
“They’re talking about my Leningrad,” said Tatiana. “Listen.”
In the criminal plans of the Fascist conspirators, the devastation of the capitals of the Soviet Union occupied a particular place. Among these plans the destruction of Moscow and Leningrad received special attention.
Intoxicated by their first military successes, the Hitlerites elaborated insane plans for the destruction of the greatest cultural and industrial centres dear to the Soviet people. For this purpose they prepared special Sonderkommandos. They even advertised their “decision” in advance.
It is necessary to note that such expressions as “raze to the ground” or “wipe from the face of the earth” were used quite frequently by the Hitlerite conspirators. These were not only threats but criminal acts as well.
I shall now present two documents which reveal the intentions of the Hitlerite conspirators.
The first document is a secret directive of the Naval Staff dated 22 September, 1941. It is entitled “The Future of the city of Petersburg.” In this directive it is stated: “The Fuehrer has decided to wipe the city of Petersburg from the face of the earth” that it is planned to blockade the city securely, to subject it to artillery bombardment of all calibres and by means of constant bombing from the air to raze the city to the ground. It is also decreed in the order that should there be a request for capitulation, such a request should be turned down by the Germans.
The second document is also a secret directive of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces dated 7 October, 1941, and signed by the defendant Jodl. I read into the record a few excerpts from this letter:
“…The Fuehrer again came to the conclusion that a capitulation of Leningrad or later of Moscow is not to be accepted even if it is offered by the enemy…”
And further, the next to last paragraph of this page:
“…Therefore, no German soldier is to enter these cities. By the fury of our fire we must force all who try to leave the city through our lines to turn back. We cannot take the responsibility of endangering our soldiers’ lives in order to save in their entirety all Russian cities, nor that of feeding the population of these cities at the expense of the German Homeland.”
The Hitlerite conspirators began to put their criminal ideas regarding the destruction of Leningrad into effect with unprecedented ferocity.
I read:
“As a result of the barbarous activities of the German Fascist invaders in Leningrad and its suburbs, 8,961 household and adjoining buildings—sheds, baths, etc.—with a total volume of 5,192,427 cubic metres were completely destroyed, and 5,869 buildings with a total volume of
14,308,288 cubic metres were partially destroyed. Completely destroyed were 20,627 dwellings, with a total volume of 25,492,780 cubic metres, and 8,788 buildings, with a total volume of 10,081,035 cubic metres were partially demolished. Completely destroyed were 295 buildings of cultural importance, with a total volume of 844,162 cubic metres, and 1,629 buildings with a total volume of 4,798,644 cubic metres were partially ruined. Six buildings dedicated to religious sects were completely, and 66 such buildings partially, destroyed. The Hitlerites destroyed, ruined and damaged various kinds of buildings valued at over 718,000,000 rubles, as well as industrial equipment and agricultural machinery and implements worth over 1,043,000,000 rubles.”
This document establishes that the Hitlerites bombed and shelled, methodically and according to plan, day and night, streets, dwelling-houses, theatres, museums, hospitals, kindergartens, military hospitals, schools, institutes and streetcars, and ruined the most valuable monuments of culture and art. Many thousands of bombs and shells hammered the historical buildings of Leningrad, and its quays, gardens and parks. For the bombardment of Leningrad, there was in the batteries a special stock of munitions supplied over and above the average, to an unlimited amount…All the gun crews knew that the bombardment of Leningrad was aimed at ruining the town and annihilating its civilian population.
Vikki said to Tatiana, “Did you know any of this when you were there?” “I didn’t know any of it,” Tatiana replied. “I lived through all of it.”
GENERAL RAGINSKY
: Mr. President, in order to exhaust fully the presentation of evidence in regard to the subject-matter of my report, I ask your permission to examine witness Josif Abgarovitch Orbeli—
Tatiana dropped the cup of tea she was drinking, and it fell on the tile floor and broke, and Tatiana fell on the floor, too, on her knees, and began to pick up the pieces, every moment or so emitting cries of such distress that Vikki, who was nearby, jumped up, backed away and said in a stunned voice, “What’s
wrong
with you?”
Tatiana waved her off with one hand, her other hand holding a ce
ramic shard which covered her mouth as she continued to listen to the bare echo that was the radio broadcast as it ceaselessly continued. A crash on the road, but the radio still plays music, still transmits sounds no matter how incongruous it is that the ear can somehow hear, that the brain can somehow listen—
—Orbeli will testify in regard to the destruction of the monuments of culture and art in Leningrad.
Q. What is your name?
A. Josif Abgarovitch Orbeli.
Q. Witness, will you tell us, please, what position you occupied?
A. I was Director of the State Hermitage Museum—
Tatiana groaned in pain.
“What?” Vikki said with alarm. “What?”
“Shh”—
Q. Were you in Leningrad at the time of the German blockade?
A. Yes, I was.
Q. Do you know about the destruction of monuments of culture and art in Leningrad?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell us in your own words facts that are known to you?
A. I was an eye-witness of the measures undertaken by the enemy for the destruction of the Hermitage Museum. During many long months these buildings were under systematic air bombardment and artillery shelling. Two aerial bombs and about thirty artillery shells hit the Hermitage. The shells caused considerable damage to the building, and the aerial bombs destroyed the drainage system and water conduit system of the Hermitage.
Artillery shells caused considerable damage to the Hermitage and to the surrounding areas.
Q. In what part of Leningrad were these buildings—in the south, the north, the south-west or south-east section?
A. The Winter Palace and the Hermitage are right in the centre of Leningrad on the banks of the Neva.
Q. Can you tell me whether near the Hermitage and Winter Palace there are any industries, particularly armament industries?
A. So far as I know, in the vicinity of the Hermitage, there are no military enterprises. If the question meant the building of the General Staff, that is located on the other side of the Palace Square, and it suffered much less from shelling than the Winter Palace. The General Staff building, which is on the other side of the Palace Square, was, so far as I know, hit only by two shells.
Q. Do you know whether there were artillery batteries, perhaps, near the buildings which you mentioned?
A. On the whole square around the Winter Palace and the Hermitage there was not a single artillery battery, because from the very beginning steps were taken to prevent any unnecessary vibration near the buildings where such precious museum pieces were.
Q. Did the factories, the armament factories, continue production during the siege?
A. I do not understand the question. What factories are you talking about—the factories of Leningrad in general?
Q. The Leningrad armament factories: did they continue production during the siege?
A. On the grounds of the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, and in the immediate neighborhood, there were no military concerns. They never were there and during the blockade no factories were built there. But I know that in Leningrad munitions were being made, and were successfully used.
Q. Witness, the Winter Palace is on the Neva river. How far from the Winter Palace is the nearest bridge across the Neva river?
A. The nearest bridge, the Palace Bridge, is about fifty meters from the Palace, at a distance of the breadth of the quay, but, as I have already said, only one shell hit the bridge during the shellings; that is why I am sure that the Winter Palace was deliberately shelled. I cannot admit that while shelling the bridge, only one shell hit the bridge and thirty hit the nearby building.
Q. Witness, those are conclusions that you are drawing. Have you any knowledge whatsoever of artillery from
which you can judge whether the target was the Palace or the bridge beside it?
A. I never was an artillery man, but I suppose that if German artillery was aiming only at the bridge then it could not possibly hit the bridge only once and hit the Palace, which is across the way, with thirty shells. Within these limits I am an artillery man. (Commotion in the court.)
Q. One last question. Were you in Leningrad during the entire period of the siege?
A. I was in Leningrad from the first day of the war until 31 March, 1942. Then I returned to Leningrad when the German troops were driven out of the suburbs of Leningrad.
GENERAL RAGINSKY
: We have no further questions.
THE PRESIDENT
: The witness can retire. (The witness leaves.)
Tatiana looked up at Vikki from the floor and then struggled up to the table where she put her head down and closed her eyes. Vikki’s hands were on her back.
“I’m all right,” she mouthed inaudibly. “I need one minute.”
Alexander, to the last.
Orbeli standing in the street, saying goodbye to his crates.
Tatiana had been very moved by his face. She never forgot it.
It was these crates he was looking at with such heartbreak, as if they were his vanishing first love.
“Who is that man?” Tatiana asks.
“He is the curator of the Hermitage Museum.”
“Why is he looking at the crates that way?”
“They are his life’s sole passion. He doesn’t know if he is ever going to see them again.”
Tatiana stares at the man. “He’s got to have more faith, don’t you think?”
“I agree, Tania. He’s got to have a little more faith. After the war is over, he will see his crates again.”
“The way he is looking at them, after the war is over he will have to bring them back single-handedly,” she replies
.
Tatiasha—remember Orbeli.
Orbeli was in Alexander’s eyes as Tatiana sprinted away from him in Morozovo hospital, flickered away with nary a thought, barely a look back, ta-da, darling, and be well, oh, and tell me about that Orbeli an
other time, Shura, tell me about him next time you see me, and one last time she turned around, laughing, and saw Josif Abgarovitch Orbeli in his eyes. She could never put her finger on his expression. Now she knew.
Every day I stand at the edge of your bed, and I salute you.
I’ll see you, Major. Sleep well
. And you say,
I’ll see you, Tania
.
I walk away. You call back to me, and I turn around, my trusting eyes on you.
You say to me, in your bravest voice, deep and calm, your stoic voice, you say to me,
Tatiasha—remember Orbeli
.
I frown for a second, but not even a tick goes through me because I’m so busy and you’re so calm and Dr. Sayers calls me. And I say, Shura, darling, I have to run, tell me tomorrow, and now I know—you can’t speak anymore, you’ve used it all up. You are mute and you nod, and I blithely mosey through the beds, and at the drab doors I turn around carelessly, one last time, and here I stop.
And there I am going to be.
Orbeli.
In the February night, in the aqua silence, Tatiana sat on the cold fire escape, wrapped in Alexander’s cashmere blanket, and smelled the ocean air beyond her, as Manhattan flickered beneath her.
You will find a way to live without me. You will find a way to live for both of us
, Alexander had said to her, once.
She knew now, knew for certain what she had long feared, long suspected: Alexander had handed her his life and said, this is for you. I cannot save myself, I can only save you, and you have to go and live your life the way you and only you were meant to live it. You have to be strong, and you have to be happy, and you have to love our child, and eventually, you have to love. Eventually, you have to learn to love again, and to smile again, and to put me away, you have to learn to hold another man’s hand, and kiss another man’s lips. You have to marry again. You have to have more children. You have to live your life—for me, for you. You have to live it as we would have lived it. All in one word: Orbeli.
Things were clearer in war: right, wrong, so easily defined, so easily defiled. Peril, absolution, privation.
Emotion, anguish, passion
.
I see
him
clearly, even in peace.
Oh—but how much life I have to mask him.
