CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

MYC [Moscow Criminal Investigations Department] Building, Petrovka 38 Street, Moscow USSR, October 9, 1961—afternoon

The An-24 “coke” twin Progress engine turboprop military transport aircraft carrying KGB Colonel General Dimitri Sobrieski landed at Moscow’s top secret Sheremetyevo Airport an hour late—1300 hours. MYC Lts. Stepanovich and Zakhar Rostislavovich Rumyantsev—Stepanovich’s backup officer during the Lagounov investigation—had been waiting since 1100 hours. Used to the inefficiencies of the soviet state, they did not even bother to grumble. Rumyantsev was bluff and red-faced, the stigmata of his alcoholism that he tried to hide. He had unruly mousey medium brown hair that stuck out from his police cap like clacks of old straw. His abdomen was protuberant from alcoholic ascites, and his complexion was pasty. Trushin knew his old friend did not have long to live but kept him on to protect his pension for his wife. The rest of the MYC unit involved in the Lagounov murder investigation were toiling away back at the office, beginning the gargantuan task of sorting through the boxes of files provided by Col. Nabatov.

Sobrieski had been the aide-de-camp to Gen. Lagounov with the rank of lieutenant when they had both been in the NKVD [literally, the People’s Commisariat of Internal Affairs]. Lagounov had been the general in command of the Directorate of North-Eastern Camps—the Sevvostlag or SVITL [severo-vostochnye lagerya]—which constituted the majority of gulag camps in extremely remote areas of northeastern Siberia along the Kolyma river. The two men had risen in the ranks and survived the purges and changes leading to what became the KGB [Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti-Committee for State Security]. Sobrieski rose to his rank of colonel general after Lagounov retired, and he assumed command of all KGB forces in Siberia.

The flight from Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport situated in the town of Ob, ten miles from the center of the capital, Novosibirsk, to Moscow is 1,740 miles. It took nine hours for the trip and required refueling stops and interminable machinery and bureaucratic delays every four and a half hours. The aircraft was capable of flying a maximum 540 mph and a cruising speed of 267 mph, and should have taken no more than five hours total even with refueling stops. Sobrieski was out of sorts when he deplaned and met the Moscow Criminal Investigations officers.

“Get me to a decent chair and some decent food and drink,” Sobrieski said abruptly as soon as Lt. Stepanovich stood before him. “My back is killing me.”

“Sorry, General. We’ll see to your comfort in short order. I want you to know that we appreciate you coming to help in our investigation and that you will be doing a great service for the Rodina.”

“And I am happy to do it. The murder of such an important KGB general cannot go unpunished. If I have anything to add, I am enthusiastic to do so. Forgive an old man for griping about his aches and pains.”

Then he actually smiled, showing his soviet gold and silver fillings and tooth caps. He extended his hand and shook Stepanovich’s hand enthusiastically. Trushin thought he had just fallen across some invisible line into another world for a moment.

Trushin conducted the interview with Gen. Sobrieski himself because he did not have full faith in Sobrieski’s assertions that he wanted the whole truth to come out. Trushin was certain that no officer who served in the Red Army or KGB units assigned to the gulag system was going to be entirely forthcoming about his own or a friend’s actions during that postwar vengeful era.

“General, let me first assure you that this is not an investigation of what went on in the Sevvostlag except to identify those who might have a grudge against Gen. Lagounov—who survived the camps, who are likely still alive, and finally, who might have resources at hand now to carry off such a murder. It is our suspicion that the russkaya mafiya may have assisted. If that is true, it could not have been an easy or inexpensive cooperation.”

Sobrieski sipped on his Stolichnaya vodka and snacked from the platter prepared for him on wild Caspian caviar—fresh, shiny, and each egg separate from the others as good caviar should be. He savored the relaxation and especially the small beads of sturgeon roe rolling across his tongue, dissolving into little fishy-salty bursts. The opulent platter held almost all of the soviet favorites in small dishes: pickled cucumbers, tomatoes, and mushrooms; salo [raw fatty bacon] with Russian bread and garlic, fermented cabbage, Russian meat jelly, boiled small new potatoes, salami with cheese; marinated herring and fresh black bread; lamb shashlik; ukha [fish soup]; borsch topped with smetana [sour cream]; and olivje salad [dense cold salad made of boiled potatoes, mayonnaise, wurst, and green peas]. He had enough from the platter of snacks to lessen his hunger pangs and of the vodka to loosen his inhibitions and his tongue.

“You have done well by me, Comrade. I am glad to have the olivje salad. It will serve as a table pillow when I can no longer hold my head up,” he joked.

“Good, Comrade General. Now perhaps we can get to some important questions.”

Lt. Stepanovich had never met the general before. He had met very few generals before. The man was rail thin with wispy salt and pepper hair cut short. His eyes were narrow and too close together; and along with his sharp nose, Sobrieski had a rather ratlike face. His teeth were bad; he had been a soviet citizen all his life with most of his adult years spent in war and in Siberia; so, it was not surprising that even a man in his high position would show the stigmata of poor dentistry that plagued soviet citizens throughout the immense country. His uniform was perfect: new, pressed to knifelike crispness, starched; and his boots were polished to a mirror finish.

“My first question—and I ask your forgiveness for my directness—is: do you know of any person or number of persons who fit my description of who we are hunting for?”

“Angry survivor, still alive, and possessing adequate resources to be successfully involved with the russkaya mafiya? My answer is maybe, and perhaps it is fortunate that there can only be a few such people who knew my general in Siberia who fit that description. I would have to say that most of the men who fit all of those criteria are officers and former officers of the army or the KGB. Once you have finished with your questions, I will give you a written list of those men.

“As to the inmates, I have to say that not many are still alive; most of them are still in Siberia living as soviet citizens, but there are a few classes of prisoners which could bear some scrutiny. You no doubt know that GU lag is the acronym for Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies, of which Lieutenant General of Cavalry Grigory Yegorivich Lagounov was the commanding officer. The gulags themselves were seldom called by the official term, ‘corrective labor camp.’ Tens of thousands or more people died en route to the area or in the series of gold mining, road building, lumbering, and construction camps of Kolyma just as they did in Uzbekistan. Very few inmates—men, women, or children—survived longer than two years. In the death and labor camps of Kolyma USSR records I can provide for you show that more than three million prisoners died between 1935 and 1955—about the time Stalin died. Polish, German, Rumanian, and Finnish war prisoners who worked in the gold fields were the third generation of Soviet slaves. For many, suicide was more common than murder. We have accurate documentation of at least 11,000 people who were shot in Kolyma camps by the state security organ, the NKVD. All causes of death were closer to 500,000, maybe as many as a million persons.

“As you may be aware, there were nearly three million German prisoners of war who were captured by the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War, most of them during the great advances of the Red Army in the last year of the war. German soldiers were kept as forced labor for many years after the war. The last German POWs—those who were sentenced for war crimes—were released in 1956. According to Soviet records 381,067 German Wehrmacht POWs died in NKVD camps—356,700 German nationals and 24,367 from other nations. German estimates put the actual death toll of German POW in the USSR at about 1.0 million. They maintain that among those reported as missing in action were men who actually died as POWs.

“After Nazi Germany’s defeat by our glorious army under the man of steel, Great Leader Stalin, ‘subordinate’ camps to the gulag were set up in the Soviet Occupation Zone of postwar Germany. These ‘special camps’ were former Stalags, prisons, or Nazi concentration camps such as Sachsenhausen—special camp number 7—and Buchenwald—special camp number 2. According to German government estimates, 65,000 people died in those Soviet-run camps or in transportation to them. According to German researchers, Sachsenhausen—where 12,500 Soviet-era victims have been uncovered—should be seen as an integral part of the gulag system.

“The large majority of prisoners at most times faced meagre food rations, inadequate clothing, overcrowding, poorly insulated housing, poor hygiene, and inadequate health care. Most prisoners were compelled to perform harsh physical labor. Cannibalism was commonplace. While Stalin pleaded with the British to rush more aid and take further action, the NKVD labor camp guards were doubled in number from 500,000 to one million heavily armed men….”

Sobrieski paused to take a breath before summing up: “Such camps can only be described as extermination centers.”

It was the first time he had quoted those mind-numbing statistics to men outside the closed ranks of KGB officers of the first rank, and he was prepared to defend his own involvement as being only obeying Lagounov’s orders if he were challenged. He preferred to let any detailed personal defensive comments remain unsaid if possible.

“You must realize that these things are not spoken of outside the ranks of men who were actually there, not even to their wives or best friends. Since the closure of the camps, this has been considered to be greatest … and worst … secret of our times … of our Soviet Union, gentlemen of the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department; and they can never see the night of day.

“Our officers and men did their duty, however distasteful, and followed their orders to the letter. Remember, prikaz yest’ prikaz; befehl ist befehl [Russian and German: orders are orders]. Every one of those Germans—those atrocious sadists and war criminals, all of those homosexuals, all of those deviants and retarded persons, all of those criminals who supported Hitler and the German people, all of those Christian clerics who would not bow to the greater law, and all of the lower forms—the Jews—deserved to die. They had to die for the greater good of the great Soviet state and to bring about the final triumph of the dialectical materialism over the bourgeoisie and thereby to enable the new, just, and powerful Soviet world to rise out of the filth and corruption of the capitalistic world. Stalin said it best—as he always did—‘Ours is a just cause; victory will be ours!’”

It was a long rant which made Gen. Sobrieski tired over and above the soporific effect of the copious amount of alcohol he had consumed. Stepanovich was afraid he would fall fast asleep before the team could get him down to specifics.

“General, we have been at this for quite a while. Let’s get some air and a little exercise. We’ll all go out to the playing fields and take a run.”

They did six fast laps until all of them were sweating and breathing hard. Gen. Sobrieski seemed to be much better for the exercise. His eyes cleared, and his face took on a renewed look of determination that had been lacking as soon as he started imbibing in the vodka. Back inside the interview room, Trushin ordered all vodka to be removed and substituted with ice water.

“General, we are but a few officers of the law working with limited resources. We are told that Comrade Stalin said, ‘The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic.’ We will have to leave alone the statistics and pare down the numbers to find the most likely suspects we possibly can. From you, now, we need to have names of no more that fifty men who wanted Lagounov dead and could have committed the murder this week. Concentrate on that list, if you would, sir.”

“Ah, yes, of course. I do get to speechifying when I have too much vodka. My mind is now clear. There were only three officers who hated Lagounov enough to want him dead. The man he replaced was intentionally undermined by Lagounov, humiliated, reduced in rank to a colonel, and sent back to Moscow in disgrace. He lost his commission as an officer altogether after Khrushchev reviewed his record. I personally heard him vow to kill Lt. Gen. Lagounov on more than one occasion. His name is Abram Kirillovich Yerkulayev. He took down his two aides when he fell from power. Their names are Konstintin Leonidovich Zubkov and Matvei Nikitavich Akhremenko—and they likewise hated the late general with passion. I have written down their names and how they can be located.”

“The general was fond of corporal punishment and humiliating his officers in front of the men was he not, Comrade General?”

“He was. Many thought he was too quick with the lash. However, there were so many who were given that kind of punishment that the scars on their backs became a sort of badge of courage, a kind of indelible mark of honor. I myself bear such scars, and do so with pride. I most certainly harbor no ill will worthy of killing my superior officer because of my scars.”

Trushin unobtrusively wrote down Sobrieski’s name in his murder book notes.

“I anticipated your question; so, I have two names for you to consider. I warn you to be careful: these men now occupy offices on the sixth floor of the Lubyanka. Do you still want me to give you the names?”

“Yes.”

“The first is Vitali Mikhailovich Bakatinshov, second in command to Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov when he was the chairman from 1954 until 1958; and the other is Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny who was once second in command to Gen. Lagounov in Siberia. I presume you know who he is at present, Lieutenant?”

“Of course I do, General. There is not a breathing person in all of the Soviet Union who does not know the name and face of the current chairman of the KGB. Look me in the eye, General, tell me that this is not a trap for me and my officers.”

“I assure you on my honor as an officer and a gentleman that this is no plot against you and certainly not a joke. I know firsthand that they both hated Lagounov. I presume they have no confidence in you that you can solve the murder. If either of them did it, you will get a great deal of help, most of it misinformation. On the other hand, if they did not do it, they will turn over heaven and earth to find the killer. That someone could kill one of the ranking KGB officers and get away with it, would be anathema to them personally and to the secret police. Can’t have any chink in that armor, you understand. I think you will be successful in getting to talk to them, and I am quite sure that you will be safe in doing so as long as you are respectful. Whether you get any helpful information is quite another thing.”