CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

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

“Tell me about Lagounov’s chekist years and anyone you might suspect from that era, please,” Lt. Stepanovich asked, making a strong effort not to show any reaction to having just been told that he might have to interrogate two high-ranking KGB officers who held life and death control over him.

“A time better left in the past. Ordinarily I would order you not to follow this course of questioning; but I am as good as my word. I will tell you what you need to know—and nothing more—to aid in your efforts to hunt down the murderer of the superb officer, General Lagounov.

“Perhaps we should begin with a little history, then I will give you two or three names. The Cheka was created in 1917 as the first state security agency—the military and security arm of the Bolshevik communist party—and it has remained very much the same organization until the present day other than changes in names, personalities, and a few organization changes.

“The first two men I want to suggest to you as possible suspects came into Lagounov’s life late in 1918 near the end of the Great War. The commissars were putting pressure on the Red Army and Cheka officers to root out the Kulaks [successful farmers who often employed farm workers and owned more property than one family needed]. Oleg Petrovich Latsis was the son of an especially prominent and educated Kulak family in the Stalingrad area. Lagounov ordered me to name him as a traitor, a deserter, and his family as money-grabbing capitalist farmers who were grinding in the face of the poor. Lagounov made a public example of the sixteen-year-old boy who was–in fact–serving altogether faithfully in the Cheka. He was whipped nearly to death and sent off to the gulags. His family was forcefully removed from their lands and put on a train for Vladivostok, where they remained and somehow survived until a year ago when they showed up in Moscow, a fact known only to me. I admit to having provided them help over the years, and saved their lives. I ask you not to divulge that fact.”

“I won’t. Did Oleg survive, and did he return?”

“He did. Oleg was a sturdy boy, and he became a hard man—not one to be trifled with. He remained loyal to me, but from time to time when he had too much vodka he would hint at his desire to get revenge against Lagounov. I can get you to him, but I do not want him to see my hand in that.”

“You mentioned others from that time, General.”

“There are many others like Oleg, and I will give you a list of the few that I know who survived and whose whereabouts are known to me. There is another man who is probably more dangerous than all of those put together. You are aware that the chekists were assigned to destroy religion branch, trunk, and root. We targeted clergy to make examples of them and to strike the fear of God into their followers; so, they would get the message and abandon their superstitious beliefs and practices. Many priests were killed, tortured, and exiled. Most of them finally died in the gulags, where they were singled out for ‘special treatment’ much like the political opponents of the conservative Marxist-Leninists and the German officer corps POWs. I know of only one of them who lived in torment under Gen. Lagounov, survived it all, and has made it back to the west. He lives in Leningrad and operates an underground church and also a secret organization dedicated to the overthrow of the ruling communist leaders—particularly Chairman Khrushchev—whom he blames for the current persecution of the church and its clergy. So far–to my knowledge__they have not assassinated anyone, but eventually they will.”

“I will need that one’s name for sure, General. He could be our culprit. He certainly would seem to have motive.”

“Presbyter Athanasius Mogila named for the hieromartyr Athanasius of Brest-Litovsk. He lives on Obukovskoy Oburon Street in Leningrad near the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. My men can take you there.”

“Thank you.”

“And I can send you the short list of surviving clergy from Siberia. Few of them have enough fire left in them to fight any longer or to be part of an assassination plot. Some of those few are true Christians who would never participate or condone murder, even of one they deemed to be deserving of the death penalty, not even the Antichrist.”

“What about more recently—the Great Patriotic War?”

“A few deserters who were persecuted by the KGB … in the persons of Gen. Lagounov and myself. We killed most of them, and not a few of their families. However, there were three escapees who were due to be repatriated and then sent to the gulags but were able to get back to Germany—to Hamburg, to be exact. I have KGB records on them, on their families, and on their associates. They live under assumed names, but they have been indiscreet in expressing their opinions about the USSR, Chairman Khrushchev, the KGB, and specifically about Gen. Lagounov whom they seem to hold responsible for the murderous repatriatiation program ordered by Stalin himself. Lagounov was neither the creator nor the main officer in charge of the program, but you could never convince those three of that.”

“Names?”

“Oh, yes. My mind seems to be wandering a little. Their German names are Karl Rudolf Kirschstein, Jakob Josef Potthoff, and Rolf Herman Schwindt. They all live in Hamburg in the Altona-Nord quarter of the Altona Borough. We can find them easily.”

“Even with your excellent work to narrow down the field, General, we have a huge list of names to investigate, and who knows if they had anything to do with the murder of Gen. Lagounov. What about the inmates—the seemingly indestructible survivors?”

“Perhaps it may not be so difficult, Lieutenant. I do have a list of men that are—in my mind—the most likely to be involved. They are the last men to be released from one particular gulag in Siberia—the Butugychag Tin Mine—a camp known as the “Valley of Death.” It was a place that Gen. Lagounov took a special interest in. He seems to have been especially harsh there because that particular gulag had the senior SS officers who were officially designated for ‘special treatment’ by the politburo. I will spare you the details, but here is the list of names of some of the most violent survivors.

“Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Antoine Duvalier, Obeführerder Waffen-SSMichaele Dupont, Waffen SS-Obersturmbannführer Serge Alain Rounsavall, Waffen SS-Sturmbannführer Hugues Beauchamp, Waffen SS-Hauptsturmführer Jérôme Christophe Mailhot, Waffen SS-Sturmbannführer Jean Luc Latendresse, and Waffen SS Obersturmführer Jacob Friedrich Bunnemann.”

“Except for Bunnemann, all of the names sound French,” Stepanovich observed.

“Yes, indeed. They are French, from an all-French—Vichy French—SS unit which served Hitler in all sorts of capacities throughout the war and stayed until they were captured after the fall of Berlin. They were part of the 33^rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.”

“French?! I never heard of such a division. One more mystery of the Great Patriotic War.”