Simon Montefiore: Sashenka

Experts will recognize that Mendel’s letter complaining of his treatment in prison is closely based on the tragic letter written by the theatrical director V. Meyerhold.

As for my sources for part three, the age of the oligarchs, and of course the mysteries and delights of archival research in Russia, all I can say is that I spent a lot of time as a journalist and then a historian in both Moscow and the Caucasus during the 1990s. Most of the material in his section has been drawn from my own experiences.

Thanks to Galina Babkova for investigating what it was like to study at the Smolny; to Galina Oleksiuk, who taught me Russian, and has corrected and checked the manuscript for Russian context; to Nestan Charkviani for giving me Georgian color; to Marc and Rachel Polonsky for having me to stay at their apartment in the Granovsky Building; and to Dominic Lieven for his encouragement.

Thanks to everyone at my publishers, Transworld, and in particular to Bill Scott-Kerr, Deborah Adams for her copy-editing skills and Claire Ward and Anne Kragelund for the cover image. I have been most blessed by the brilliant, expert, sensitive and meticulous work of my editor, Selina Walker.

My parents, Stephen and April Sebag-Montefiore, edited and improved the book. My wife Santa, an accomplished novelist as well as a loving best friend, gave me golden advice on character and plot. And the exuberant charm of my beloved children—daughter Lily and son Sasha—constantly encouraged and inspired me.

Simon Montefiore

December 2007

Places in Russia tend to change their names with the tides of history. St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and was known as such until 1914, when Nicholas II changed its Germanic sound to Petrograd, “Peter’s city.” In 1924, the Bolsheviks renamed it Leningrad. In 1991 it became St. Petersburg once again. Tiflis is now known as Tbilisi, the capital of independent Georgia.

The rulers of Russia were called Tsars, though in 1721 Peter the Great declared himself Emperor and thenceforth the Romanovs were known as both.

Russians use three names in a formal context: a first name, a patronymic (meaning son/daughter of) and a surname. Thus Sashenka’s formal name is Alexandra Samuilovna Zeitlin and Vanya’s is Ivan Nikolaievich Palitsyn. But Russians (and Georgians) usually also use diminutives as nicknames: Sashenka is the diminutive of Alexandra and Vanya is the diminutive of Ivan, etc.

In the Pale of Settlement, the Jews spoke Yiddish as their vernacular, prayed in Hebrew and petitioned in Russian. The Georgian language is totally different from Russian and has its own alphabet and literature.

The names of historical figures are marked with an asterisk.

The Family: the Zeitlins

Sashenka (Alexandra Samuilovna) Zeitlin, schoolgirl at the Smolny Institute

Baron Samuil Moiseievich Zeitlin, St. Petersburg banker and Sashenka’s father

Baroness Ariadna (Finkel Abramovna) Zeitlin, née Barmakid, Sashenka’s mother

Gideon Moiseievich Zeitlin, Samuil’s brother, journalist/novelist

Vera Zeitlin, his wife, and their two daughters,

Vika (Viktoria) Zeitlin and

Mouche (Sophia) Zeitlin, actress

The Family: the Barmakids

Abram Barmakid, Rabbi of Turbin, Ariadna and Mendel’s father

Miriam Barmakid, Ariadna and Mendel’s mother

Avigdor Abramovich “Arthur” Barmakid, Ariadna and Mendel’s brother who left for England

Mendel Abramovich Barmakid, Ariadna and Avigdor’s brother, Bolshevik leader

Natasha, a Yakut, Mendel’s wife and Bolshevik comrade

Lena (Vladlena), only daughter of Mendel and Natasha

The Zeitlin Household

Lala, Audrey Lewis, Sashenka’s English governess

Pantameilion, chauffeur

Leonid, butler

Delphine, the French cook

Luda and Nyuna, parlormaids

Shifra, Samuil’s old governess

St. Petersburg, 1916

Peter de Sagan, Captain of Gendarmes, officer of the Okhrana, penniless Baltic nobleman

Rasputin,* Grigory the “Elder,” peasant healer and the Empress’s “friend”

Anya Vyrubova,* Empress’s close friend and Rasputin supporter

Julia “Lili” von Dehn,* Empress’s close friend and Rasputin supporter

Prince Mikhail Andronnikov,* well-connected influence-peddler

Countess Missy Loris, Ariadna’s American friend, married to Count Loris, St. Petersburg aristocrat

Boris Sturmer,* Premier of Tsarist Russia, 1916

D. F. Trepov,* penultimate Premier of Tsarist Russia, 1916

Prince Dmitri Golitsyn,* last Premier of Tsarist Russia, 1916–17

Alexander Protopopov,* syphilitic politician and the last Tsarist Minister of the Interior

Ivan Manuilov-Manesevich,* spy, con man, journalist and fixer for Premier Sturmer

Max Flek, Baron Zeitlin’s lawyer

Dr. Mathias Gemp, fashionable doctor

The Bolsheviks and Others, 1939

Vladimir Illich Lenin,* Bolshevik leader

Grigory Zinoviev,* Bolshevik leader

Josef Vissarionovich Stalin,* né Djugashvili, nickname “Koba,” a Georgian Bolshevik, later General Secretary of Communist Party, Premier and Soviet dictator

Vyechaslav Molotov,* né Scriabin, nicknamed “Vecha,” Bolshevik, later Soviet Premier and Foreign Minister

Alexander Shlyapnikov,* worker and midranking Bolshevik in charge of Party during February Revolution of 1917

Hercules (Erakle Alexandrovich) Satinov, young Georgian Bolshevik

Tamara, Satinov’s young wife

Mariko, Satinov’s daughter

Ivan “Vanya” Palitsyn, worker, Bolshevik activist

Nikolai and Marfa Palitsyn, Vanya’s parents

Razum, Vanya’s driver

Nikolai Yezhov,* “the Bloody Dwarf,” secret police chief (People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs—NKVD), 1936–8

Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria,* a Georgian, Stalin’s secret police chief (People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs—NKVD), 1938 onward

Bogdan Kobylov,* Georgian secret policeman, Beria’s chief henchman, “The Bull”

Pavel Mogilchuk, NKVD investigator, Serious Cases Section, State Security, and author of detective stories

Boris Rodos,* NKVD investigator, Serious Cases Section, State Security

Vasily Blokhin,* NKVD executioner, Major, State Security

Count Alexei Tolstoy,* writer

Ilya Ehrenburg,* writer

Isaac Babel,* writer

Klavdia Klimov, deputy editor of Soviet Wife and Proletarian Housekeeping

Misha Kalman, features editor, Soviet Wife and Proletarian Housekeeping

Leonid Golechev, NKVD commandant of Special Object 110, Sukhanovka Prison

Benjamin (known as “Benya”) Golden, writer

The Vinsky Family of the North Caucasus

Dr. Valentin Vinsky, a Russian doctor in the village of Beznadezhnaya Tatiana Vinsky, his wife

Katinka (Ekaterina Valentinovna), their daughter

Bedbug, Sergei Vinsky, Valentin’s father, a peasant

Baba, Irina Vinsky, Valentin’s mother, a peasant

The Getman Family of Odessa

Roza Getman, née Liberhart, widow from Odessa

Pasha (Pavel) Getman, Roza’s son, a billionaire oligarch

Professor Enoch Liberhart, Roza Getman’s father, Professor of Musicology at the Odessa Conservatoire

Dr. Perla Liberhart, Roza Getman’s mother, teacher of literature at Odessa University

Moscow, 1990s

Maxy Shubin, historian of Stalin’s Terror

Colonel Lentin, Russian secret policeman, KGB/FSB, the Marmoset

Colonel Trofimsky, Russian secret policeman, KGB/FSB, the Magician

Kuzma, archivist in KGB/FSB archives