Sashenka

Now it was the middle of the night and Katinka was reading the trial in her seedy room at the Moskva Hotel. She poured herself a shot of vodka—for courage and to overcome her exhaustion. Through her little window, the red stars of the Kremlin glowed.

Judge Satinov: How did you procure this cyanide? Tell the Tribunal!

Katinka imagined Sashenka standing at the end of the T-shaped table, pale, thin, battered but still beautiful. But what must she have thought as she was tried for her life and found Hercules Satinov on the Tribunal right there in front of her? She must have struggled to show no emotion, not even a flicker of recognition—everyone would be watching for her reaction and his. But imagine her surprise, her shock—and her overriding concern: are the children safe? Or does Satinov’s presence mean that the children…

Accused Zeitlin-Palitsyn: I will, Comrade Judge. Vanya procured it from the the NKVD Laboratory.

Judge Satinov: How did you know which records to poison?

Accused Zeitlin-Palitsyn: I knew Comrade Stalin enjoys Georgian folk music, the songs from the movies Volga, Volga and Jolly Fellows, and the arias of Glinka and Tchaikovsky. So I poisoned those.

Judge Satinov: You were serving the Japanese Emperor, the Polish landowners and the British lords in conspiracy with Trotsky?

Katinka’s skin crawled as she pictured what was going through Sashenka’s mind: Snowy and Carlo—where are you?

Accused Zeitlin-Palitsyn: Yes, Trotsky ordered the assassination in diabolical compact with the Japanese Emperor and the British lords.

Judge Satinov: And the network of the White Guard, Captain Sagan, who controlled you on Trotsky’s behalf, forcing you to use the methods he had taught you as a young girl?

Accused Zeitlin-Palitsyn: You mean the sexual depravity? Yes, and I used that to recruit further agents such as the writer Benya Golden.

Judge Satinov: Did the writer Golden become an agent?

Accused Zeitlin-Palitsyn: I tried to recruit him using the wiles taught me by Captain Sagan but—as I must tell the truth before the Party—Golden was a dilettante non-Party philistine who lacked vigilance but he never joined the conspiracy. He regarded it as “play-acting.”

Judge Ulrikh: You’re amending your confession?

Accused Zeitlin-Palitsyn: I have to tell the truth before Comrade Stalin and the Party. I am myself guilty; my husband and Captain Sagan are guilty but Golden was a child incapable of conspiracy.

Katinka could not help but smile at this. Now she knew that Sashenka had truly loved Benya Golden too. Wasn’t this insult to Golden more romantic than any love song?

Judge Satinov: Comrade Judges, I’m almost overcome with disgust at the evil and depravity of this serpent woman, this black widow spider. Are we ready to consider the case?

Katinka fought back tears as she read this tragic-comic exchange. Did Satinov mean this? Did Sashenka believe he meant it? Sashenka must have looked at her friend, sending him message after message: are the children settled? Are they safe? Or have you betrayed us? A mother’s questions. Katinka lit a cigarette and read on.