Sashenka

Blokhin: At midnight, I arrived ready to begin my duties as Chief of the Command Operations Section in the Highest Degree of this list of 123, but I wish to report to the Central Committee that I found the commandant and his officers drunk in the presence of Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn, who was being treated in a highly unprofessional way, against the noble Chekist morality. She was already partially disrobed. I protested strongly. I offered to carry out the sentence myself at once but I was sent away. I tried to call Comrade Satinov. When he arrived I reported everything to him. These drunken and bungling amateurs made a mockery of my Chekist professionalism and skill in this special and sensitive work. They were taking bets and shouting. At approximately thirty-three minutes after midnight, they forced Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn outside into the courtyard near the officers’ garages, which is lit up very brightly by searchlights. The temperature was approximately minus 40 degrees.

Golechev: When she was outside, we performed the Highest Degree, the sentence of the Military Collegium against Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn, but in our drunkenness and because of the unprofessional lateness of Comrade Satinov…we did so in an unacceptable, frivolous and depraved manner. Yes, I admit we were curious about her as a seductive agent of the Japanese Emperor and British lords, and as a woman.

Katinka felt cold. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “Did they rape her?”

“No. If they had done, it would say so here,” said Maxy. “But they were certainly excited by her beauty, her reputation as a seductress. They’d heard of the transcript of Sashenka and Benya.”

Satinov: I arrived at 3:06 a.m. and noticed something strange in the courtyard near where my driver parked my car. I admit before the Central Committee that my lateness was partly the cause of this misconduct. Commandant Golechev was drunk and tried to conceal what he had done. I summoned Major Blokhin and reviewed the List of Prisoners to Face the Highest Measure. I noted the absence of Prisoner Zeitlin-Palitsyn. I ordered Commandant Golechev to take me to her. Afterward, I ordered Commandant Golechev and Major Blokhin to begin at once. The prisoners were brought down to the cell designed for this purpose and I observed the Vishka of 122 prisoners as the witness of the Central Committee. Major Blokhin put on a butcher’s apron and conducted himself very competently. As a devoted Communist, I delighted in the liquidation of these Enemies, traitors, scoundrels and bastards.