The Whisperers
Orlando Figes
The Whisperers
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Peasant Russia, Civil War:
The Volga Countryside in Revolution, 1917–1921
A People’s Tragedy:
The Russian Revolution, 1891–1924
Interpreting the Russian Revolution:
The Language and Symbols of 1917
(with Boris Kolonitskii)
Natasha’s Dance:
A Cultural History of Russia
ORLANDO FIGES
The Whisperers
Private Life in Stalin’s Russia
ALLEN LANE
an imprint of
PENGUIN BOOKS
ALLEN LANE
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
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First published 2007
1
Copyright © Orlando Figes, 2007
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright
reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior
written permission of both the copyright owner and
the above publisher of this book
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
EISBN: 978–0–141–80887–1
For my mother, Eva Figes (née Unger, Berlin 1932) and to the memory of the family we lost
Contents
List of Illustrations
Maps
Family Trees
Introduction
1 Children of 1917 (1917–28)
2 The Great Break (1928–32)
3 The Pursuit of Happiness (1932–6)
4 The Great Fear (1937–8)
5 Remnants of Terror (1938–41)
6 ‘Wait For Me’ (1941–5)
7 Ordinary Stalinists (1945–53)
8 Return (1953–6)
9 Memory (1956–2006)
Afterword and Acknowledgements
Permissions
Notes
Sources
Index
List of Illustrations
xxxi Antonina Golovina, 1943
2 The four secretaries of Iakov Sverdlov, chief Party organizer of the Bolsheviks, the Smolny Institute, October 1917
17 Leonid Eliashov, 1932
19 Iosif and Aleksandra Voitinsky, Yekaterinoslav, 1924
21 A Lenin Corner, 1920s
23 Aleksei and Ivan Radchenko, 1927
26 Vera Minusova, early 1930s
40 The Tetiuev family, Cherdyn, 1927
42 Batania Bonner with her grandchildren, Moscow, 1929
48 Peasant nanny, Fursei family (Leningrad)
49 Natasha Ovchinnikova
56 The Vittenburg family at Olgino, 1925
60 Konstantin Simonov, Aleksandra and Aleksandr Ivanishev, Riazan, 1927
61 Page from Simonov’s school notebook (1923)
67 The Laskin family, Moscow, 1930
71 The Slavin family, 1927
78 Yevdokiia and Nikolai with their son Aleksei Golovin (1940s)
89 ‘Kulaks’ exiled from the village of Udachne, Khryshyne (Ukraine), early 1930s
90 Valentina Kropotina and her sister with three of their cousins, 1939
101 Exiles in a ‘special settlement’ in western Siberia, 1933
105 Left: Leonid and Aleksandr Rublyov, 1930. Right: Klavdiia, Natalia and Raisa Rublyova with Raisa’s husband, Kansk, 1930
107 Left: Aleksandr and Serafima Ozemblovsky on their wedding day in 1914. Right: Serafima with Sasha and Anton Ozemblovsky in 1937
116 Maria, Nadezhda and Ignatii Maksimov with Ignatii’s brother Anton, Arkhangelsk, 1934
119 The Uglitskikh family, Cherdyn, 1938
122 The Golovins’ bed from Obukhovo
135 Aleksandr Tvardovsky, 1940
140 Simonov ‘the proletarian’, 1933
147 The otlichniki of Class B, Pestovo School, 1936
148 Fania Laskina and Mikhail Voshchinsky, Moscow, 1932
149 The Laskin household in the Arbat
152 Left: Maiakovsky Metro Station, 1940. Right: Avtozavod Metro Station, 1940s
166 Left: Vladimir Makhnach, 1934. Right: Maria and Leonid, 1940s
168 From left: Anatoly Golovnia as Chekist, 1919; Liuba Golovnia, 1925; Boris Babitsky, 1932
170 Volik Babitsky and Liuba and Oksana Golovnia at the Kratovo dacha, 1935
176 The Khaneyevsky household
178 Communal apartment (‘corridor system’), 1930–64
182 The Reifshneiders’ room in the Third House of Soviets, Moscow
199 Simonov in 1936
206 Teachers and students of the Law Department of the Communist Academy in Leningrad, 1931
209 Zina and Pavel Vittenburg at the Kem labour camp, 1931
212 Pavel Vittenburg in his office, Vaigach labour camp, 1934
217 ‘Papa’s Corner’. Drawing by Mikhail Stroikov, 1935
220 The Poloz family, 1934
222 Letter (extract) from Tatiana Poloz to Rada, 12 June 1935
225 Nikolai and Elena (‘Alyona’) Kondratiev, 1926
226 Nikolai Kondratiev, ‘The Unusual Adventures of Shammi’ (detail)
229 Osip and Julia Piatnitsky with their sons and neighbours’ children at their dacha near Moscow, late 1920s
232 Osip Piatnitsky at the Seventh Congress of the Comintern, Moscow, 1935
247 Ida Slavina and her parents, 1937
266 The Malygin house in Sestroretsk, 1930s
288 The Nikitin and Turkin apartments, Perm
291 Gulchira Tagirova and her children, 1937
299 Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko with his wife Sofia and stepdaughter Valentina, 1936
317 Angelina and Nelly Bushueva, 1937
321 The house in Ak-Bulak where Elena Lebedeva lived with her granddaughters, Natalia and Elena Konstantinova, 1940s
322 Elena Lebedeva with her granddaughters, Natalia and Elena Konstantinova, Ak-Bulak, 1940
323 Veronika Nevskaia and her great-aunt Maria, Kirov region, 1939
325 Inna Gaister with her sisters Valeriia and Natalia, Moscow, 1939
328 Oleg and Natasha Vorobyov, 1940
330 Left: Mikhail Mironov. Right: extract from a letter to his mother
332 Zoia Arsenteva, Khabarovsk, 1941
334 Marksena Karpitskaia, Leningrad, 1941
337 Girls from Orphanage No. 1, Dnepropetrovsk, 1940
346 ‘On Land and Sea and in the Sky’ gymnastic demonstration, 1938
351 Elizaveta Delibash, 1949
355 Physics teacher Dmitry Streletsky with schoolboys of the seventh class in the Chermoz ‘special settlement’, September 1939
357 Left: Zinaida Bushueva with her brothers, 1936. Right: Zinaida in the ALZhIR labour camp, 1942
359 Children at ALZhIR, 1942
361 Embroidered towel (detail) made by Dina Ielson-Grodzianskaia for her daughter Gertrud in the ALZhIR labour camp
365 Ketevan Orakhelashvili with Sergei Drozdov and their son Nikolai, Karaganda
370 Zhenia Laskina and Konstantin Simonov on their honeymoon in the Crimea, 1939
375 Valentina Serova, 1940
389 Natalia Gabaeva with her parents, 1934
391 Anastasia with Marianna and Georgii Fursei, Arkhangelsk, 1939
403 Serova and Simonov on tour, Leningrad Front, 1944
406 Aleksei and Konstantin Simonov, 1944
407 Simonov in 1941
409 Simonov in 1943
425 Ivan Bragin and his family, 1937
451 Antonina Mazina with her daughter Marina and Marina Ilina, Chimkent, 1944
456 The Bushuev ‘corner’ room in the communal apartment at 77 Soviet Street, Perm, 1946–8
474 Inna Gaister with two friends at Moscow University, 1947
476 Nelly and Angelina Bushueva, 1953
477 Leonid Saltykov, 1944
481 Valentina Kropotina and her husband, Viktor, 1952
483 Simonov in 1946
495 Fadeyev at the Writers’ Union, 22 December 1948
500 Aleksandr Borshchagovsky, 1947
504 Simonov at the Congress of Soviet Writers in the Belorussian Republic, Minsk, 1949
507 Simonov in 1948 (left) and in 1953 (right)
514 Samuil and Berta Laskin, Sonia Laskina, Aleksei Simonov and Zhenia Laskina circa 1948
517 Zhenia and Sonia Laskina at Vorkuta, 1952
524 Stalin’s body lies in state in the Hall of Columns, Moscow, March 1953
527 Mourning ceremony at the Gorky Tank Factory in Kiev, 6 March 1953
539 The Laskin family at their Ilinskoe dacha near Moscow, 1956
543 Valentin Muravsky with his daughter Nina, Karaganda, Kazakhstan, 1954
546 Marianna Fursei with Iosif and Nelly Goldenshtein, Tbilisi, 1960
551 Aleksandr Ságatsky and Galina Shtein, Leningrad, 1956
554 Fruza Martinelli, 1956
556 Left: Esfir and Ida Slavina in 1938. Right: Esfir in 1961
557 Liuba Golovnia after her return from ALZhIR, Moscow, 1947
564 Vladimir Makhnach, 1956
568 Elena Konstantinova, her mother Liudmila, her grandmother Elena Lebedeva, and her sister Natalia, Leningrad, 1950
569 Nina and Ilia Faivisovich outside their house, near Sverdlovsk, 1954
573 Sonia Laskina’s certificate of release from the Vorkuta labour camp
592 Simonov with his son Aleksei, 1954
600 Zinaida Bushueva with her daughter Angelina and her son Slava, 1958
602 The grave of Nadezhda’s father, Ignatii Maksimov, Penza, 1994
603 Tamara and Kapitolina Trubina, 1948
609 Simonov and Valentina Serova, 1955
617 Aleksei and Konstantin Simonov, 1967
620 Mother Russia, part of the Mamaev Kurgan War Memorial complex in Volgograd
627 Simonov in 1979
631 Ivan Korchagin, Karaganda, 1988
632 Mikhail Iusipenko, Karaganda, 1988
638 Norilsk, July 2004
640 Vasily Romashkin, 2004
642 Leonid Saltykov, 1985
643 Vera Minusova at the Memorial Complex for Victims of Repression near Yekaterinburg, May 2003
651 Nikolai and Elfrida Meshalkin with their daughters, Marina and Irina, Perm, 2003
655 Antonina Golovina, 2004
Note on Proper Names
Russian names are spelled in this book according to the standard (Library of Congress) system of transliteration, but some Russian spellings are slightly altered. To accommodate common English spellings of well-known Russian names I have changed the Russian ‘ii’ ending to a ‘y’ in surnames (for example, Trotskii becomes Trotsky) but not in all first names (for example, Georgii) or place names. To aid pronunciation I have opted for Pyotr instead of Petr, Semyon instead of Semen, Andreyev instead of Andreev, Yevgeniia instead of Evgeniia, and so on. In other cases I have chosen simple and familiar spellings that help the reader to identify with Russian names that feature prominently in the text (for example, Julia instead of Iuliia and Lydia instead of Lidiia). For the sake of clarity I have also dropped the Russian soft sign from all personal and place names (so that Iaroslavl’ becomes Iaroslavl and Noril’sk becomes Norilsk). However, bibliographical references in the notes preserve the Library of Congress transliteration to aid those readers who wish to consult the published sources cited.
Northern European USSR
Southern European USSR
Western and Central Siberia
Eastern Siberia
The Soviet Union in the Stalin era
Introduction
Antonina Golovina was eight years old when she was exiled with her mother and two younger brothers to the remote Altai region of Siberia. Her father had been arrested and sentenced to three years in a labour camp as a ‘kulak’ or ‘rich’ peasant during the collectivization of their northern Russian village, and the family had lost its household property, farming tools and livestock to the collective farm. Antonina’s mother was given just an hour to pack a few clothes for the long journey. The house where the Golovins had lived for generations was then destroyed, and the rest of the family dispersed: Antonina’s older brothers and sister, her grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins fled in all directions to avoid arrest, but most were caught by the police and exiled to Siberia, or sent to work in the labour camps of the Gulag, many of them never to be seen again.
Antonina spent three years in a ‘special settlement’, a logging camp with five wooden barracks along a river bank where a thousand ‘kulaks’ and their families were housed. After two of the barracks were destroyed by heavy snow in the first winter, some of the exiles had to live in holes dug in the frozen ground. There were no food deliveries, because the settlement was cut off by the snow, so people had to live from the supplies they had brought from home. So many of them died from hunger, cold and typhus that they could not all be buried; their bodies were left to freeze in piles until the spring, when they were dumped in the river.
Antonina and her family returned from exile in December 1934, and, rejoined by her father, moved into a one-room house in Pestovo, a town full of former ‘kulaks’ and their families. But the trauma she had suffered left a deep scar on her consciousness, and the deepest wound of all was the stigma of her ‘kulak’ origins. In a society where social class was everything, Antonina was branded a ‘class enemy’, excluded from higher schools and many jobs and always vulnerable to persecution and arrest in the waves of terror that swept across the country during Stalin’s reign. Her sense of social inferiority bred in Antonina what she herself describes as a ‘kind of fear’, that ‘because we were kulaks the regime might do anything to us, we had no rights, we had to suffer in silence’. She was too afraid to defend herself against the children who bullied her at school. On one occasion, Antonina was singled out for punishment by one of her teachers, who said in front of the whole class that ‘her sort’ were ‘enemies of the people, wretched kulaks! You certainly deserved to be deported, I hope you’re all exterminated here!’ Antonina felt a deep injustice and anger that made her want to shout out in protest. But she was silenced by an even deeper fear.1
This fear stayed with Antonina all her life. The only way that she could conquer it was to immerse herself in Soviet society. Antonina was an intelligent young woman with a strong sense of individuality. Determined to overcome the stigma of her birth, she studied hard at school so that
one day she could gain acceptance as a social equal. Despite discrimination, she did well in her studies and gradually grew in confidence. She even joined the Komsomol, the Communist Youth League, whose leaders turned a blind eye to her ‘kulak’ origins because they valued her initiative and energy. At the age of eighteen Antonina made a bold decision that set her destiny: she concealed her background from the authorities – a high-risk strategy – and even forged her papers so that she could go to medical school. She never spoke about her family to any of her friends or colleagues at the Institute of Physiology in Leningrad, where she worked for forty years. She became a member of the Communist Party (and remained one until its abolition in 1991), not because she believed in its ideology, or so she now claims, but because she wanted to divert suspicion from herself and protect her family. Perhaps she also felt that joining the Party would help her career and bring her professional recognition.
Antonina concealed the truth about her past from both her husbands, each of whom she lived with for over twenty years. She and her first husband, Georgii Znamensky, were life-long friends, but they rarely spoke to one another about their families’ pasts. In 1987, Antonina received a visit from one of Georgii’s aunts, who let slip that he was the son of a tsarist naval officer executed by the Bolsheviks. All those years, without knowing it, Antonina had been married to a man who, like her, had spent his youth in labour camps and ‘special settlements’.
Antonina Golovina, 1943
Antonina’s second husband, an Estonian called Boris Ioganson, also came from a family of ‘enemies of the people’. His father and grandfather had both been arrested in 1937, although she did not discover this or tell him about her own hidden past until the early 1990s, when, encouraged by the policies of glasnost introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev and by the open criticisms of the Stalinist repressions in the media, they began to talk at last. Antonina and Georgii also took this opportunity to reveal their secret histories, which they had concealed from each other for over forty years. But they did not speak about such things to their daughter Olga, a schoolteacher, because they feared a Communist backlash and thought that ignorance would protect her if the Stalinists returned. It was only very gradually in the mid-1990s that Antonina at last overcame her fear and summoned up the courage to tell her daughter about her ‘kulak’ origins.