8. “Pir,” 3:110.
9. Unless otherwise noted, the details of the Sukhanovka episode of Bystrolyotov’s solitary confinement are reconstructed in this chapter based on details in “Pir,” 2:434–82.
10. Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago: Volume 1, 181.
11. Writing about this episode, Bystrolyotov made an error, stating that he met Jasieski in Butyrka prison personally. That couldn’t possibly have happened because, after being arrested on July 31, 1937, Bruno was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court and shot on the same day, September 17, 1938, one day before Bystrolyotov was arrested; see http://lists.memo.ru/d38/f436.htm and http://mos.memo.ru/shot-22.htm. Most likely, Bystrolyotov learned about Jasieski ’s attempts at composing a novel in his head from other prisoners.
12. On Mikhail Borodin’s biography, see G. V. Kostyrchenko, Tainaia poli -tika Stalina. Vlast’ i antisemitizm [Stalin’s Secret Policy: State Power and Anti-Semitism] (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 2001), 329–30; see also http://www.hrono.info/biograf/gruzenberg.html.
13. Unless otherwise noted, in the rest of this chapter the details of the last period of Bystrolytov’s life in the camps are reconstructed based on details in “Pir,” 2:502–663.
14. On rearrests in that period, see Applebaum, Gulag, 463–64.
Nineteen. Taking On Challenges of Freedom
Chapter epigraphs are from “Pir,” 3:124.
1. For the 2006 SVR biography of Bystrolyotov, see http://svr.gov.ru/smi/2006/novrkr20060130.htm. Unless otherwise noted, Bystrolyotov’s life after the camps is reconstructed in this chapter based on details in “Pir,” 3:133–69, 181–94, 212–34.
2. For details of the hardships of the rehabilitation process, see also N. Adler, Trudnoe vozvrashchenie: Sud’by sovetskikh politzakliuchennykh v 1950–1990-e gody [The Arduous Return: The Fates of Soviet Political Prisoners in the 1950s–1990s] (Moscow: Zven’ia, 2005); A. G. Petrov, Reabilitatsiia zhertv politicheskikh repressii: Opyt istoricheskogo analiza [Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions: An Attempt at Historical Analysis] (Moscow: INION RAN, 2005). By January 1, 2002, more than 4 million former political prisoners had been rehabilitated. A special commission on rehabilitation attached to the Russian president’s offi ce is still hearing rehabilitation cases today.
3. On similar struggles to get living space, see Thomas Sgovio, Dear America! Why I Turned Against Communism (Kenmore, N.Y.: Partners’ Press, 1979), 283.
4. Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, 578n14; Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003.
5. On troubles other ex-prisoners experienced receiving their pensions, see Aleksandr Morozov, Deviat’ stupenei v nebytie [Nine Steps into Oblivion] (Saratov, 1991), 381–82. For other cases when many years of imprisonment were compensated with just one or two months’ salary, see Applebaum, Gulag, 514.
6. In his memoirs, Bystrolyotov doesn’t give the name of the official, but, most likely, it was Aleksandr Sakharovsky, the head of the First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence) of the KGB from 1956 to 1971.
7. On the situation of returnees from the Gulag regarding their homes and belongings, see Applebaum, Gulag, 513.
8. On the fear of being rearrested, see Kathleen Smith, Remembering Stalin’s Victims (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1996), 133.
9. On Shukshin being shot, see “Pir,” 1:102; on his dying of heart failure, see ibid., 3:194. On Shukshin’s true fate, see Evgenii Zhernov, “Purely Chekist Purge,” Kommersant, September 28, 2006, http://www.cripo.com.ua/index.php?sect_id=9&aid=24493.
10. See appendix to Bystrolyotov, Puteshestvie na krai nochi, 582.
11. On Erica Weinstein’s fate, see “Pir,” 1:315; see also appendix to Bystrolyotov, Puteshestvie na krai nochi, 583, 587. Russian sources do not indicate the exact date of both Leppin’s and Erica’s return, but it must have been after September 4, 1937, the day Soviet defector Ignace Reiss was murdered in Switzerland. Both Soviet operatives were suspected of taking part in the operation; see FNA, 102–5.
12. “Pir,” 3:285, 323.
13. Ibid., 285.
14. Ibid., 291.
15. Under the title V staroi Afrike, the novel appeared posthumously, in 1976; with the author out of the picture, the editors had a free hand in substantial cuts and rewritings (Milashov, in discussion with the author, July 2003).
Twenty. Fighting to the End, Now a Different Enemy
1. Unless otherwise noted, Bystrolyotov’s life after the camps is reconstructed in this chapter based on the details in “Pir,” 3:234–323.
2. Ibid., 2:396; 3:404–6.
3. Ibid., 3:406.
4. Ibid., 2:95, 299.
5. Ibid., 3:132.
6. Ibid., 415.
7. Ibid., 2:489.
8. On stylistic shortcomings of “Pir,” see Razumov, “Rukopis’ D. Bystrolyotova ‘Pir Bessmertnykh,’ ” 113–18.
9. “Pir,” 2:491.
10. “Pir,” 2:487.
11. Ibid., 1:290. On the fate of children in the Gulag, see Applebaum, Gulag, 317–33.
12. Milashov, in “Slovo o Dmitrii Aleksandroviche Bystrolyotove (Tolstom),” in Bystrolyotov, Puteshestvie na krai nochi, 3; “Pir,” 1:12–13.
13. KGB2, 144 (1970 pagination); quoted in G. A. Sokolov, in afterword to Bystrolyotov, Puteshestvie na krai nochi, 554.
14. “Pir,” 3:315; 1:555.
15. Ibid., 3:390.
16. See http://www.kinoexpert.ru/index.asp?comm=4&num=1774.
17. On Tsvigun’s background, see http://novodevichye.narod.ru/cvigun-sk.html.
18. Milashov, in “Slovo o Dmitrii Aleksandroviche Bystrolyotove (Tolstom),” in Bystrolyotov, Puteshestvie na krai nochi, 7.
Afterword
1. Grigoriev, Naiti i zaverbovat’; TV documentaries: Razvedka, o kotoroi znali nemnogie. Dmitrii Bystrolyotov, Okhota za shiframi [Foreign Intelligence Not Known to Many: Dmitri Bystrolyotov, Hunting for Ciphers], 2003; Serebrianaia roza [A Silver Rose], 2006; Maski nelegala [An Illegal’s Masks], 2008; TV serial titled Rodina zhdet [The Motherland Is Waiting], produced by Russian “Central Partnership” firm, 2003.
2. Compare the earlier Bystrolyotov-related posting at http://svr.gov.ru/history/byst.html with the new one at http://svr.gov.ru/smi/2006/novrkr20060130.htm.
3. See http://svr.gov.ru/history/byst.html.
4. Bystrolyotov, in conversation with the author, September 1973.
5. See Emil Draitser, Shush! Growing Up Jewish Under Stalin: A Memoir (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), 33–45, 221–35, 246–49.
6. Bystrolyotov, “Shchedrye serdtsem,” 78.
7. Ibid.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources (Archival Holdings)
Russia
GARF
State Archive of the Russian Federation. Bystrolyotov’s personal file. Inventory description no. 2, item no. 92; fund R-5765. Russkii iuridicheskii fakul’tet v Prage. Russkii zagranichnyi arkhiv [Russian Law Faculty in Prague. The Russian Foreign Archive]. Moscow.
KGB1
KGB Archive. Bystrolyotov file. Record of Service no. 12351. Archive no. 9529. Vol. 1. Reports related to Bystrolyotov’s activities. Moscow.
KGB2
KGB Archive. Vol. 2. “Rukopis’ Gansa” [Hans’s Manuscript]. Bystrolyotov’s handwritten memo, signed October 28, 1968 [repaginated a few times]. Moscow.
RGASPI
Russia’s State Archive of Social and Political History. Fund 17, register 100, case #247610, pp. 25–31.
Outside Russia
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
CSAinst
Czech State Archive. “Secret Instructions to USSR Trade Missions Abroad” (in Czech). File no. 225-215-3.
CSAmil
Czech State Archive. “Confidential Military Information to Soviet Mission in Prague” (in French). October 18, 1924. File no. 225-216-4.
CSAmil
CSApol Czech State Archive. Police reports on th
e Union of Student Citizens of the USSR Living in Czechoslovakia, press clippings, and other documents related to Bystrolyotov. File no. 225-98-9-12.
CSAstaff
Czech State Archive. Soviet Trade Mission payroll. File no. 225-214-3, 4.
FRANCE
CADN
Centre des Archives diplomatiques de Nantes, Nantes. Documents of Bystrolyotov’s agent Marie-Eliane Aucouturier, passport no. 1148, issued on October 15, 1927, and her birth certificate. Doc. no. 371/AR/N.
FNA
Archives Nationales, Paris. File “I. Reiss, P. Ducomet, Ch. Martignat.” BB18 3149, dossier 797-A-38.
UNITED KINGDOM
UKNA
National Archives. MI5 file on Bystrolyotov’s agent Ernest Holloway Oldham. Public Record Office, KV2/808, no. 224891. Kew, Richmond, Surrey.
UNITED STATES
Hoover
Hoover Institution Archives. Hede Massing file, Box 2. Stanford, Calif.
Bystrolyotov’s Writings
“Privet ot zarubezhnogo studenchestva” [Greetings from the Foreign Student Body]. Pravda, April 18, 1925, 3.
“Po sledam odnogo puteshestviia” [Tracking One Journey]. Aziia i Afrika segodnia (1963), no. 3:38–41; no. 4:41–45; no. 5:39–41; no. 6:40–43; no. 7:38–40; no. 8:42–44.
“Katanga, god 1937” [Katanga, 1937]. Aziia i Afrika segodnia, no. 1, 11 (1963).
“Shchedrye serdtsem” [Generous Hearts]. Typescript of a screenplay (ca. 1965). The National Library of Russia (formerly Saltykov-Shchedrin Library), St. Petersburg.
“Tsepi i niti” [Chains and Threads]. Typescript of a memoir (ca. 1968). Sergei Milashov’s private archive, Moscow.
With V. Zhuravlyov. “Chelovek v shatskom” [The Plainclothesman]. Vechernii Dnepr, January–February 1973.
Para Bellum [Prepare for War]. Nash sovremennik (1974), no. 3:104–34; no. 4:117–38; no. 5:123–32.
V staroi Afrike [In Old Africa]. Moscow: Sovetskaia Rossiia, 1976.
“Pir bessmertnykh” [Feast of the Immortals]. Galleys of unpublished book in three volumes (1993). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Library of Congress.
Pir bessmertnykh [Feast of the Immortals]. Moscow: Granitsa, 1993 [excerpts, 1 vol.].
Puteshestvie na krai nochi [Journey to the Edge of Night]. Moscow: Sovremennik, 1996.
Bystrolyotov’s Translations
Li, Tao. “Kitaiskaia meditsina v period pravleniia dinastii Min’ (1368–1644)” [Chinese Medicine During Ming Dynasty Rule]. In Trudy instituta organov zdravookhraneniia i istorii meditsiny [Works of the Health-Care Organs Institute and History of Medicine], no. 6 (1959): 51–56 [abridged translation from English].
Peter, R., V. Šebek, and I. Gyne. Devushka prevrashchaetsia v zhenshchinu [A Girl Turns into a Woman]. Translated from Czech. Moscow: Medgiz, 1960.
Gyne, I. Iunosha prevrashchaetsia v muzhchinu [A Youth Turns into a Man]. Translated from Czech. Moscow: Medgiz, 1960; repr., Tashkent: Ukituvchi, 1970.
Secondary Sources in Russian
Books and Articles
Abramov, Vadim. Evrei v KGB: Palachi i zhertvy [Jews in the KGB: Executioners and Victims]. Moscow: Eksmo, 2005.
An-ov, N. “Prazhskaia zhizn’ ” [Life in Prague]. Studencheskie gody, no. 6 (1928): 28.
Appendix to Dmitri Bystrolyotov, Puteshestvie na krai nochi [ Journey to the Edge of Night]. Moscow: Sovremennik, 1996.
Chelpanov, G. Vvedenie v filosofiiu [Introduction to Philosophy]. Kiev, 1907.
Chertoprud, S. “Prikazano vliubit’sia v grafiniu” [Ordered to Fall in Love with a Countess]. Novosti razvedki i kontrrazvedki, no. 7 (1997).
Degtiarev, Klim, and Aleksandr Kolpakidi. Vneshniaia razvedka SSSR [Foreign Intelligence of the USSR]. Moscow: Iauza-Eksmo, 2009.
Grigoriev, Boris. Naiti i zaverbovat’ [To Find and Recruit]. Moscow: OLMA-Press, 2003.
———. Skandinaviia s chernogo khoda [Scandinavia from the Back Door]. Moscow: Tsentropoligraf, 2002.
Ivanov, K. “Razvedchik, vozvrashchennyi iz nebytiia” [An Intelligence Officer Recovered from Oblivion]. Leningradskii universitet, April 26, 1991, 8.
Kolpakidi, A., and D. Prokhorov. KGB. Prikazano likvidirovat’ [KGB: It Is Ordered to Liquidate]. Moscow: Iauza-Eksmo, 2004.
———. Vneshniaia razvedka Rossii [Foreign Intelligence of Russia]. St. Petersburg: “Neva”; Moscow: OLMA-Press, 2001.
Krivitsky, V. Ia byl agentom Stalina [I Was Stalin’s Agent]. Moscow: Sovremennik, 1991.
Listov, V. “Mikhail Trilisser.” In Chekisty rasskazyvaiut [The Cheka Members Are Telling Things]. Moscow: Sovetskaia Rossiia, 1987, 216-18.
Milashov, S. S. “Predislovie” [Foreword], “Kommentarii k glavam 1–3” [Comments to Chapters 1–3], and “Posleslovie” [Afterword]. In Dmitri Bystrolyotov, “Fragmenty biografii razvedchika pervogo pokoleniia” [Fragments of a Biography of an Intelligence Operative of the First Generation]. Unpublished texts, Moscow, 2000, 3–6; 594–99.
———. “Slovo o Dmitrii Bystrolyotove.” Preface to Puteshestvie na krai nochi [Journey to the Edge of Night], by Dmitri Bystrolyotov. Moscow: Sovremennik, 1996.
Mlechin, Leonid. Istoriia vneshnei razvedki: Kar’ery i sud’by [History of Foreign Intelligence: Careers and Fates]. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2008.
Papchinsky, A. A., and M. A. Tumshis. Shchit, raskolotyi mechom. NKVD protiv VChK [A Shield Cracked by a Sword: The NKVD Against the VChK]. Moscow: Sovremennik, 2001.
Pivovar, E., et al. Russkaia emigratsiia v Turtsii, iugo-vostochnoi i tsentral’noi Evrope (grazhdanskie bezhentsy, armiia i obrazovatel’nye uchrezhdeniia) [Russian Emigration in Turkey, Southeastern and Central Europe (Civilian Refugees, Army, and Educational Institutions)]. Moscow: State Historical and Archival Institute, 1994.
Poretskaia, E. K. Nashi. Vospominaniia ob Ignatii Raisse i ego tovarishchakh [Our Own People: A Memoir of Ignace Reiss and His Friends]. Moscow: Voenno-diplomaticheskaia akademiia, 1992.
Postnikov, S. P., comp. Russkie v Prage: 1918–1928 [The Russians in Prague: 1918–1928]. Prague: Postnikov, 1930.
Primakov, E., ed. Ocherki istorii rossiiskoi razvedki [Essays on the History of Russian Foreign Intelligence]. Vols. 2, 3. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia, 1997.
Razumov, A. Ya. “Rukopis’ D. Bystrolyotova ‘Pir Bessmertnykh’ ” [Bystrolyotov’s Manuscript “Feast of the Immortals”]. In Istochnikovedcheskoe izuchenie pamiatnikov pis’mennoi kul’tury [Study of the Original Sources of Memorials of Written Culture], comp. L. I. Buchina and Iu. M. Liubimova, ed. N. A. Efimova and I. G. Kravtsova. St. Petersburg, 1994, 109–37.
Russkaia voennaia emigratsiia dvadtsatykh–sorokovykh godov: Dokumenty i materially [Russian Military Emigration in the 1920s Through 1940s: Documents and Materials]. Moscow: Geya, 1998.
Slobodskoi, A. Sredi emigratsii: Moi vospominaniia: Kiev i Konstantinopl’, 1918–1920. [In the Midst of Emigration: My Recollections; Kiev and Constantinople, 1918–1920]. Kharkov: Proletarii, 1925.
Snegirev, V. “Drugaia zhizn’ Dmitriia Bystroletova” [The Other Life of Dmitri Bystrolyotov]. Pravda, February 25 and March 4, 1990. Also published in Po dannym razvedki [According to Intelligence Service Data]. Moscow: Sovremennik, 1991.
Stavitsky, V., ed. Spetssluzhby i chelovecheskie sud’by [Special Services and Human Fates]. Moscow: OLMA-Press, 2000.
———. Tainye stranitsy istorii [Secret Pages of History]. Moscow: ZAO “LG Informeishn grup,” 2000.
Svetozarov, E. Russkaia gimnaziia v Moravskoi Trzhebove [Russian Gymnasium in Moravska Trebova]. Prague, 1930.
Tsarev, Oleg, and Nigel West. KGB v Anglii [The KGB in England]. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 1999.
Filmography
Chelovek v shtatskom [The Plainclothesman]. Directed by V. Zhuravlyov. Mosfilm, 1973. 103 min.
Razvedka, o kotoroi znali nemnogie. Dmitrii Bystrolyotov: Okhota za shiframi [Foreign Intelligence Not Known to Many: Dmitri Bystrolyotov; Hunting for Ciphers] (TV channel Kul’tura). Directed by Aleksei Gorovatsky, produced by Gold Medium, 2001.
&nbs
p; Serebrianaia roza [A Silver Rose]. Directed by Aleksei Pankov, produced by TVTs, 2006. 42 min.
Maski nelegala [An Illegal’s Masks]. Produced by TVTs, 2008. 35 min.
Secondary Sources in English and Other Languages
Andrew, Christopher, and Oleg Gordievsky. KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev. London: Sceptre, 1991.
Andrew, Christopher, and Vassili Mitrokhin. Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB and the World. London: Lane, 2005.
———. The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. New York: Basic Books, 1999.
Andreyev, Catherine, and Ivan Savicky. Russia Abroad: Prague and the Russian Diaspora, 1918–1938. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004.
Applebaum, Anne. Gulag: A History. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
Bessedovsky, Gregori. Revelations of a Soviet Diplomat. London: Williams & Norgate, 1931 [abridged English translation of the Russian edition Na putiakh k Termidoru (On the Way to Thermidor) (Paris, 1930)].
Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. The Storm Petrels: The Flight of the First Soviet Defectors. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977.
Conquest, Robert. The Great Terror: A Reassessment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
———. The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
———. Inside Stalin’s Secret Police: NKVD Politics 1936–39. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Press, 1985.
———. Kolyma: The Arctic Death Camps. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Cornelissen, Igor. De GPOe op de Overtoom: Spionnen voor Moscou 1920–1940 [The GPU on the Overtoom: Spies for Moscow, 1920–1940]. Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1989.
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