by Simon Boxall
In light of recent events, Georgii was slightly taken aback. He took the letter from Trofimov and then went back to his desk. He sat down and thought. Whilst he had been with Gerhardt, it had never occurred to him, that the 'Two Assailants' would not comply with their bail conditions. There must be a reason 'Why'. So without further ado he made off for Lefortovo.
The place had always given Georgii Radetzky the creeps, and quite rightly so, the building was sinister in character and design.
He walked up to the main gate and shouted, 'Comrade Radetzky! Cheka! Here on official business!' He waited for a reply.
A face peered out of an upper window situated by the famed main gate. 'On whose authority are you here Comrade?, the face said.
'Cheka business, you deaf bastard!' Georgii indignantly replied waving Trofimov's letter up at the window.
'O.K., O.K. I'm coming down. Wait there,' the face said.
Georgii waited for the gaoler. The gate slowly started to draw upwards. Then a voice, a different voice, instructed him to enter. Georgii walked into the prison. A tall, dignified looking man with outstretched hand walked towards him.
'Greetings comrade, come inside and take a seat.'
Georgii did as instructed. He handed his letter of introduction over to the urbane man sitting opposite him. He handed it to the adjutant, who also scrutinised it. The tall man spoke.
'Comrade Radetzky you wish to see the two young men that were brought here late last nigh!'
'That is correct,' Georgii replied.
'Then my colleague over here will take you to see them,' he nodded to his assistant.' You will also have no objections if my colleague sits in on the interview.'
'None whatsoever!' Georgii did have reservations but there was little that he could do at this time.
They walked across the courtyard and into the main building. They then walked upstairs and along corridors until they came to the boys` cell. The door was opened, and the site that faced Georgii was one of abject horror. Both boys had been lying face down on the floor. There was the foul smell of excrement mixed with urine, it made him wince. It was only when the intrusive daylight forced them to blink and look upwards, that Georgii had some inkling of what the two boys had gone through.
The two boys had been roughed up badly. The boys were stripped almost naked and he could see in the dim light that the boys were bruised from head to toe.
He turned towards the adjutant and said, 'I want to see these two boys properly clothed, and I also want them fed. No 'ifs' or 'buts'! Once you have done this I want you to take us to a proper interview room,' Georgii said in the sternest of voices. He added,' Failure to comply with my wishes could mean the harshest of consequences for you, Comrade!'
'Very good,' the adjutant replied. With that he disappeared and left Georgii standing outside of the boy's cell.
'Boys! I want you to listen and listen closely I don't have much time. Tell me what you know about Isaak Goldstein and 'The Kevshors?' Georgii paused looking around him and then said, 'Look if you do this for me, I'll try and help you as much as I can!'
The pair groaned in unison and told him all they knew. They had nearly told Georgii everything when the adjutant returned and ushered the two boys away. He directed him to an interview room in the basement. There Georgii was told to wait, and wait he did. Eventually the two were ushered back into his presence, where he went through the finer details of the incident with the Frenchman in Red Square. After forty minutes the adjutant suddenly announced that the interview was over. Before Georgii left the room, he told the two boys, that they were expected in court the next day. They were to meet him at the famed, 'Peoples Court'. He was taken back to the 'tall comrades' office by the main gate. The occupant placed the receiver back on its hook and bade Radetzky to sit down.
'Comrade Radetzky, it seems that both you and I have led similar lives,' the tall man said.
'Have we?' Georgii said enquiringly.
'Yes we have. Vodka comrade?'
'No thankyou.'
'You don't mind if I do?'
'No ... not at all,' Georgii replied. He looked across as the man poured himself a drink.
'You see we both serve Bolshevik and Tsar! I was an official and soldier, and you also were a policeman and soldier. We have both, in our different capacities, served the state!'
Georgii had an inkling of where this was going. He'd had similar, irksome, conversations with other strangers.
The tall man carried on. 'The difference between me and you, Comrade Radetzky is that I am committed to change and the new Order! You're not!'He stared right at him.
Georgii returned the stare then said, 'I think your being unfair. So tell me why you think you're the only one sitting at this table that is committed to 'The New State! Tell me! Come on!!'
'Because it was people like you that ruined my career ...'
'People like me, eh! I suspect that you were more than capable of ruining your own career. Besides what does it matter now! Has not Russia changed for the better?' Georgii looked at the tall man and faced him with a long hard stare. 'I have not come here to quarrel. I have only come here in the execution of my duties. I think it is you that might not be committed to change! Maybe you are living in the past and you refuse to accept the present! Now, if you don't mind I will take my leave.'
The tall man gave him back his letter of introduction and then instructed his colleague to show the honoured guest out of the prison. Georgii was glad to be going.
Next day he arrived at 'The Peoples Court. 'The place, as always, was a complete joke. All it served to do was legitimise and personalise grudges, thefts and murder. Georgii had thought himself quite fortunate that he had not frequented this place before, this dive that mocked the very principles of law and order but, as Georgii Radetzky knew, this was not any civilised society, this was Bolshevik Russia. As always the Peoples Courts were packed solid to the rafters with onlookers, Red Guards and party 'Nomenclatura'. After all, and Georgii had suspected this for a long time, this place provided the best entertainment in town.
He went down into the basement of the court. The place was heaving with non-persons, wreckers, former members of the aristocracy and other persons deemed to be enemies of the fledgling socialist state. Georgii sat down with the two boys and explained exactly what they were going to do when they took the stand.
He went back upstairs and took his seat in the packed courtroom. The first case was a strange one. Georgii looked over and saw a young girl sitting in the dock, with four scruffy street urchins. The girl looked well groomed and seemed totally unflustered by the goings on around her. It was the murder of party official Anatoly Gruzinsky, an old woman, and a young girl.
It soon turned out, and state prosecutor Putinov went to great lengths to explain to the court, that the girl Geghanush Hairabedian was no angel. Indeed, it turned out that during the Kerensky period the young girl had been a maid in a house in Tverskay Street. The old lady that ran the place had fallen on hard times and had been forced to take in a lodger. So state official, Anatoly Gruzinsky, moved in to help her make ends meet.
The maid was a simple Armenian girl from the south. This girl became besotted by Anatoly Gruzinsky. But Gruzinsky had become besotted with the old ladies apparent wealth. That wealth took shape in the number of precious stones and diamonds that had been showered upon her in her youth when she had been a debutante in fashionable St Petersburg.
The state prosecutor Putinov carried on; Gruzinsky had his sights firmly fixed on the old lady's jewellery. If he could lay his hands on the jewellery, there was every chance he could emigrate from Russia and start a new life for himself in the United States of America.
By now Putinov had the whole court enthralled with his tale of theft and murder most foul. He carried on; part of Gruzinsky's plan hinged on the girl and it was through the girl that he was going to lay his hands on the precious stones. In the meantime the girl had been making eyes towards Gruzinsky and he obligingly
returned the stares. Soon, and unbeknown to the landlady, a hot-blooded romance was going on between lodger and maid. Slowly and cunningly, Gruzinsky, through techniques of subtle manipulation, drew the servant girl into his plan. He instructed her to show an interest in the old ladies precious jewellery. The peasant girl started asking questions about the jewellery she polished and cleaned, and the lady obligingly told her which stones were valuable and which stones were not. By now Gruzinsky had the young Hairabedian firmly in the palm of his hand. He had declared his undying love to her and she said that she would do anything for 'her' young beau. This and the State Prosecutor Putinov went to great lengths telling the court exactly what her 'young beau' Gruzinsky wanted her to do.
So, without further ado, they hatched a devious plan to escape from Russia, so that they could start a new life together in the United States of America. Gruzinsky had by now so much control over the girl that she would simply do anything to please him. He made out, and Putinov read her confession out to the court, that the plan to steal the jewels was his not hers. He was her inspiration.
However he had only told her part of the plan. Gruzinsky had contacted four youths and instructed them as to what their role would be in the theft. He had told them and the Armenian girl exactly what they had to do. All was going to go to plan, all Anatoly Gruzinsky had to do was sit back and wait for the robbery to be committed.
So, on the night of December the 14th last, the robbery took place but as it turned out the Armenian girl had other ideas. It seems that she had recently suspected her boyfriend of treachery and she had followed him to the meeting with 'The Besprizorniki' boys. When she realised that her partner was not only planning a new life for himself without her, in the Americas, she decided that she would keep the precious stones for herself, and not give them to him as planned. But things for Geghanush Hairabedian slowly began to unravel.
On the night of the fourteenth, the girl went quietly downstairs sometime after the old lady had gone to bed. She went into the old woman's living room and removed the stones from the cabinet, and filled the inner lining of her coat with jewels. In her haste she knocked a candlestick holder onto the floor. The noise woke up the old lady and she came downstairs to investigate. Hairabedian quickly hid behind the door, but to no avail. as the old lady discovered her and challenged her as to why, at this time of night, she was dressed the way she was. The old woman immediately sensed that all was not right, so she instinctively turned around to check the jewellery cabinet. It was while the old lady was momentarily distracted that the servant girl made her move. She picked up the fallen candl`abra, and cracked her mistress on the back of the head. The servant assumed, wrongly, that death for the old woman was instantaneous.
Hairabedian immediately took flight, from the house in Tverskay Street, but not along the designated route. She went around the corner and gave the booty to a young girl she had recently befriended. This girl was instructed to take the route that the Armenian girl had been told to take by the sly Gruzinsky. In the meantime she was going to be waiting for the boys to show up at Anatoly's rendezvous point.
The friend quickly hurried down the alleyways to the place where she had been told to go. But she never made it. Halfway down one of the alleyways, in full view of the ever watchful servant girl, she encountered a gang of crazed 'Besprizorniki' coming the other way. They robbed her and then cut her throat from ear to ear, making off with the jewels to their rendezvous with Gruzinsky. What none of them had realised was the Armenian girl was still very much alive and was now in close pursuit.
She watched as the boys handed over the jewels to Gruzinsky and then the gang made off into the night. Now it was her turn to make a move. She followed Gruzinsky for a while; the girl knew exactly where he was going. He had told her all the intricate details of his plan and how they were both going to travel in-style from Russia to the New World. So Geghanush Hairabedian was one step ahead of her unfaithful lover and, not only that, she also had the element of surprise on her side.
Gruzinsky was now walking at a brisk pace. Everything was going to plan. His route would keep him well away from Red Guard checkpoints and roving gangs of other undesirables.
The Armenian girl had already decided where and when she was going to confront Anatoly Gruzinsky. She had decided that when the moment came to kill him she was going to walk around the corner, stop for a second, savour the moment and then run a kitchen knife through his chest. This is exactly what she did. The end for Gruzinsky was so quick that he never had enough time to take it all in. He was simply alive one minute and dead the next. She relieved him of the jewels and then pushed his head down into the dirty snow. On her part there was not even the slightest feeling of remorse.
Unknowingly the Armenian girl`s luck had already run out. Back at the house, the old woman had managed to crawl out onto the street to raise the alarm. Now units of The Red Guard and The Peoples Militsya were combing the area looking for the girl. It was one of these units of 'The Peoples Militsya' that the unlucky Hairabedian had the misfortune to run into. They took her back to the house in Tverskay Street where the old lady, later to die of her severe head injuries, made a positive identification of the girl.
Georgii was enthralled by State Prosecutor Putinov's eloquent delivery; this was a man who was definitely going places. By now the 'State Prosecutor' was playing to the gallery. He was demanding that Armenian girl Hairabedian and the 'Besprizorniki' boys should receive the death penalty. There was no such place for people such as this in the 'New' Socialist Utopia' he said. The bench retired and the court waited patiently for the verdict. The wait was not long and, when it arrived, it came as no surprise. All five were to be summarily executed; and all, by the very nature of their crimes, were refused the right of appeal. This, the court was told was in line with various 'State' decrees.
Next up was Georgii's case. The state versus Sobolev and Azarov; both were to be tried on 'State Sponsored Terrorism' charges. State Prosecutor Putinov was to take the case. Georgii thought to himself that after the case of the Armenian servant girl the two boys would not stand a chance. For God's sake, it was only a childish prank; they were hardly a threat to the state. He heaved a sigh and then moved on up to the front of the court.
State Prosecutor Putinov went through the details of the case ... even Georgii was not prepared for the drivel that State Prosecutor Putinov came out with. The bench instructed him to present his case.
'Comrades, I will not waste your time on the 'Ins' and 'Outs' of this case. But I will tell you this, whilst our nation is currently experiencing its darkest hour and young comrades are giving up their lives fighting the evil forces of capitalism, these two delinquents were 'Horsing Around' in Red Square, throwing dung at visiting dignitaries!' The court went silent. Everybody, the bench included, was listening to prosecutor Putinov's eloquent delivery. He finished his speech.
'The state is pressing for the death penalty in this case! Nothing less will do!'
Georgii thought that the State Prosecutor was doing an excellent job in firing-up the rabble. When Putinov had finished his speech he sat down. The crowd were baying for more. The chairman of the bench lent forward and gestured to Radetzky to speak. But the mob was in no hurry to hear Georgii Radetzky. The chairman shouted for silence and the spectators grudgingly acquiesced.
Georgii stood up and moved to the centre of the court. He looked around him. Behind him sat 'The Bench'. In front of him sat Putinov, behind the prosecutor sat the mob. Georgii surveyed the scene that confronted him. He looked from right to left. Whilst he was looking, something caught his eye. A young boy was winking at him and next to him was a young girl clutching a teddy bear. It was Anna and Pyotr and they stood right in the midst of the mob, they were shouting and clambering like everybody else. Georgii took in a deep breath and then started.
'Comrades we are here to do two things. The first is to judge, the second is to pass sentence on these boys. But the one thing we are not going to do is all be
party to a, grave, grave, miscarriage of justice ... And I would like to remind Comrade Putinov that this is the New State not the 'Old' one. This courtroom is where justice rightly prevails over wrong. Not the other way around.' Georgii paused, there was silence and you could have almost heard a pin drop. Even state prosecutor Putinov was listening intently. He carried on, Georgii knew he was on a roll, 'These two, Ivan Azarov and Artem Sobolev are not street hoodlums. They are hard working boys. One works at the abattoir, the other at a mortuary. They are not Besprizorniki. Like any other boys they like to have a bit of fun; since when has fun been outlawed? Yes, they were throwing horse dung around; yes there was a mysterious man wearing a bowler hat, who spoke in a foreign accent, who instructed them to humiliate the visiting foreign dignitary. Yes the foreigner overreacted,' Georgii turned around and faced the bench,' but I think that if I could appeal to the better nature of the court and the 'Comrades' gathered here, these two boys are wholeheartedly sorry for what they have done, and they do beg for the clemency of the 'Peoples Court.' Georgii's masterstroke came next and he pointed towards some seated gentleman sitting at the back of the courtroom.' Remember, the eyes of the world are upon us!'
'Thank you Comrades Radetzky and Putinov.' The chairman banged his gavel and then said, 'The court will now go into recess in order to decide sentence. Court will reconvene in one hour,' Ivan and Artem were taken down to the cells to await the verdict. Georgii went along with them. They sat in silence. Artem was the first to break it.