by Charles King
240He also had the habit: Van Heijenoort, With Trotsky in Exile, 17. The two could be seen: Van Heijenoort, With Trotsky in Exile, 12. Trotsky and Haralambos would call out: “Farewell to Prinkipo,” in Trotsky, Leon Trotsky Speaks, 273. “Ah, Comrade Gérard!”: Quoted in Rosenthal, Avocat de Trotsky, 96. Once, a small girl: Urgan, Bir Dinozorun Anıları, 155–56. He started writing his autobiography: Serge and Trotsky, Life and Death of Leon Trotsky, 165. Editorials and political essays: Churchill, Great Contemporaries, 198.
241Autograph collectors kindly asked: “Farewell to Prinkipo,” in Trotsky, Leon Trotsky Speaks, 271. “Here on this island”: Quoted in Deutscher, Prophet Outcast, 216.
242“He seems too small”: Eastman, Great Companions, 154. The American edition: Deutscher, Prophet Outcast, 27. But Trotsky was spending: Eastman, Great Companions, 158–59; Serge and Trotsky, Life and Death of Leon Trotsky, 189. To economize, he kept little: Rosenthal, Avocat de Trotsky, 72. “We seemed to camp”: Van Heijenoort, With Trotsky in Exile, 11. During Eastman’s visit: Eastman, Great Companions, 158–59.
243Trotsky had “followers”: Eastman, Heroes I Have Known, 248. “I do not measure”: Trotsky, My Life, 581–82. Enemies, he would say routinely: Van Heijenoort, With Trotsky in Exile, 42. The British socialists: Trotsky, My Life, 577.
244The years in Istanbul had been: Deutscher, Prophet Outcast, 217. “Our house is already almost empty”: “Farewell to Prinkipo,” in Trotsky, Leon Trotsky Speaks, 272. His hair had gone white: Van Heijenoort, With Trotsky in Exile, 41. Heart trouble and gout: Memorandum, Mar. 19, 1930, LTEP, Item 15742. “The bearer of this passport”: Passports of Lev Sedof and Latalya Sedov, LTEP, Item 15784. At the beginning of the 1920s: Dos Passos, Orient Express, in Travel Books and Other Writings, 135.
245A certain Kuznetsov: Robert Imbrie, “Memorandum of Bolshevik Activities at Constantinople,” Feb. 1921, p. 1, NARA, RG59, M353, Reel 20. “The Bosphorus was a dumping ground”: Dunn, World Alive, 282. Then came the YMCA: Dunn, World Alive, 282.
246Settling in Istanbul: Trotsky, My Life, 567. “The network of spies”: Agabekov, OGPU, 208. Agabekov claimed that virtually all: Agabekov, OGPU, 208. The Soviets were careful to balance: Agabekov, OGPU, 211–13. Agents were proud of their roles: Nikolai Khokhlov, In the Name of Conscience: The Testament of a Soviet Secret Agent, quoted in Wilmers, The Eitingons, 149.
247Agabekov himself had the dubious honor: Agabekov, OGPU, 247–48; Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 47–48; Brook-Shepherd, Storm Petrels, 107–51. Agabekov was reportedly assassinated by Soviet agents in 1937 or 1938, either on the border between France and Spain or in Paris. His body was never found. Streater died in 1971 in New York, where she had worked as a secretary at the United Nations. Less than a year before: Agabekov, OGPU, 207. Even today it is difficult to establish: Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 33–36. His travel documents identified him: Agabekov, OGPU, 207. His superiors gave him: Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 31. In many ways Eitingon had: I have taken family details about Leonid Eitingon and his relatives from Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, especially chapter 2, and Wilmers, The Eitingons.
249In 1929, when he was transferred: Agabekov, OGPU, 208. As chief “legal” OGPU officer in Istanbul, Eitingon would have had ultimate operational command over the Trotsky case, even if day-to-day operations might have been handled by the considerable “illegal” OGPU presence in the city. “Legals” were officers who came with legitimate diplomatic cover and were generally well known to the Turkish authorities. “Illegals” were those who operated in secret as businessmen, journalists, or other unofficial roles. He briefly served as case officer: Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 34. During the Spanish Civil War: Patenaude, Trotsky, 206. I have taken Caridad Mercader’s biographical details from Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 70. On the relationship with Eitingon, see Andrew and Mitrokhin, Sword and the Shield.
250His only real advantage: On the code name as Eitingon’s idea, see Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 69. A house alarm was sounding: Trotsky’s final hours have been narrated by a variety of sources, but for overviews see Serge and Trotsky, Life and Death of Leon Trotsky, 266–70; Deutscher, Prophet Outcast, 483–509; and Patenaude, Trotsky, 279–92.
251For his service: Patenaude, Trotsky, 294.
252“There is one small guaranteed way”: Quoted in Sudoplatov, Special Tasks, 36.
QUEEN
256“For four or five years now”: “Ba Muharririmiz Yunus Nadi Bey’in Bir Belçika Gazetesinde ntiar Eden Beyanatı,” Cumhuriyet, Oct. 7, 1928. “Why Wouldn’t We Do”: “Aynı eyi biz niçin yapmayalım?” Cumhuriyet, Feb. 4, 1929. The newspaper soon announced: “En Güzel Türk Kadını,” Cumhuriyet, Feb. 5, 1929. It would be no different: “Güzellik Müsabakamız,” Cumhuriyet, Feb. 14, 1929.
257There would be no swimsuit element: “En Güzel Türk Kızı Kimdir Acaba?” Cumhuriyet, Feb. 15, 1929. Prostitutes were expressly forbidden: “Her Genç Kız Müsabakamıza tirak Edebilir,” Cumhuriyet, Feb. 10, 1929. The recent winner of a European contest: “Türkiye’nin En Güzel Kızı Olmak stemez Misiniz?” Cumhuriyet, Feb. 17, 1929. A jury of fifty notables: “Türkiye Güzellik Kraliçesi,” Cumhuriyet, Sept. 2, 1929. By September 3, the results were in: “1929 Türkiye Güzellik Kraliçesi ntihap Edildi,” Cumhuriyet, Sept. 3, 1929.
258Beginning in 1930, twenty finalists: “Güzellik Balosu,” Cumhuriyet, Jan. 8, 1930. “Beauty Is Not Something”: “Güzellik Ayıp Bir ey Deildir,” Cumhuriyet, Jan. 13, 1930. When judges selected: “Review of the Turkish Press,” Feb. 5–18, 1931, p. 11, NARA, RG59, M1224, Reel 20. The title of Miss Europe: “Mis Avrupa!” Cumhuriyet, Feb. 7, 1930.
259Keriman was only ten: I am grateful to Ece Sarpyener and Aye Torfilli, the daughter and granddaughter of Keriman Halis, for sharing details of her biography and ancestry, along with a home movie, in an interview in Istanbul, Oct. 9, 2012.
262Twenty thousand Istanbullus: “20 Bin Kii Dün Gece Kraliçeyi Alkıladı,” Cumhuriyet, July 8, 1932. Along the way, crowds gathered: “Kraliçe Geçerken,” Cumhuriyet, July 14, 1932. In the ensuing days, nearly thirty thousand: “Dünya Güzeli 30,000’e Yakın Telgraf Aldı,” Cumhuriyet, Aug. 2, 1932. Yunus Nadi was summoned: “Gazi Hz. Bamuharririmize Dedi Ki: ‘Türk Milleti Bu Güzel Çocuunu, üphesiz, Samimiyetle Tebrik Eder,’” Cumhuriyet, Aug. 3, 1932. smet Pasha, the old war hero: “Digest of the Turkish Press,” July 24–Aug. 6, 1932, pp. 6–7, NARA, RG59, M1224, Reel 21. Cumhuriyet, never missing an opportunity: “Dünyayı Fetheden Türk Kızı!” Cumhuriyet, Aug. 4, 1932.
263She appeared in Berlin and Chicago: “Digest of the Turkish Press,” Feb. 5–18, 1933, p. 17, NARA, RG59, M1224, Reel 21. At one gala dinner: “Digest of the Turkish Press,” Aug. 7–20, 1932, p. 6, NARA, RG59, M1224, Reel 21. When Istanbul’s commuters drove along: “Digest of the Turkish Press,” Aug. 7–20, 1932, p. 4.
HOLY WISDOM
267“If the Hellenes Are Doing It”: “Yunanlılar Yapıyor, Biz Neden Yapmıyalım?” Cumhuriyet, Feb. 19, 1929.
268“So the church has become”: Procopius, Buildings, in Procopius, 1.1.27. “Oh, Solomon”: Quoted in Kinross, Europa Minor, 141.
269According to tradition, a delegation of Slavs: Quoted in Nelson, Hagia Sophia, 14.
270From that day, he ordered: Runciman, Fall of Constantinople, 147–49.
271The Fossatis had also been the first to remove: Teteriatnikov, Mosaics of Hagia Sophia, 3.
272He posed for noirish studio shots: Whittemore Papers, DO-ICFA, Box 9, Folder 144. Short and thin-framed: Whittemore Papers, DO-ICFA, Box 9, Folder 151; Downes, Scarlet Thread, 39. He could appear at the oddest of moments: “Yeats and Heifetz Sailing on Europa,” New York Times, Dec. 27, 1932; Downes, Scarlet Thread, 39. Prichard may have been: Whittemore probably also knew Gertrude Stein from her time as a student at Radcliffe in the late 1890s. See Klein, “The Elusive Mr. Whittemore: The Early Years, 1871–1916,” in Klein, Ousterhout, and Pitarakis, eds., Kariye Camii, Yeniden/The Kariye Camii Reconsidered, 473fn31.
273In 1910, Whittemore visited: Klein, “
The Elusive Mr. Whittemore,” 475. His mind, he once confided to a friend: Whittemore to Isabella Stewart-Gardner, Aug. 24, 1921, Whittemore Papers, DO-ICFA, Box 11, Folder 161 (copy from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, via Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution).
274The lands under their control: Hélène Ahrweiler, “Byzantine Concepts of the Foreigner: The Case of the Nomads,” in Ahrweiler and Laiou, eds., Studies on the Internal Diaspora, 2. “I have reached at length”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, 6:413.
275The first journal of Byzantine studies: Elizabeth Jeffreys, John Haldon, and Robin Cormack, “Byzantine Studies as an Academic Discipline,” in Jeffreys with Haldon and Cormack, eds., Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, 5. During the First World War, he had delivered: Equerry of Queen Alexandra to “All Military, Civil, and Customs Authorities concerned,” Mar. 11, 1919, CERYE, Box 99, Folder 2.
276“[H]e had a gift”: Runciman, Traveller’s Alphabet, 56–57. Whittemore’s version of events: “Rose Petal Flavored Ice Cream in Company of a Harvard Scholar,” Boston Globe, Aug. 19, 1948. The Harem of Topkapı Palace: “Topkapı Sarayının Harem Dairesi Açılıyor,” Cumhuriyet, Apr. 8, 1930.
277In October 1930, the two countries: Alexandris, Greek Minority of Istanbul, 179. In the summer of 1931, the Turkish Council of Ministers: Nelson, Hagia Sophia, 176.
278Once they were exposed: Teteriatnikov, Mosaics of Hagia Sophia, 44. Islam prohibited human images: “Mosaics Uncovered in Famous Mosque,” New York Times, Dec. 25, 1932.
279Now, at last, the artistic glories: “Ayasofya’nın Mozayıkları: lme Hürmet Lazımdır,” Cumhuriyet, Nov. 14, 1932. On the crowded train back to Istanbul: Whittemore to Gano, July 19, 1932, Byzantine Institute Records, DO-ICFA, Subgroup I: Records, Series I: Correspondence, Box 1, Folder 5. Whittemore staged films of his team: See Byzantine Institute Records, DO-ICFA, Subgroup II: Fieldwork Papers, Series IV, Subseries D: Moving Images (16mm films).
280It turned out to be: The Fossati brothers had made sketches of the mosaic and took steps to stabilize it, but it had never been fully described or restored, a fact that led the great Byzantinist Cyril Mango to describe Whittemore’s work as a “rediscovery” of the Deesis. Mango, Materials, 29.
282Whittemore’s team estimated: Teteriatnikov, Mosaics of Hagia Sophia, 47.
283The higher the angle: Teteriatnikov, Mosaics of Hagia Sophia, 52. For an especially vibrant effect: Teteriatnikov, Mosaics of Hagia Sophia, 56.
284Plaster casts were also made: Teteriatnikov, Mosaics of Hagia Sophia, 61.
285The Hagia Sophia “is the universe of buildings”: Quoted in Nelson, Hagia Sophia, 170. In 1934, the Turkish Council of Ministers: “Ayasofya Müzesi,” Cumhuriyet, Jan. 26, 1935. Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson: See Byzantine Institute Records, DO-ICFA, Subgroup II: Fieldwork Papers, Series IV, Box 45: “Photographs: Hagia Sophia and Kariye Camii, ca. 1930s–1940s,” Folder 482: “Photographs of Thomas Whittemore with Edward VIII of England”; and Natalia Teteriatnikov, “The Byzantine Institute and Its Role in the Conservation of the Kariye Camii,” in Klein, ed., Restoring Byzantium, 51. In the spring of 1939, a German tourist: “Dr. Göbbels ehrimize Geldi,” Cumhuriyet, Apr. 13, 1939. “The dome has a graceful elegance”: Goebbels, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Apr. 14, 1939.
286Life seemed wonderful: Goebbels, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Apr. 14, 1939.
SHADOW WARS
289At a funeral it doesn’t matter: Deringil, Turkish Foreign Policy, 184. “Where should we be now”: Quoted in Knatchbull-Hugessen, Diplomat in Peace and War, 138.
290The same month as Goebbels’s visit: von Papen, Memoirs, 446.
292Yet, unlike a Mussolini: Knatchbull-Hugessen, Diplomat in Peace and War, 135. His skin had gone sallow: Runciman, A Traveller’s Alphabet, 57. Cirrhosis of the liver had sapped: Mango, Atatürk, 518–19. Children poured from schools: Sperco, Istanbul indiscret, 69.
293Atatürk’s last words: Mango, Atatürk, 525. Nearly a dozen people: Mango, Atatürk, 525.
294According to the British ambassador: Knatchbull-Hugessen, Diplomat in Peace and War, 144.
295“You could almost throw a stone”: Transcript of Ira Hirschmann speech, Oct. 22, 1944, p. 2, Hirschmann Papers, FDR, Box 3, File “‘Saving Refugees Through Turkey,’ Address by Ira Hirschmann Over CBS, 10/22/44.”
296When the first German professor: “Bir Ecnebi Profesör lk Defa Türkçe Ders Verdi,” Cumhuriyet, Nov. 23, 1933. Albert Einstein might have been part: Shaw, Turkey and the Holocaust, 5–8. For an exhaustive study of German academics and refugees, see Reisman, Turkey’s Modernization.
297Many of these expatriates: “The German N.S.D.A.P. Organization in Turkey,” Feb. 5, 1943, p. 1, NARA, RG226, Entry 106, Box 36. On Sundays, local Germans: Memorandum from Betty Carp, Mar. 3, 1942, p. 1, NARA, RG226, Entry 106, Box 35. Many of the senior officers: “The German N.S.D.A.P. Organization in Turkey,” Feb. 5, 1943, pp. 1–3. The Tokatlian Hotel: “List of German and Pro-German Firms in Istanbul, Turkey,” Feb. 15, 1943, p. 1, NARA, RG226, Entry 106, Box 36. With the boycott: Bali, Bir Türkletirme Serüveni, 316–20.
298Moreover, the presence of White Russians: “A History of X-2 in Turkey from Its Inception to 31 August 1944,” p. 1, NARA, RG226, Entry 210, Box 58, File 5. By one count, seventeen: Rubin, Istanbul Intrigues, 5.
299Rendel’s daughter, Anne: Rendel, The Sword and the Olive, 181. Two German security officers: Rendel, The Sword and the Olive, 186. Farewells were toasted: Rendel, The Sword and the Olive, 187. “My impression was strengthened”: Rendel, The Sword and the Olive, 188.
300A flash of light: My account of the Pera Palace explosion is based on memoranda, photographs, witness reports, and letters in NAUK, FO 198/106, 198/107, 371/29748, 371/29749, 371/29751, 371/37529, 371/48154, 781/57, 950/10, 960/139, and 950/631; and Rendel, The Sword and the Olive, chapter 16.
302The bag contained a fuse: Knatchbull-Hugessen to London, Mar. 12, 1941, NAUK, FO 371/29748, ff. 143–44. Bulgarian agents: “Background Paper on the ‘Pera Palace’ Explosion of March 11, 1941, and Claims Arising Therefrom,” n.d., NAUK, FO 950/631. “Having come to the conclusion”: Istanbul Assistant Public Prosecutor, “Copy of Decision,” Apr. 10, 1941, p. 4, NAUK, FO 371/37529. The British government eventually paid: “Pera Palace Claimants,” n.d., NAUK, FO 950/10; and Knatchbull-Hugessen to Foreign Office, Mar. 13, 1941, NAUK, FO 371/29749, f. 17.
303Istanbul was on the front line: “Tehlike Kapımızı Çalarsa,” Cumhuriyet, Mar. 31, 1941. Trees, sidewalks, and electric poles: “Seyrüsefer Tedbirleri,” Cumhuriyet, Nov. 28, 1940. During the drills: “Bugün Dikkatli Olunuz!” Cumhuriyet, Jan. 20, 1941. To conserve fuel: “Balkan Intelligence Center Report,” Nov. 1940, NAUK, WO 208/72B.
305The sexual peccadilloes of diplomats: Woods, Spunyarn, 2:111. In those days, Muslims seen conversing: Herbert, Ben Kendim, 37. “Istanbul has many people”: Boyd to Donovan, Sept. 25, 1944, p. 3, NARA, RG226, Entry 210, Box 58, File 4. The Emniyet regularly supplied: “A History of X-2 in Turkey,” p. 10, and Lt. Col. John H. Maxson, “Report on Organization and Operation of X-2, Turkey, 1944,” p. 16, NARA, RG226, Entry 210, Box 58, File 5.
306When a newcomer arrived: Kollek, For Jerusalem, 42–43. In February 1943: On the details surrounding the return, see Olson, “Remains of Talat.”
307British intelligence services: See “Istanbul Office—History,” Mar. 15, 1945, NAUK, HS 7/86.
308He had been recruited into the service: Boyd to Donovan, Sept. 15, 1944, p. 2, NARA, RG226, Entry 210, Box 58, File 4. A detailed history of this silent war: See expense vouchers in NARA, RG226, Entry 199, File 1193. If an agent needed a hernia belt: Receipt from Ucuz Çanta Pazarı, Dec. 31, 1943, NARA, RG226, Entry 109, Box 187, File 1208. “Espionage directed against other countries”: “A History of X-2 in Turkey,” p. 2.
309The money he carried: Maxson, “Report on Organization and Operation of X-2,” p. 4. He was given an office: “A History of X-2 in Turkey,” p. 3. Professors, receptionists, and the registrar: �
��A History of X-2 in Turkey,” p. 3.
310There she had regularly invited: Carp to Dulles, Mar. 13, 1942, NARA, RG226, Entry 106, Location 190/6/4/03. Carp and Allen Dulles had known one another since Dulles’s brief period at the American Embassy in Istanbul during the Allied occupation. He remained one of her principal contacts in the OSS during the war and eventually became the first civilian head of the OSS’s successor, the CIA. “Mr. Thomas Whittemore”: Carp to Gurfein, Jan. 12, 1943, NARA, RG226, Entry 106, Location 190/6/4/03. “They are everywhere”: Wickham to Donovan, Aug. 11, 1944, p. 11, NARA, RG226, Entry 210, Box 194, File 9. Within only a few months: “A History of X-2 in Turkey,” p. 3. In particular, the Abwehr: “A History of X-2 in Turkey,” p. 11.
311Americans seemed especially willing: “A History of X-2 in Turkey,” p. 11. Tongues loosened by alcohol: Maxson, “Report on Organization and Operation of X-2,” p. 22. Its words were mimeographed . . . it became such a fashionable tune: “Addenda, History—Security Branch—OSS Istanbul,” May 1943–Sept. 1, 1944, p. 1, NARA, RG226, Entry 210, Box 185, File 9; and “History—Security Branch—OSS Istanbul,” May 1943–Sept. 1, 1944, p. 3, NARA, RG226, Entry 210, Box 185, File 12. “I’m involved in a dangerous game”: “History—Security Branch—OSS Istanbul,” May 1943–Sept. 1, 1944, Appendix C, p. 2, NARA, RG226, Entry 210, Box 185, File 12.
312Most of the Dogwood reports had been: Wickham to Donovan, Aug. 11, 1944, p. 4. The Turks’ only complaint about him: Massigli, La Turquie devant la guerre, 133.
313“You see, I hate the British”: Quoted in Moysich, Operation Cicero, 31. The considerable sums of money: Rubin, Istanbul Intrigues, 247.
314Even at Turkey’s Republic Day celebrations: Rubin, Istanbul Intrigues, 4. Teddy Kollek, an Austrian citizen by birth: Kollek, For Jerusalem, 43.
PAPER TRAILS
317He cabled Winston Churchill: Muhayye to Churchill, n.d., NAUK, FO 371/29751, f. 18. He was eventually awarded: “Bombed British Officials Must Pay, Turks Decide,” New York Times, Apr. 24, 1947. In 1935, a prominent Turkish diplomat: “Col. Aziz Bey a Suicide,” New York Times, Oct. 1, 1935. In 1939, a Yemeni man: “50 Kurula Perapalas’ta Üç Ay Yaayan Adam!” Cumhuriyet, Oct. 13, 1939.