Jacob's Ladder

by Ludmila Ulitskaya

  Now there was just one thing left to do—to find out about what happened beyond what the letters revealed. That was Nora’s final step. She visited the KGB archives.

  The archives were located by Kuznetsky Bridge, five minutes by foot from the dark heart of the city, from the Lubyanka. Nora said she would like to see the papers on file for the case of Jacob Ossetsky, who was released from prison at the end of 1955. The archival assistant asked Nora whether she had any documents attesting to her relationship.

  “I have the same surname, and I have my father’s birth certificate, which bears the name of my grandfather.”

  “No problem, then. Leave your phone number, and we’ll order the file of your grandfather’s case and call you within the next two weeks,” said the very forthcoming archival assistant.

  Two weeks later, she called to inform Nora that she could come to acquaint herself with Jacob Ossetsky’s case. Nora went to the archives.

  The woman delivered a folder, on the cover of which were these words:

  Case. OSSETSKY, J. S.

  Opened: 1 December 1948.

  Closed: 4 April 1949.

  Submitted to archive R-6649

  KGB Archive No. 2160

  The folder was thick. There were large-format sealed envelopes inserted between the yellowing pages, sewn together. The archival assistant warned her that the envelopes must not be unsealed. It was also forbidden to photograph, scan, or photocopy the contents, but she was permitted to take notes and copy extracts. She found a photograph in an unsealed envelope. Jacob Ossetsky, on the day he was processed, in profile and full face—with a shaved head, a small mustache, and a firmly compressed mouth.

  The face took her breath away.

  Nora placed a plain notebook she had brought from home next to the case file. The first three pages of the notebook had been filled up with Yurik’s handwriting in 1991, not long before he left for America; she hadn’t been able to find a fresh notebook at home, and the stationer’s store was closed. She turned the page with Yurik’s chicken scratch, and began to take notes:

  Born … studied … served in the army … worked …

  First arrest 1931: 3 years exile (Stalingrad Tractor Plant)

  Second arrest 1933: 3 years exile (Biysk)

  Third arrest: December 2, 1948

  Nora had already read about the first two terms of exile in her grandfather’s letters. About the last term, she knew only that he had been imprisoned in 1948 and released in 1955.

  Her eyes came to rest on a sheet of thick, fine-quality paper on which was written, in wonderful prerevolutionary clerk’s script: “Arrest Warrant from December 1, 1948.” And a fingerprint!

  On the other pages—yellowing, dog-eared—was written the entire history, in an awkward, unlettered (in every sense) hand. Nora barely noticed these shortcomings, however.

  The search was carried out at the place of residence of his sister Eva Samoilovna Rezvinsky at 41 Ostozhenka Street, Apt. 32, who works as a teacher of French and German in School No. 57. During the search, his sister E. Rezvinsky and the yardman and building janitor Soskova, M. N., were present. The witness was Chmurilo, A. A.

  What followed was a long list of his belongings, which Nora began to copy down, though she stopped before reaching the end of the list.

  DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY:

    1. Iron bed

    2. Bookstands, two pieces

    3. Telefunken radio set, imported

  One page of entries was missing. The list began again with:

  17. Plywood suitcase

  18. Abacus

  19. Safety razor

  20. Slide rule

  21. Men’s overcoat, mid-season, herringbone, used

  22. Men’s overcoat, summer-weight wool

  23. Men’s suit, wool

  24. Black two-piece suit—old

  25. Men’s jacket, wool

  26. Shirts, 3 old

  27. Undershirts, 2 old

  28. Long underwear, 4 pairs, old

  29. Underwear, 4 pairs, old

  30. Towel, cotton

  In her mind, Nora arranged the bed, the two bookcases, and a table in a narrow room. She distributed some of the “used” objects, and realized she was already staging a play …

  DURING THE SEARCH, THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WERE CONFISCATED:

    1. Dissertation of J. Ossetsky, Demographic Notions of Generations, 3 volumes, 754 pp., 1946–1948

    2. Brochure by J. Ossetsky, Statistical Data on the European Economy

    3. Journal, Thought, issues 6–11 from 1919, Kharkov

    4. Materials in draft form, British-Palestinian Handbook, 577 pp.

    5. Notes on economic statistics, 314 pp.

    6. Letters, 173 items, numbering 190 pp.

    7. Newspapers in various foreign languages (English, German, French, and Turkish—according to J. Ossetsky), 18 items

    8. Reports for the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee on the Palestine question, 4 volumes, typewritten, with an inscription on each volume: “Mikhoels”

    9. Report on the Palestine question for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR (with an inscription: “to B. Stern, adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”)

  There were sixty-eight entries altogether. Following this was a list of books, also lengthy:

  BOOKS:

    1. Pokrovsky, Rus. History

    2. Martov, History of Russian Social-Democracy, with notations

    3. Urlanis, Population Growth in Europe

    4. History of the Jewish People, Mir Publishers, 1915

    5. The Jewish Encyclopedia, prerevolutionary edition, 17 volumes

    6. L. Rosenthal, About Uprisings, with notations

    7. Yu. Larin, Soc. Structure of the USSR and the Fate of the Agrarian Population, with notations

    8. Karl Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, with notations

  Nora glanced at the end of the list—980 entries, half of which were in foreign languages.

  During the search, also confiscated were 34 large-format notebooks, 65 folders and 180 notepads on the history of literature and music, and a savings-account passbook to the tune of 400 rubles.

  There was also a receipt, No. 1807/6, from the internal prison of the Ministry of State Security, dated December 2, 1948, and a list of what he carried with him, from pillowcases to cuff links.

  On a separate piece of paper, twenty pages later, Nora discovered the following decree:

  Decree of March 21, 1949:

  The enumerated materials are to be destroyed by means of burning.

  Signed: Major Ezepov

  On the following page was a report on the “fulfillment of the decree to destroy by burning in the Internal Prison of the Ministry of State Security–KGB, in the presence of Major Ezepov.” With the signature of the major.

  The experts had studied Grandfather’s book and papers for three months, judging by the dates, before they were condemned to fire.

  At this point, Nora was overcome with nausea, broke off her note-taking, handed the “Case” back to the kindly archival assistant, and left. She returned on the following day and kept coming until the end of the week, copying out excerpts of the case into a notebook, not really understanding why she was doing this. The notebook was already half filled, but Nora couldn’t stop.

  Medical files and records. In one, “chronic radiculitus”; in another, more cultured, in Latin—“eczema tybolicum, chronic case.” And, the conclusion—“able-bodied and fit for physical labor.”

  Nora glanced down at her wrists. During the last few years, her eczema had abated. The only reminder of it was the thin, shiny layer of skin that covered the formerly affected parts. And the newborn baby, from his first days, had allergic contact dermatitis. Evidently a congenital condition. Genes …

  Protocol of interrogation from December 2, 1948.

  Twenty-four handwritten p
ages. At the end, the signature: Lieutenant Colonel Gorbunov. And another one: Ossetsky.

  It was a mild interrogation, neutral. Question-and-answer.

  Q: Among the material evidence in your case is the work Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power? Did you have any doubts in this regard?

  A: The work in question was written by Lenin. It was written in September 1917, and we were discussing this article in 1931 or 1932 … I don’t remember exactly.

  Q: We, meaning who? Identify them by name.

  A: That was more than sixteen years ago. I don’t remember exactly.

  At first, Nora copied everything down in sequence; then she began to cull excerpts—parts that were underlined in red pencil.

  —Denies anti-Soviet activity (propaganda) …

  —Denies taking part in the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in Kharkov in 1918 …

  —States that his father, Samuil Ossetsky, was an employee at a mill before the Revolution …

  —Admits to being acquainted with the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, Solomon Mikhoels, and the secretary, Heifetz …

  —Admits to taking part in the work of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee as a hired consultant, carrying out literary work on commission.

  Following this was a list of places he had been employed, remarkable in its length and diversity:

  1919: Municipal labor exchange, statistician, Kiev

  1920: People’s Committee of Labor, head of statistics of the labor market, Kiev

  1920–1921: Head of statistics, Union of Workers’ Cooperatives, Kiev

  1921–1923: Office of the Tsentrosoyuz, Kiev

  1923–1924: Central Statistical Administration of the Sovnarkom, Moscow

  1924–1931: Supreme Soviet of the National Economy, economist, Moscow

  In 1931: arrested, charged with sabotage. By the decision of the Collegium of the Joint State Political Directorate, banned from residence in 12 controlled-access cities of the USSR.

  1931–1933: Economist at the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. Arrested in 1933, 6 months under investigation. Sentenced by the Special Council of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the USSR (NKVD) to 3 years exile. Resided in the city of Biysk until December 1936, after which he returned to the Moscow region.

  1937: Yegoryevsky region, mines, head of the legal department.

  1938: Civilian head of the planning department in the Unzhinsk corrective labor camp

  1939: Returned to Yegoryevsk, gave private music lessons

  1940: Kuntsevo, Krasin Pencil Factory, head of production group

  1941: Scientific Research Institute of Municipal Transport, head of the planning-contract department

  1941, October: Ulyanovsk, planner in the building-and-assembly administration

  1943, May: the organization re-evacuated to Moscow

  1944: Research fellow at Timiryazev Agricultural Academy

  1945–1948: Instructor in statistics at the Economics Department of the Institute of Cinematography

  From September 1, 1948: No specific occupation

  She went back to the beginning of the file, examined the transcript from the first interrogation, paged forward to the next one, and started to compare them. The second interrogation transcript was half as long. The questions were the same, but the answers were different. Why the answers had changed, and what had happened to Ossetsky during the interval of six days between the first and the second interrogations, was anyone’s guess. Nora felt sick. She didn’t understand why she was copying out these excerpts, without rhyme or reason. But she couldn’t stop.

  J. Ossetsky is exposed as guilty, according to the deposition of Romanov, V. I., of using “malicious and obscene language when describing the leadership of the Soviet Bolshevik Communist Party and government,” as well as the deposition of Khotinsky, O. I., accusing Ossetsky of spreading rumors about starvation in Kuban during the period 1932–1933.

  J. Ossetsky denies “the possibility of [him] using any malicious and obscene language when describing anyone and admits to his participation in spreading rumors about starvation in Kuban.”

  J. Ossetsky acknowledges that before the Revolution his father, Samuil Osipovich Ossetsky, was a merchant in the first guild, a purveyor of grain, leaseholder of a mill, owned a ferry on the Dnieper, and was in possession of his own barges. In 1917, all the property was nationalized. During the NEP years, he carried on petty trade. In 1922, he was prosecuted for concealment of gold.

  J. Ossetsky acknowledges that he greeted the “bourgeois-democratic revolution positively, then worked in the Kiev Social Revolutionary–Menshevik Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, and shared the views of the Mensheviks. [He] worked in the Soviet as an instructor in the legal department until October 1917. [He] greeted the October Revolution with hostility, carried out agitation that aimed to undermine and overthrow the Soviet authorities. In 1918, [he] finally renounced [his] Menshevik views, because this party ceased to interest [him].”

  “I acknowledge that in 1931–1933 I entertained hostile views toward the policies of the Soviet Bolshevik Communist Party on issues of the collectivization of agriculture, and expressed these views to people with whom I was in communication.”

  “Be informed that I made the acquaintance of Mikhoels on my own initiative, with the goal of offering him my services in drawing up reports on the question of Palestine … I submitted four reports, numbering 150 to 250 pages, to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. The reports were approved, and I received payment amounting to more than 3,000 rubles. I expressed a pro-British bourgeois-nationalist point of view on the question of Palestine.”

  Q: With whom else did you communicate in Mikhoels’s circle?

  A: With the head of the Middle Eastern Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a former Menshevik, Stern. I was tasked by these persons to elaborate the so-called political problem, and provided them with slanderous bourgeois-nationalistic materials with a pro-British bent, which I adopted from foreign sources.

  This was an “openhearted confession,” and from this moment on it was already clear that he was doomed. It was only a matter of whether he would be sent away with the first echelons, all of whom were executed, or with the second, who received reduced sentences, starting at ten years.

  * * *

  Then they produced Ossetsky’s telephone book.

  Q: Tell us about your relationships with the people in your phone book. Alphabetically … Abashidze? Nikolai Atarov? Dmitreva? Gerchuk? Krongauz? Levashev? Litvinov? Lukyanov? Naiman? Polovtsev? Polyansky? Potapova? Shklovsky? Shor? Urlanis? Viktor Vasiliev?

  Dozens of surnames …

  Answers: Colleague … never heard of him … I don’t have his home address, never visited his home, no information, don’t remember the house number … a neighbor, used to walk his dog in the courtyard … I don’t remember the apartment number, never visited his home … a chance acquaintance from Kiev … member of the editorial board … colleague, we didn’t communicate …

  Q: Who is Mikhail Kerns?

  A: An acquaintance from Kiev. We haven’t met since before the war. He died during the war.

  Kerns was Marusya’s brother—Nora remembered this perfectly well. She knew his granddaughters, one of whom, Lyubochka, was an artist. Jacob didn’t say a word about his being Marusya’s brother. He protected her. He protected everyone. About Marusya, he said that he had cut off all relations with her in 1931. He had had no communications with her, and no information about her.

  On the fourth day of her research, Nora discovered some documents in the file that astounded her. It was a statement filed by Genrikh Ossetsky to the Party Bureau of the Institute where he worked, dated December 3, 1948, two days after his father’s arrest, and another, similar one, from January 5, 1949, addressed to the minister of state security at the time.

  Statement by Genrikh Ossetsky, head of the laboratory of the All-Union Toolmaking Scientific Research Institute, 49 B. Se
menovskaya St.

  I informed the Party Bureau of the Institute where I work about the arrest of my father, Jacob Ossetsky, by the Ministry of State Security. The arrest took place on December 1, 1948, by order of the Ministry of State Security No. 359.

  During the examination of my statement at the meeting of the Party Bureau on December 24, 1948, I was asked to recall whether there had been any hostile expressions or actions on the part of my father. Since I have not lived with my father since 1931, I interact with him very seldom. However, I did recall one fact, which seemed suspicious to the Party Bureau, and the Party Bureau requested that I report this to investigative bodies.

  At the start of the war, in about September 1941, I met my father on the street by chance. We talked about the situation at the front. My father suggested that within a short period of time the Germans might reach Moscow and occupy it. (I don’t remember the precise wording of this phrase, but that was the gist of it.) At the time, I didn’t pay any attention to what he had said, and only later did I judge his views to be reflective of a defeatist attitude.

  In carrying out the decision of the Party Bureau, and asking you about this fact, I request you to consider that henceforth in this case, if you are in need of my testimony, I will provide it to you not as the son of a prisoner, but as a member of the Bolshevik Soviet Communist Party, since I put my political convictions above my filial sentiments.

  In the event that my father is declared an enemy of the people, I will renounce him without hesitation, for the Party and the Soviet authority, which have nurtured and educated me, are dearer to me than everything else.

  January 5, 1949

  After this there was a page with the transcript of the interrogation of Genrikh Ossetsky. Her head ached terribly. She felt sick to her stomach, and her mouth was parched. A migraine, which Nora had not had for a long time, flared up. The last excerpt Nora copied that day read: “Bound for the special camp of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR—sentenced to 10 years for political agitation and propaganda, and being in possession of counterrevolutionary literature.”