‘Thank you again.’ Satinov was aware that his face was expression-free. After all, to hide his feelings was second nature to him.
‘Before I go, Comrade Satinov, may I ask you something? My mother’s arrest was such a blow to me as a child. But I never quite understood why she
‘Even we didn’t know everything. We only saw what Stalin wanted us to see.’
‘So you know she was arrested for lack of vigilance with state secrets and abetting an Enemy of the People. She was named again in the Doctors’ Plot for planning to murder some of the leaders medically and if Stalin hadn’t died…’
‘She’d have been shot.’
‘Yes. She thought she’d had a lucky escape. But could it have been something to do with my father?’
‘Possibly. Stalin arrested the wives of Molotov, Kalinin and Poskrebyshev.’
‘Well, my father’s been dead for twenty years now, and I sometimes wonder whether her arrest could have been connected to the Children’s Case.’
‘Also possible. She helped Benya Golden get the job at the school. Did you know they were at university together in Odessa?’
Senka tilted his head, and Satinov was struck once again by his likeness to Dashka.
‘And then there’s this,’ Senka said. ‘Something’s always bothered me. Could it have been anything to do with me?’
Satinov thought for a while. ‘Tell me,’ he said at last. ‘Did your mother ever talk about her patients at home?’
‘No. Sometimes she whispered to my father and I heard a couple of names.’
‘Such as?’
‘Well, there was Zhdanov, but everyone knew about his heart disease.’
Satinov nodded. ‘You always knew quite a lot for a youngster, but then you were the Little Professor.’
Senka’s answering smile was the very image of his mother’s. ‘Why do you ask if my mother talked about her patients?’
‘Just curiosity. She was so discreet.’ Satinov offered him a cigarette and took one himself. ‘It must have been quite an experience being arrested during the Children’s Case?’
‘Your Mariko was even younger.’
‘True, but she was only there for a short time. You spent much longer in Lubianka.’
‘It was frightening but I concentrated very hard, even though I was so young, on not getting my parents into trouble.’
‘You know we executed Komarov and Likhachev with Abakumov in 1954?’
A look of distaste crossed Senka’s sensitive face. What does one expect from a liberal intellectual? thought Satinov.
‘They were thugs,’ he said. ‘After Stalin’s death, I read your interrogations in the KGB files. I have to say: they set you a terrible trap.’
‘They wanted me to incriminate my parents.’
Satinov shook his head. ‘Our Organs were full of criminal elements in Stalin’s time.’
Senka looked anxious. ‘At the time, I thought my solution had worked. But when they arrested my mother, I wasn’t so sure. I long to know if I was to blame for what happened to her next.’
Satinov got up and went to his huge chrome safe. He opened it, brought out a heap of papers, and leafed through them. ‘I was looking at these the other day. And here it is, how clever you were. You see here? After your testimony: “Accusations not to be pursued.”’ He paused. ‘I was there when you came out. Do you remember?’
‘I do, very clearly.’
‘When you saw your mother sitting there in the waiting room, you were so excited. We could hear you talking about her; you were so proud of her!’
Senka threw his head back just like Dashka. ‘That’s right!’
Satinov clicked his fingers. ‘But then you said something else. I can almost hear it. What was it?’
‘Well, I said Mama was the best doctor in Russia.’
‘What else?’
‘That all the top people saw her!’
‘Ah – that was it,’ said Satinov, thinking back to his days in exile when he had almost wished Dashka ill for making him love her so much. There had been times too when he wondered if he personally had brought about her downfall. Now finally, Senka had solved things.
What Senka had not known was that just before the Victory Parade in June 1945, Poskrebyshev, Stalin’s secretary, had made an appointment to see his mother. He had told her that he himself was not ill. Instead, he had driven her to a dacha where she had examined Stalin, diagnosed arteriosclerosis and a small heart attack, and advised at least three months’ rest. Aware that his frailty was the only obstacle to his supremacy, Stalin had never consulted her again. His doctors were the only people on earth who had any power over him, their diagnoses the only threat to his power.
Now Satinov realized that Senka, who had so effectively protected his mama, had announced to a room full of Chekists: ‘Oh yes, she’s the best doctor in the world. She sees all the top people.’ Reported somehow by word of mouth, this had reached Stalin.
