The kitchen was neat and plain and old. They sat behind the wooden kitchen table and drank coffee and had corn muffins. Then Vikki took Anthony out in the snow. Mary cupped her mug of coffee and said, "Tatiana, I want to help you. Since you wrote, I been trying to remember what my boy said to me. You understand, I didn't see him in three years, and when he came back he was all closed up. Closed up to me, to his old friends, to the world. The girl he used to see in high school married someone else. Who'd wait that long when you're so young? So Paul would sit around here, or he'd go in the truck down to the local bar. He talked a little about opening the farm again, but with his dad gone that seemed so unlikely." She paused. Tatiana waited. "And he seemed so detached. And then he just gone and killed hisself, too many guns around here, so I been kind of reeling from it and much of what he said to me flew my mind."

"I understand. I'm sorry. Anything you can recall would be helpful."

"I know Paul got that phone call a few days before he died. He didn't tell me nothing, just sat here at this table for the rest of the afternoon. Refused dinner. Went out for a drink, came back, and late at night was sitting here again, or out in the back on the porch. I asked, believe me, I asked several times what the matter was. Finally he said, 'Mom, we liberated that castle and there was a man there who said he was an American, and I didn't believe him. I said...something smart in return. And I didn't see him after that...and the next day, the Red Army came to get their POWs. Except that this man's perfect English stuck in my memory. So when I came back stateside, I called Washington, just to put my mind at ease.' He sort of made a choking sound then. He said, 'The phone call I got this afternoon? Someone from the State Department. That man was an American once upon a time. He was an American, trapped there somehow.' And I tried to say something comforting like, well, he was just sent back to his own country. Just like you was sent back to your own country. And Paul waved me off and said, 'Mom, you don't understand. Our orders-my orders-were to keep all the Soviet officers under surveillance until their army came to reclaim them.'

"'So?' I said.

"'Why does an army need to reclaim them? Why don't they just go back in mobs and crowds, of their own accord, like we did, like the English did? Our armies didn't come to reclaim us. But the point is, that man wasn't a Soviet.' I didn't understand, you know? I told him that there was nothing he could have done, and he said, 'I don't feel better because I'm helpless, Mother.' And he wring his hands so, and I said, 'Son, but what does the Soviet Union have to do with you? You're not sending those people back.' And he put his head down on the table and said, 'Maybe I could have done something for just that one.'"

Tatiana got up and came round Mary's side of the table. She put her arms around the woman. "And he did, Mary. He did."

Mary nodded.

"I'm very sorry."

"I'll be all right. My other daughter lives nearby. I been alone since my husband died in '38. I'll be all right." She looked up. "Do you think that man was your husband?"

"Without a doubt," replied Tatiana.

On the train back, Tatiana was engrossed in the way the snow lay on the fields outside her window. Anthony was asleep. So was Vikki, Tatiana thought, but then Vikki opened one eye, then the other, and said, "So what now?"

Tatiana didn't answer.

"So what now?" Vikki repeated.

"I don't have all answers, Vik," replied Tatiana. "I don't know what now."

But suddenly the world made a bit of sense again. Alexander was not in the lake.

Somewhere in the world Alexander was still living. In the largest country in the world, sprawled over one sixth of the earth's land mass, one half tundra and permafrost, one quarter steppe, one eighth coniferous forest, part desert, part arable land, with the largest lake in the world, the largest sea in the world, the largest protected border in the world, the largest socialist experiment in the world, was Alexander.

All her small paths of faith had led her to an alive Alexander.

And now what?

Upon her return Tatiana immediately called Sam, but he could not find out what had happened to the Soviet prisoners from Colditz. The Soviet military wasn't speaking, relations were icy, and though Sam had contacted two other privates who were with Markey at Colditz, they had not heard an English voice from the Soviet prisoners and Markey had not spoken to them about it.

"Contact Soviet Department of Defense and ask what happened to Soviet officers at Colditz."

"What should I say? Have you got that Alexander Barrington stowed away somewhere?"

"You're just joking. You know you can't mention him by name."

"Oh, that's right. I'm not allowed to actually make any inquiries on his behalf."

"Sam, call our Defense Department."

"Anyone in particular at the Defense Department? Maybe Lieutenant Tom Richter?"

"Yes, if he has answers. Ask him what happened to the Soviets at Colditz. If he doesn't know, ask what happened to Soviet officers in Germany."

"Tania, you know what happened to them!"

"I want to know where they were taken," she said. "And there is no need to shout."

"Even if I did find out, what are you supposed to do with that information?"

"Why you always worry about my part? Just do your part."

She didn't reschedule her plans with Edward.

A few days later, she called Sam again. He told her that a major general in Patton's army said that last year the Soviets were rounding up all of what they called their nationals and keeping them in transit camps until they could transport them back to the Soviet Union.

"How many is everyone?"

"The major general did not say. He did not hazard a guess."

"Can you?"

"Even less than him."

"Where are these transit camps?"

"All over Germany."

Tatiana was thoughtful.

"Tania, for certain he is in the Soviet Union by now. Liberation of Colditz was nearly ten months ago. But regardless of where he is, the Soviets aren't giving their men back to us no matter how nicely we ask. They won't give our men back to us! We have soldiers MIA on the Soviet side. They aren't giving us any information at all."

"Alexander is MIA," Tatiana said.

"No, he isn't! The Soviets know precisely where he is!" And quieter, Sam said, "Tania, haven't you heard the death statistics for the Soviet POWs? They're staggering."

"Yes," she said. "I'm still holding death certificate you placed so much faith in. You told me he was most certainly in lake."

"This is worse."

"How is this worse? We just have to find where he is."

"He is in the Soviet Union!"

"Then find him in Soviet Union, Sam. He is American citizen. You have responsibility to him."

"Oh, Tatiana! How many times do I have to tell you? He lost his citizenship in 1936."

"No, he did not. Sam, I have to go. I have patients. I will talk to you tomorrow."

"Of course you will."

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT.

The Nuremberg Trials, February 1946 "COME ON, LET'S GO out," Vikki said petulantly. "What are you listening to that for? Let's go to a movie, or a coffee bar, or for a walk." She pounded the kitchen table. "I'm so tired of it. We've been listening to it for months. We're never getting a television, I just want you to know that."

Tatiana had her ear to the radio as she was listening to the audio transcript of the Nuremberg trials.

"I'm not listening just for sake of something to do," said Tatiana, turning up the radio. "I'm listening because it's riveting."

"Do you see me riveted? The war is over, they're all guilty, they're all to be hanged, when is enough enough? It's been going on for months. The generals have all been convicted. These are just the lackeys. I can't take much more."

"Can you go for walk?" Tatiana said without turning her head. "Go now, and stay out for two hours."

"You'll be sorry if I leave for good."

"Yes. But not if you leave for two hours."

Vikki, with a harrumph, sat in the chair next to her. "No, no. I want to hear."

"They're talking about my Leningrad," said Tatiana. "Listen."

In the criminal plans of the Fascist conspirators, the devastation of the capitals of the Soviet Union occupied a particular place. Among these plans the destruction of Moscow and Leningrad received special attention.

Intoxicated by their first military successes, the Hitlerites elaborated insane plans for the destruction of the greatest cultural and industrial centres dear to the Soviet people. For this purpose they prepared special Sonderkommandos. They even advertised their "decision" in advance.

It is necessary to note that such expressions as "raze to the ground" or "wipe from the face of the earth" were used quite frequently by the Hitlerite conspirators. These were not only threats but criminal acts as well.

I shall now present two documents which reveal the intentions of the Hitlerite conspirators.

The first document is a secret directive of the Naval Staff dated 22 September, 1941. It is entitled "The Future of the city of Petersburg." In this directive it is stated: "The Fuehrer has decided to wipe the city of Petersburg from the face of the earth" that it is planned to blockade the city securely, to subject it to artillery bombardment of all calibres and by means of constant bombing from the air to raze the city to the ground. It is also decreed in the order that should there be a request for capitulation, such a request should be turned down by the Germans.

The second document is also a secret directive of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces dated 7 October, 1941, and signed by the defendant Jodl. I read into the record a few excerpts from this letter: "...The Fuehrer again came to the conclusion that a capitulation of Leningrad or later of Moscow is not to be accepted even if it is offered by the enemy..."

And further, the next to last paragraph of this page: "...Therefore, no German soldier is to enter these cities. By the fury of our fire we must force all who try to leave the city through our lines to turn back. We cannot take the responsibility of endangering our soldiers' lives in order to save in their entirety all Russian cities, nor that of feeding the population of these cities at the expense of the German Homeland."

The Hitlerite conspirators began to put their criminal ideas regarding the destruction of Leningrad into effect with unprecedented ferocity.

I read: "As a result of the barbarous activities of the German Fascist invaders in Leningrad and its suburbs, 8,961 household and adjoining buildings-sheds, baths, etc.-with a total volume of 5,192,427 cubic metres were completely destroyed, and 5,869 buildings with a total volume of 14,308,288 cubic metres were partially destroyed. Completely destroyed were 20,627 dwellings, with a total volume of 25,492,780 cubic metres, and 8,788 buildings, with a total volume of 10,081,035 cubic metres were partially demolished. Completely destroyed were 295 buildings of cultural importance, with a total volume of 844,162 cubic metres, and 1,629 buildings with a total volume of 4,798,644 cubic metres were partially ruined. Six buildings dedicated to religious sects were completely, and 66 such buildings partially, destroyed. The Hitlerites destroyed, ruined and damaged various kinds of buildings valued at over 718,000,000 rubles, as well as industrial equipment and agricultural machinery and implements worth over 1,043,000,000 rubles."

This document establishes that the Hitlerites bombed and shelled, methodically and according to plan, day and night, streets, dwelling-houses, theatres, museums, hospitals, kindergartens, military hospitals, schools, institutes and streetcars, and ruined the most valuable monuments of culture and art. Many thousands of bombs and shells hammered the historical buildings of Leningrad, and its quays, gardens and parks. For the bombardment of Leningrad, there was in the batteries a special stock of munitions supplied over and above the average, to an unlimited amount...All the gun crews knew that the bombardment of Leningrad was aimed at ruining the town and annihilating its civilian population.

Vikki said to Tatiana, "Did you know any of this when you were there?" "I didn't know any of it," Tatiana replied. "I lived through all of it."

GENERAL RAGINSKY: Mr. President, in order to exhaust fully the presentation of evidence in regard to the subject-matter of my report, I ask your permission to examine witness Josif Abgarovitch Orbeli- Tatiana dropped the cup of tea she was drinking, and it fell on the tile floor and broke, and Tatiana fell on the floor, too, on her knees, and began to pick up the pieces, every moment or so emitting cries of such distress that Vikki, who was nearby, jumped up, backed away and said in a stunned voice, "What's wrong with you?"

Tatiana waved her off with one hand, her other hand holding a ceramic shard which covered her mouth as she continued to listen to the bare echo that was the radio broadcast as it ceaselessly continued. A crash on the road, but the radio still plays music, still transmits sounds no matter how incongruous it is that the ear can somehow hear, that the brain can somehow listen- -Orbeli will testify in regard to the destruction of the monuments of culture and art in Leningrad.

Q. What is your name?

A. Josif Abgarovitch Orbeli.

Q. Witness, will you tell us, please, what position you occupied?

A. I was Director of the State Hermitage Museum- Tatiana groaned in pain.

"What?" Vikki said with alarm. "What?"

"Shh"- Q. Were you in Leningrad at the time of the German blockade?

A. Yes, I was.

Q. Do you know about the destruction of monuments of culture and art in Leningrad?

A. Yes.

Q. Can you tell us in your own words facts that are known to you?

A. I was an eye-witness of the measures undertaken by the enemy for the destruction of the Hermitage Museum. During many long months these buildings were under systematic air bombardment and artillery shelling. Two aerial bombs and about thirty artillery shells hit the Hermitage. The shells caused considerable damage to the building, and the aerial bombs destroyed the drainage system and water conduit system of the Hermitage.

Artillery shells caused considerable damage to the Hermitage and to the surrounding areas.

Q. In what part of Leningrad were these buildings-in the south, the north, the south-west or south-east section?

A. The Winter Palace and the Hermitage are right in the centre of Leningrad on the banks of the Neva.

Q. Can you tell me whether near the Hermitage and Winter Palace there are any industries, particularly armament industries?

A. So far as I know, in the vicinity of the Hermitage, there are no military enterprises. If the question meant the building of the General Staff, that is located on the other side of the Palace Square, and it suffered much less from shelling than the Winter Palace. The General Staff building, which is on the other side of the Palace Square, was, so far as I know, hit only by two shells.

Q. Do you know whether there were artillery batteries, perhaps, near the buildings which you mentioned?

A. On the whole square around the Winter Palace and the Hermitage there was not a single artillery battery, because from the very beginning steps were taken to prevent any unnecessary vibration near the buildings where such precious museum pieces were.

Q. Did the factories, the armament factories, continue production during the siege?

A. I do not understand the question. What factories are you talking about-the factories of Leningrad in general?

Q. The Leningrad armament factories: did they continue production during the siege?

A. On the grounds of the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, and in the immediate neighborhood, there were no military concerns. They never were there and during the blockade no factories were built there. But I know that in Leningrad munitions were being made, and were successfully used.

Q. Witness, the Winter Palace is on the Neva river. How far from the Winter Palace is the nearest bridge across the Neva river?