The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

List of Illustrations

xxxi Antonina Golovina, 1943

2 The four secretaries of Iakov Sverdlov, chief Party organizer of the Bolsheviks, the Smolny Institute, October 1917

17 Leonid Eliashov, 1932

19 Iosif and Aleksandra Voitinsky, Yekaterinoslav, 1924

21 A Lenin Corner, 1920s

23 Aleksei and Ivan Radchenko, 1927

26 Vera Minusova, early 1930s

40 The Tetiuev family, Cherdyn, 1927

42 Batania Bonner with her grandchildren, Moscow, 1929

48 Peasant nanny, Fursei family (Leningrad)

49 Natasha Ovchinnikova

56 The Vittenburg family at Olgino, 1925

60 Konstantin Simonov, Aleksandra and Aleksandr Ivanishev, Riazan, 1927

61 Page from Simonov’s school notebook (1923)

67 The Laskin family, Moscow, 1930

71 The Slavin family, 1927

78 Yevdokiia and Nikolai with their son Aleksei Golovin (1940s)

89 ‘Kulaks’ exiled from the village of Udachne, Khryshyne (Ukraine), early 1930s

90 Valentina Kropotina and her sister with three of their cousins, 1939

101 Exiles in a ‘special settlement’ in western Siberia, 1933

105 Left: Leonid and Aleksandr Rublyov, 1930. Right: Klavdiia, Natalia and Raisa Rublyova with Raisa’s husband, Kansk, 1930

107 Left: Aleksandr and Serafima Ozemblovsky on their wedding day in 1914. Right: Serafima with Sasha and Anton Ozemblovsky in 1937

116 Maria, Nadezhda and Ignatii Maksimov with Ignatii’s brother Anton, Arkhangelsk, 1934

119 The Uglitskikh family, Cherdyn, 1938

122 The Golovins’ bed from Obukhovo

135 Aleksandr Tvardovsky, 1940

140 Simonov ‘the proletarian’, 1933

147 The otlichniki of Class B, Pestovo School, 1936

148 Fania Laskina and Mikhail Voshchinsky, Moscow, 1932

149 The Laskin household in the Arbat

152 Left: Maiakovsky Metro Station, 1940. Right: Avtozavod Metro Station, 1940s

166 Left: Vladimir Makhnach, 1934. Right: Maria and Leonid, 1940s

168 From left: Anatoly Golovnia as Chekist, 1919; Liuba Golovnia, 1925; Boris Babitsky, 1932

170 Volik Babitsky and Liuba and Oksana Golovnia at the Kratovo dacha, 1935

176 The Khaneyevsky household

178 Communal apartment (‘corridor system’), 1930–64

182 The Reifshneiders’ room in the Third House of Soviets, Moscow

199 Simonov in 1936

206 Teachers and students of the Law Department of the Communist Academy in Leningrad, 1931

209 Zina and Pavel Vittenburg at the Kem labour camp, 1931

212 Pavel Vittenburg in his office, Vaigach labour camp, 1934

217 ‘Papa’s Corner’. Drawing by Mikhail Stroikov, 1935

220 The Poloz family, 1934

222 Letter (extract) from Tatiana Poloz to Rada, 12 June 1935

225 Nikolai and Elena (‘Alyona’) Kondratiev, 1926

226 Nikolai Kondratiev, ‘The Unusual Adventures of Shammi’ (detail)

229 Osip and Julia Piatnitsky with their sons and neighbours’ children at their dacha near Moscow, late 1920s

232 Osip Piatnitsky at the Seventh Congress of the Comintern, Moscow, 1935

247 Ida Slavina and her parents, 1937

266 The Malygin house in Sestroretsk, 1930s

288 The Nikitin and Turkin apartments, Perm

291 Gulchira Tagirova and her children, 1937

299 Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko with his wife Sofia and stepdaughter Valentina, 1936

317 Angelina and Nelly Bushueva, 1937

321 The house in Ak-Bulak where Elena Lebedeva lived with her granddaughters, Natalia and Elena Konstantinova, 1940s

322 Elena Lebedeva with her granddaughters, Natalia and Elena Konstantinova, Ak-Bulak, 1940

323 Veronika Nevskaia and her great-aunt Maria, Kirov region, 1939

325 Inna Gaister with her sisters Valeriia and Natalia, Moscow, 1939

328 Oleg and Natasha Vorobyov, 1940

330 Left: Mikhail Mironov. Right: extract from a letter to his mother

332 Zoia Arsenteva, Khabarovsk, 1941

334 Marksena Karpitskaia, Leningrad, 1941

337 Girls from Orphanage No. 1, Dnepropetrovsk, 1940

346 ‘On Land and Sea and in the Sky’ gymnastic demonstration, 1938

351 Elizaveta Delibash, 1949

355 Physics teacher Dmitry Streletsky with schoolboys of the seventh class in the Chermoz ‘special settlement’, September 1939

357 Left: Zinaida Bushueva with her brothers, 1936. Right: Zinaida in the ALZhIR labour camp, 1942

359 Children at ALZhIR, 1942

361 Embroidered towel (detail) made by Dina Ielson-Grodzianskaia for her daughter Gertrud in the ALZhIR labour camp

365 Ketevan Orakhelashvili with Sergei Drozdov and their son Nikolai, Karaganda

370 Zhenia Laskina and Konstantin Simonov on their honeymoon in the Crimea, 1939

375 Valentina Serova, 1940

389 Natalia Gabaeva with her parents, 1934

391 Anastasia with Marianna and Georgii Fursei, Arkhangelsk, 1939

403 Serova and Simonov on tour, Leningrad Front, 1944

406 Aleksei and Konstantin Simonov, 1944

407 Simonov in 1941

409 Simonov in 1943

425 Ivan Bragin and his family, 1937

451 Antonina Mazina with her daughter Marina and Marina Ilina, Chimkent, 1944

456 The Bushuev ‘corner’ room in the communal apartment at 77 Soviet Street, Perm, 1946–8

474 Inna Gaister with two friends at Moscow University, 1947

476 Nelly and Angelina Bushueva, 1953

477 Leonid Saltykov, 1944

481 Valentina Kropotina and her husband, Viktor, 1952

483 Simonov in 1946

495 Fadeyev at the Writers’ Union, 22 December 1948

500 Aleksandr Borshchagovsky, 1947

504 Simonov at the Congress of Soviet Writers in the Belorussian Republic, Minsk, 1949

507 Simonov in 1948 (left) and in 1953 (right)

514 Samuil and Berta Laskin, Sonia Laskina, Aleksei Simonov and Zhenia Laskina circa 1948

517 Zhenia and Sonia Laskina at Vorkuta, 1952

524 Stalin’s body lies in state in the Hall of Columns, Moscow, March 1953

527 Mourning ceremony at the Gorky Tank Factory in Kiev, 6 March 1953

539 The Laskin family at their Ilinskoe dacha near Moscow, 1956

543 Valentin Muravsky with his daughter Nina, Karaganda, Kazakhstan, 1954

546 Marianna Fursei with Iosif and Nelly Goldenshtein, Tbilisi, 1960

551 Aleksandr Ságatsky and Galina Shtein, Leningrad, 1956

554 Fruza Martinelli, 1956

556 Left: Esfir and Ida Slavina in 1938. Right: Esfir in 1961

557 Liuba Golovnia after her return from ALZhIR, Moscow, 1947

564 Vladimir Makhnach, 1956

568 Elena Konstantinova, her mother Liudmila, her grandmother Elena Lebedeva, and her sister Natalia, Leningrad, 1950

569 Nina and Ilia Faivisovich outside their house, near Sverdlovsk, 1954

573 Sonia Laskina’s certificate of release from the Vorkuta labour camp

592 Simonov with his son Aleksei, 1954

600 Zinaida Bushueva with her daughter Angelina and her son Slava, 1958

602 The grave of Nadezhda’s father, Ignatii Maksimov, Penza, 1994

603 Tamara and Kapitolina Trubina, 1948

609 Simonov and Valentina Serova, 1955

617 Aleksei and Konstantin Simonov, 1967

620 Mother Russia, part of the Mamaev Kurgan War Memorial complex in Volgograd

627 Simonov in 1979

631 Ivan Korchagin, Karaganda, 1988

632 Mikhail Iusipenko, Karaganda, 1988

638 Norilsk, July 2004

640 Vasily Romashkin, 2004

642 Leonid Saltykov, 1985

643 Vera Minusova at the Memorial Complex for Victims of Repression near Yekaterinburg, May 2003

651 Nikolai and Elfrida Meshalkin with their daughters, Marina and Irina, Perm, 2003

655 Antonina Golovina, 2004