Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(167)

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? Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

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?

A. The nearest bridge, the Palace Bridge, is about fifty meters from the Palace, at a distance of the breadth of the quay, but, as I have already said, only one shell hit the bridge during the shellings; that is why I am sure that the Winter Palace was deliberately shelled. I cannot admit that while shelling the bridge, only one shell hit the bridge and thirty hit the nearby building.

Q. Witness, those are conclusions that you are drawing. Have you any knowledge whatsoever of artillery from which you can judge whether the target was the Palace or the bridge beside it?

A. I never was an artillery man, but I suppose that if German artillery was aiming only at the bridge then it could not possibly hit the bridge only once and hit the Palace, which is across the way, with thirty shells. Within these limits I am an artillery man. (Commotion in the court.)

Q. One last question. Were you in Leningrad during the entire period of the siege?

A. I was in Leningrad from the first day of the war until 31 March, 1942. Then I returned to Leningrad when the German troops were driven out of the suburbs of Leningrad.

GENERAL RAGINSKY: We have no further questions.

THE PRESIDENT: The witness can retire. (The witness leaves.)

Tatiana looked up at Vikki from the floor and then struggled up to the table where she put her head down and closed her eyes. Vikki's hands were on her back.

"I'm all right," she mouthed inaudibly. "I need one minute."

Alexander, to the last.

Orbeli standing in the street, saying goodbye to his crates.

Tatiana had been very moved by his face. She never forgot it.

It was these crates he was looking at with such heartbreak, as if they were his vanishing first love.

"Who is that man?" Tatiana asks.

"He is the curator of the Hermitage Museum." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

"Why is he looking at the crates that way?"

"They are his life's sole passion. He doesn't know if he is ever going to see them again."

Tatiana stares at the man. "He's got to have more faith, don't you think?"

"I agree, Tania. He's got to have a little more faith. After the war is over, he will see his crates again."

"The way he is looking at them, after the war is over he will have to bring them back single-handedly," she replies.

Tatiasha--remember Orbeli.

Orbeli was in Alexander's eyes as Tatiana sprinted away from him in Morozovo hospital, flickered away with nary a thought, barely a look back, ta-da, darling, and be well, oh, and tell me about that Orbeli another time, Shura, tell me about him next time you see me, and one last time she turned around, laughing, and saw Josif Abgarovitch Orbeli in his eyes. She could never put her finger on his expression. Now she knew.

Every day I stand at the edge of your bed, and I salute you.I'll see you, Major. Sleep well . And you say,I'll see you, Tania .

I walk away. You call back to me, and I turn around, my trusting eyes on you.

You say to me, in your bravest voice, deep and calm, your stoic voice, you say to me, Tatiasha--remember Orbeli .

I frown for a second, but not even a tick goes through me because I'm so busy and you're so calm and Dr. Sayers calls me. And I say, Shura, darling, I have to run, tell me tomorrow, and now I know--you can't speak anymore, you've used it all up. You are mute and you nod, and I blithely mosey through the beds, and at the drab doors I turn around carelessly, one last time, and here I stop.

And there I am going to be.

Orbeli.

In the February night, in the aqua silence, Tatiana sat on the cold fire escape, wrapped in Alexander's cashmere blanket, and smelled the ocean air beyond her, as Manhattan flickered beneath her.