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THE BALL
VOLUME 1: KULUANGWA
CHAPTER 16
ОглавлениеTo: Head of Intelligence Directorate,
General Staff of the Red Army,
General I.I. Ilichev
December 16, 1942
From the report of GRU Major S.S. Solomakhin
Comrade General,
Here is a document received by our fact-finding group that confirms our original suspicion that the former leadership of the OGPU had an interest in the object of our concern.
FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE NKVD (6th DIVISION)
Case №38—9. Top secret.
Transcript of surveillance recordings
Moscow, Bolshaya Lubyanka, Building 11, Room 208
From the book of visitors of Deputy Chairman of the OGPU G.G. Yagoda
Date – June 12, 1931
Visitor (Time In / Time Out)
V.G. Karpov, OGPU Lieutenant (04:16 / 04:27)
«Allow me to report, Comrade Yagoda?»
«Come in, Karpov, report what you got on this… Prichitalov?»
«Uhm…»
«Uhm… what!?»
«Uh, I…»
«What is it? Karpov, you have to pretend that I’m not me, that I’m not Yagoda, but, say, your comrade-in-arms and we are in the midst of crushing the Kronstadt rebellion. You are… (noise). And we’re together, we are eliminating the enemy… (noise) line of attack… And we are not in the Lubyanka right now, but in the storage room….»
«But I already put everything on record…»
«That report of yours, Vasiliy, is adequate. You described everything well. But the number of mistakes in there…»
«Comrade Yagoda, I’m not well-educa…» (noise)
«Okay, so what’s this with your former fr…» (noise)
«… he is not my friend, Comrade Yagoda. When I was chased around by the police hounds before the revolution, Prichitalov was an investigator with the Moscow Criminal Department. I was young back then, so he pulled me out of jail, made me promise that I will not under… (noise) help him…»
«… right.» (noise)
«He came by yesterday. He’s an old man now, really old. He said, I helped you once, you owe me a favor, but not a heavy one. I trust you, he said, and I want to hand over some documents from a case that the Okhrana9 closed 23 years ago… (noise) concealed and redacted. I don’t need anything, he said, but your department should know this… Deliver this to the head, personally.»
«Did you read it your… (noise) … and also… mention to anyone else?»
«I briefly looked at Filippov’s case. Nothing special. He died from a lightning strike. My old man also died from a lightning… (noise) haymaking field… (noise) … The dossier is too heavy, it’s painful to read, all these scientists, numbers, words… (noise). And the part about Chri… (noise) the Savior is just nonsen… (noise) … My mother goes there every weekend. I tell her, your son is in the organs, and you embarrass me like… (noise)»
«Alright, Karpov. Well done, you are dismissed.»
«I serve the So… nion.»
(noise)
«… about Prichitalov?»
«Everything will be alright… (noise) Dismissed.»
«Yes, Comrade Yagoda!»
Karpov leaves. Pause of 11 minutes and 32 seconds before telephone connection is made with the office secretary.
(Connection established)
«Nastya, bring me some strong tea and connect me with Comrade Kaganovich.»
«Yes, Comrade Yagoda.»
(Connection, signal made, only a one-way deciphering of the conversation)
«H-hello, dear Comrade Kaganovich.»
«…»
«I don’t sleep, I serve of the proletariat…»
«…»
«I had a visitor a few minutes ago, poor man, may his soul rest in peace…»
«…»
«What do you want me to say?»
«…»
«Yes, our souls…»
«…»
«… looks like our concerns are justified. He brought me a stack of papers on the Cathedral of Christ the Savior – you will not be disappointed, dear Comrade.»
«…»
«It is very much confirmed.»
«…»
«We have to dig up all the corpses, open the crypts, tomb after tomb…»
«…»
«I think it is there, in their Russian graves, which they continue to hold on to…»
«…»
«And if not, then what?»
«…»
«Are you kidding me?»
«…»
«What about Koba?»
«…»
«Koba is a piece of shit? You better be quiet…»
«…»
«Let’s first close this damn church, I mean, close it and check every single…»
«…»
«If not… hold off blowing it up!»
«…»
«Will you sign the order?»
«…»
«Koba? Don’t joke!»
«…»
«Sovnarkom10… Alright, understood. With your signature…»
«…»
«I don’t see any other way… We need this black rock of the proletariat like never before. That’s right, for our fight, and especially right now!»
«…»
«I think it would be prudent to engage Comrade Tukhachevsky if we find our black ball…»
«…»
«Yes, I will contact you.»
***
DECREE
Analyze all possible instance where the «Trigger» case intersects with the former Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow as soon as possible. Report directly!
Ilichev
***
Memorandum from GRU Major S.S. Solomakhin
Comrade General,
At your request, we have compiled a dossier on the history of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (CCS) from the archives of the Moscow Patriarchate and the State University. We have identified possible linkages of the CCS and its servants to the object of our interest. We are continuing to find and analyze documents from the archives of the Imperial Intelligence Service and the pre-revolutionary Moscow Detective Department.
***
Research based on the Moscow Patriarchate’s archives
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was built in gratitude for God’s blessing in a critical period in Russian history, as a monument to the courage of the Russian people in the fight against Napoleon’s invasion in 1812.
When the last soldier of Napoleon’s 600,000-strong army was expelled from Russia’s borders on December 25, 1812, Emperor Alexander I signed a Supreme Manifesto on the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to commemorate the victory. The Emperor also issued a «Supreme Decree to the Holy Synod to establish annual festivities on each 25th of December to commemorate the deliverance of the Church and the Russian power against the invasion of the Galls, and with them, their polluted language»:
«Upon the Emperor’s conception, a grandiose cathedral-monument was to be built on the ruins of the ancient capital. This idea was laid out in the Supreme Manifesto: «In preservation of the eternal memory of the matchless zeal, fidelity and love of Faith and Fatherland exemplified by the Russian people in these difficult times, and to mark our gratitude to Divine Providence for saving Russia from an impending doom, we set out to build our Church in the name of Christ the Savior in the City of Moscow.
God bless our endeavors! Let this Church stand for many centuries and let the incense of appreciation burn before the holy throne of God as new generations revere and adulate the feats of their ancestors!»
The idea of building a memorial church belonged to General Mikhail Ardalionovich Kikin and was handed over to Alexander I by Admiral Alexander Semyonovich Shishkov. Articulated in the czar’s Manifesto, the idea of building a memorial church received the most enthusiastic support from all layers of Russian society, which was unusual for its time.
On October 12, 1817, five years after the retreat of the French army from Moscow, the ground-breaking ceremony of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior took place on the Sparrow Hills, between the Smolensk and Kaluga roads. However, after the death of Alexander I, the new czar of Russia, Nicholas I, ordered to suspend all work and construction was halted in 1826.
From the Moscow Police Department archives, we found that «before the decision to cease construction, there was a secret meeting between the English and French envoys to the Emperor Nicholas I, where, to our knowledge, the choice of a new location for the erection of the Cathedral was discussed. After meeting with the foreign guests, the Emperor came out anxious and not depressed as usual. The English and French envoys were in a very jovial disposition. By the czar’s personal decree, they had established a special group that meticulously studied new locations for the cathedral, in accordance with the rules of terrestrial and maritime navigation, with all possible equipment and tools.
On April 10, 1832, Emperor Nicholas I approved a new plan of the Cathedral, compiled by architect K.A. Thon. The Emperor himself chose the place for the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior based on the group’s findings. It would be on the banks of the Moscow River, not far from the Kremlin, and at the expense of numerous buildings that had to be destroyed, including the Alekseyev Monastery and Church of All Saints.
According to eyewitnesses, the Emperor mentioned many times that he needed to build the biggest church in Russia for her full recovery, prosperity, and to elevate its status as the most powerful empire of the existing world. This cathedral should be built in one of the most populous cities in the Russian Empire, so that at any given time there will be no fewer faithful worshippers attending than in the Vatican or Mecca.
To our knowledge, there were several more meetings with the envoys, at one of which Nicholas I was given an object that he would keep in his personal safe box at his summer residence. On September 10, 1839, a solemn groundbreaking ceremony of the new Cathedral took place with the Emperor in attendance and laying the first stone. The black, round cobblestone was personally brought to the ceremony by the Emperor in a cardboard box. It is noteworthy that when the digging of the construction pit began, the black stone was not found. It disappeared without a trace. It was reported that some criminals dug under the slab from the side and stole the symbolic stone. Unprecedented manpower was thrown into the investigation and manhunt, but the thieves were never caught. It is known that the search for the missing items was carried out by the police and even the Third Division of the Interior Political Department until the Emperor’s death in 1855.
Our analysis supports a theory that Nicholas I was poisoned. According to the Moscow Police Department, Nicholas I took his own life by ingesting poison. The official cause of death presented to the public was galloping pneumonia. Per the testimony of relatives, Nicholas I forbade that his body undergo any autopsy and embalming should he die.
It is also known that both the French and English envoys were found dead in their country residences three days after the emperor’s death. Both died on the same night and were poisoned by carbon monoxide. A criminal investigation was not conducted as their deaths were both ruled to be «accidents» and the cases were closed.
We must consider two versions. In the first version, the object of our interest – the round, black rock – was indeed stolen from the ceremonial groundbreaking site and its present location is unknown. And according to the second version, the object still lies at the base of the cathedral due to an oversight by the builders who overlooked its importance. Perhaps they mistook it for an ordinary rock and moved it aside.
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was under construction for almost 44 years. The construction was carried out by the orders of Emperors Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II, and Alexander III. In early 1918, with the issuance of a Decree of the Soviet Revolutionary Council «On the Separation of Church and State, and School and Church,» the cathedral became completely deprived of any assistance from the Soviet authorities. With the blessing of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Tikhon, the Brotherhood of Christ the Savior was created with a mission to maintain the aesthetic beauty of the cathedral for the sake of the preservation of Russian Orthodox life. This organization continues to exist despite the fact that the building was destroyed. It was quickly flagged as a counterrevolutionary organization and since 1924 it is under the permanent watch of the Division of External Surveillance under the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. The surveillance is controlled by NKVD Major A.V. Sysoyev
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was demolished on the orders of the Sovnarkom on December 5, 1931. The demolition was directed personally by Comrade L. Kaganovich.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
I bring to your attention that our agent in Germany has confirmed that there has been a considerable increase of Abwehr activity in the United States surrounding the case of Mr. Nikola Tesla in the last two weeks.
GRU Major S.S. Solomakhin
9
The Department for Protecting the Public Security and Order («The Guard»), Russia’s imperial secret police before the 1917 Revolution.
10
Council of People’s Commissars