The Russian Century: A Hundred Years of Russian Lives

By Kunavin’s account, and later, Khovanskaia’s, this is what transpired: the ambassador took Lida home, to a house on Vnukovskii Road—or, more precisely, the corner house where the road began. They had to enter the noisy courtyard of a newly constructed Moscow building. Lida, of course, invited the ambassador to come up to her apartment for a cup of coffee. The apartment happened to be empty—the children were out. And why not visit the house of a common Soviet woman? That is very likely what Maurice thought. Or maybe he thought differently. In any case, Khovanskaia was not common. If only the common people lived the way she did!

All in all, Boris waited about two hours in the car. During that time, Lida became De Jean’s lover.

It was a done deal. One could suppose that Gribanov was already gleefully rubbing his hands together. The quarry was in the bag.

Lida met Maurice several more times. He would come to visit the common Soviet woman while the children were at school. Their liaison became stronger. Both played the part of lover very well, and did not give themselves away with a single look or gesture when all of us, including Marie-Claire, would wind up spending time together, eating French onion soup. Lida didn’t hide it from me, seeing me as a “superior.” She even told me that the

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ambassador was pretty good as a lover, and that being with him was pleasant and fun.

Naturally, Cherednichenko and Kronberg-Sobolevskaia receded into the background. Everything had been planned down to the last detail. Khovan-skaia had been chosen. But two or three weeks later everything suddenly changed. Why? Because the little Napoleon from the Lubianka realized that he had made a mistake. He’d planned and planned, but had missed the “elephant” right in front of him. And Khovanskaia had to be retired the same way that Valia and Rita (Zoia) had been retired previously. Removing her from the stage entirely would have been awkward, and would have been noticed by the ambassador, and might even have irritated him. Using different pretences, she simply began to meet Maurice less and less frequently as a common Soviet woman—that is, alone. And so why did Gribanov discontinue Khovanskaia? What was his oversight?

I can only say the following regarding this matter: the operation thought up by Oleg Mikhailovich was hindered by the fact that Khovanskaia’s first husband, a diplomat by profession, had worked for several years in Paris and was, of course, very well-known. Khovanskaia had left him, as I wrote earlier, but she had had children with him. Now he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he held an important position. Incidentally, several years afterwards Khovanskaia’s daughter married the son of Podtserob, the general secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a former aide to Molotov. All of this complicated the game and increased the risks. What had Gribanov been thinking of when planning this operation? Why had he included Lida if she was “defective?” Or perhaps there had been a mistake, but since it had been committed by those from the higher echelons, everyone pretended that everything was just fine. Perhaps while Gribanov was consulting with Serov, Mironov, or even Khrushchev himself, it had been decided not to use Kho-vanskaia for the ultimate set-up. It’s possible that Gribanov, considering the psychological circumstances, decided to lull De Jean into a false sense of security with a series of these love intrigues (Valia, Rita, Lida) in order to deliver the final blow unexpectedly.

Whether or not this was the case, I had to start over. Kunavin now gave the order to offer either Nadia Cherednichenko or Lora Kronberg-Sobolevskaia to De Jean.

I’d known Lora for a long time. As I’ve already noted, my cousin, a chemistry professor, met her by chance, and they had an affair. He certainly loved her and she, perhaps, loved him as well, though she always made him do her bidding. Lora was a perfect bohemian, flighty and willful. But she had many gifts. She was a great actress, an excellent chess player, a wonderful card

Iurii Krotkov, The KGB in Action

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player, a good mathematician, and a poet as well. After breaking up with my cousin she got together with the screenwriter Pomeshchikov, destroyed his life by breaking up his family, left Pomeshchikov, got together with some boxer, and in the interludes there were different actors, directors, cameramen, screenwriters, and so on. Lora became renowned within our circles for her temperament.

But, she was completely unsuited to everyday life. She owned nothing but the clothes on her back. Her parents and brother lived in Podolsk, and she would rent tiny closet-rooms in different areas of Moscow, and she always had difficulty with her residency permit. Moreover, Lora was careless in her appearance. When we went to receptions at the embassy, I had to check the way she was dressed beforehand.