Living history

I had lunch with a former KGB agent today. It's true!

My friend, Olya, has been wanting me to visit her apartment for a while now, but today was the first time that our schedules coincided. I was there for almost 5 hours, so clearly, there was plenty that went on, but the most interesting part was meeting her grandfather.

Olya's grandfather, Sergei, is 89 years old. We chatted over lunch today (I had a little trouble understanding him because of his gold teeth, and he had trouble understanding me because of my Russian and the fact that he's very hard of hearing), and after lunch, Olya caught me up on her grandfather's life. Whoa.

He was born in Lugansk, Ukraine and was orphaned by age 13. He lived in an orphanage for a year (where he acquired a LOT of tattoos, which I at first thought were prison tattoos...) before being adopted by an uncle and taken to middle-of-nowhere-ridiculously-cold Russia. After about a year there, two of his aunts moved him to Leningrad (St. Petersburg). This is where things get really interesting: His aunts were devoted Bolsheviks and close, personal friends of Krupskaya- Lenin's wife! She spent time at his aunts' house frequently.

When he turned 18, he automatically became a soldier, which coincided with the beginning of WWII. We actually discussed this at lunch; he talked to me about President Roosevelt, how Ukrainians and Americans fought together against the Germans, and how he met his wife on the field (after he was wounded, developed gangrene, and she took care of him in the medical tent). Olya finished this story for me later: the doctor in charge refused to remove only the gangrene. He was either going to amputate or leave him to die. Olya's grandmother's friend found a gun, held it to the doctor's head, and told him that he WAS going to remove the gangrene and only the gangrene. Needless to say, he still has whole leg intact.

Anyway, post-WWII, he met a myriad of famous people, including Yuri Gagarin. In fact, Sergei had been involved in rescuing Gagarin's village from the Nazis, and Gagarin thanked him profusely.

Whilst working at the Kremlin, he met Josef Stalin on many occasions. He was also the head of the guard at the Kremlin during a visit by Winston Churchill. In fact, Churchill personally inspected the lapels of Sergei's uniform!

Winston- those of you close to me will know how significant the Winston part of the story is!

Stalin.

While working at the Kremlin, he became a secret service agent. Initially, he was a spy among enemies. Later, he became a spy within the Soviet army, checking for rebels. He continued to work his way up and eventually became second-in-command of the KGB for this region of Ukraine. Crazy, right?

The best part of the story is that while he tells these facts about his life in a very matter-of-fact manner, his entire demeanor changes when he gets to the parts about meeting his wife. I love it that this KGB officer with a history like his chooses to focus on the stories of Lenichka, his wife. Precious. It would make a great book.