Chapter 37 Naomi

• “I see you have questions,” she replied, surprising me. I watched as she placed her teacup back on the tray and folded her fingers in her lap. “And I will tell you what you need to know. Our family was once a great family of Russia. We dined with czars and married into royalty, led Russia’s armies from one victory to another.
• “And all of it came to an end when the Bolsheviks came. They did not like the fact that we were their betters. So, they stole what rightfully belonged to us. Burned what they could not take and killed those who dared to resist. The ones who lived fell into the hands of the communist state. First Lenin’s Cheka, then Beria’s NKVD. After torture and endless false letters confessing supposed crimes against the people, they disappeared into Stalin’s gulags, hidden among the sea of trees in Siberia.
• “There, they were worked to the bone. The weak died, and the survivors were forced to become a part of the Vory v Zakonev.”