This is a translation
of an excerpt from Yakov Damsky's book King Boris the Tenth -
Король Борис Деcятый" (Moscow, Ripol
Classic, in Russian, 2004). I should like to thank Yakov Zusmanovich
for drawing my attention to it and sending it to me. I should also
like to thank Bernard Cafferty for his help with the translation and
for adding his own comments. Bernard's notes bear the initials BC,
my own SSYS.
Simon Spivack – 20th
October 2012.
Bondarevsky and collaboration.
From time to time
Bondar1
succeeded in this.
So why couldn't
Bondarevsky simply discuss with his new ward2
the so-called KGB topic? Yes why? There's no escaping the truth …
Before the war, the not
so young -by chess standards– Rostov native Igor Bondarevsky made a
steep rise to fame, in those days this was almost unheard of. In 1936
he was still a candidate master, in 1937 - already a participant in
the All-Union championship, and by 1940 - USSR champion: ahead of
Smyslov, Keres, by now a Soviet grandmaster, and world title
candidate Botvinnik. It's true that Mikhail Moiseyevich was a little
perturbed (he himself said that he was scathing about it3),
and in the spring of 1941 there arose the uniquely absurd tournament
for the Absolute Championship, which had a superb field; but what
sort of chess tournament could there be without weight categories??!!
Naturally, at this point, everything turned topsy turvy – but now
for … the rumour. When, in November 1941, on the 153rd day of the
war, the Germans, for the first time, entered Rostov, they learnt
that in the city was the chess champion of the Soviet Union. A week
later the troops of Field Marshal Von Runstedt were expelled from the
city, but Bondarevsky had already left Rostov. And soon there were
posters announcing lectures and simultaneous games, they appeared in
the capitals of Hungary and Romania, allies of Hitlerite Germany.4
In Bucharest,
Bondarevsky also played a short match against the Romanian army
medical officer Octavio Troianescu, the strongest chess player, it
would seem, of Romania. He was an international master from the time
the title was first recognised by FIDE5.
Several games against Troianescu were soon published in the magazine
Revista Romana de Sah … Needless to say, the Soviet
grandmaster played more strongly …
Then the Fascists again
grabbed Rostov. After about half a year they were finally expelled,
and having come back from his foreign tour, the grandmaster,
by a twist of fate, was imprisoned not far from the present city
chess club. Collaboration with the invaders - the typical
formulaic accusation guaranteed, in those severe years, a stint of a
tenner up to a pony6
- that is from 10 to 25 years in Magadan, Kolyma, the Far North,
Vologda and other popular seats of Stalin's Gulag; tens of thousands
went there, people who hadn't collaborated, but simply remained in
the occupied territories - and it applied to both Ukraine and
Belarus, and the Baltic states. And a good half of European Russia.
Bondarevsky's term
seems light … a few days! If there are any records of interrogations,
documents in the top secret archives of the NKVD or Smersh,
then no chess player has seen them. Only Igor Zakharovich was
released, and he was suspected of establishing contacts with the
so-called organs7
either pre-war or during the war. Some were - Bronstein in particular
- forthright, but he only whispered his suspicions within his closest
circle.
Anyway, Bondarevsky
moved to Moscow and his influence on the chess life of the country
suddenly increased enormously. In 1945 he received a personal
invitation to take part in the USSR Championship: Paul Keres, who had
merely played in events in occupied countries, was held in suspense
by the authorities, and his fate – and not only his chess destiny –
hung by a thread8.
Then Igor Zakharovich was honoured with the master of sports title,
became fully engaged in the process of our chess federation joining
FIDE and in the organisation of the match-tournament for the world
championship. He was a member of the chess delegations sent to both
the Netherlands and Switzerland, and wherever. He didn't especially
conceal his sincere hatred against Jews; and in a very timely manner:
anti-Semitism became a state policy of Soviet power. Running ahead of
things, some portion of these feelings passed over to Spassky, in the
course of a decade of close relations, who definitely did not have
them in his Leningrad childhood years. Yes, yes, we are not always
fully formed as adults by our childhood … However, it was quite
natural that Spassky did not agree with this:
The fact is that our
chess world is constructed in the style of the toy world, only on the
monarchical principle, the principle of natural selection. We have a
king, we have the challengers, we have knights: the masters and
grandmasters. We have our parliament. So-called public opinion, the
press and, of course, ordinary fans. Here is our realm, and it has no
boundaries, for those who play make up the kingdom. And the system of
administration. And if you're the king of chess, then you are called
to the kingdom …
1
Bondarevsky, note that Bondar is a slur, hinting that he was
a collaborator – SSYS.
2
Spassky – SSYS.
3i.e.
Bondarevsky playing Alexander Alekhine for the world title – BC.
4Posters
normally announce events or performances in the locality, not in
another country. How could a chess fan in Budapest get to watch a
simultaneous in Russia? - BC.
5i.e.
from 1949 – BC.
6A
tenner up to a pony is
Cockney slang for ten pounds sterling up to twenty-five. The Russian
literally says a chervontsa
up to a chetvertaka.
These were Czarist era coins of varying values, here ten roubles up
to twenty-five. The Russian doesn't include an equivalent to stint,
I wanted to make the meaning
more obvious – SSYS.
7i.e.
the secret police – BC.
8It
is recorded elsewhere that Keres was banned from the first post-war
USSR Championship, as well as from Groningen 1946. Estonian
Communist Party members interceded for him, as did Botvinnik – BC.
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