Daily Mail, July 12
Can you imagine a more sinister knock on the door - and a more horrifying surprise guest? It must have been one of the most terrifying meals in history, the night the murderous dictator Josef Stalin dropped into the home of one of his victims for an unexpected dinner and ended up singing to their daughter.
It is certainly one of the most incredible events in the chronicles of the 20th Century dictators, but it also provided the inspiration for my new novel Sashenka, the story of a fascinating woman, her love affair and the unbearable choice she had to make.
For years the details of this bizarre meeting have been vague, but while researching my book I managed to track down the little girl Stalin bounced on his knee that evening while her parents looked on in horror, scared out of their wits lest she say the wrong thing to the unpredictable Soviet leader.
Enlarge Stalin in 1932 with daughter Svetlana
Deadly guest: Stalin in 1932 with his own daughter, Svetlana
Her name was Maya Kavtaradze and until recently she was an elegant old lady living in a grand apartment in Tbilisi, Georgia.
As a young Bolshevik before the Russian Revolution, her father Sergo Kavtaradze became friends with Soso Djugashvili, known to history as Stalin. Once they had such a row that Kavtaradze threw a lamp at Stalin's head. It missed and Stalin burst out laughing.
After the revolution, Kavtaradze was a Trotskyite who opposed Stalin. But for some reason, Stalin always protected his old friend.
Kavtaradze married a pretty Georgian Princess, Sophia Vachnadze, itself unusual for a Bolshevik, but in 1937 the couple were arrested as 'enemies of the People'. They were tortured and sentenced to death for planning to kill Stalin.
When the execution list was brought to the dictator, he placed dashes next to their names - a sign that he wanted them reprieved.
Maya also wrote to him protesting their innocence - her letter caught Stalin's eye and he asked Beria, his sadistic secret police chief, if the Kavtaradzes were still alive. In 1939 Stalin ordered their release.
They became what was known as 'Lucky Stiffs' - people who returned from the dead. They were reunited with Maya and given a grand apartment near the Kremlin.
Maya Kavtaradze
Inspiration: Maya Kavtaradze
One night soon afterwards, Sophia answered the door to their home and was astonished to see her husband standing there with Stalin and Beria, the man who had personally supervised their torture.
'We have guests,' said her husband, weakly. The distinguished visitors came in and proceeded to make polite small talk. At one point, Stalin mentioned the couple's arrest and torture. 'To think you wanted to kill me,' he muttered in Kavtaradze's ear.
'You believed that?' replied Kavtaradze. Stalin grinned.
The Kavtaradzes understood only too well that they must make their guests very welcome. A feast was laid out and soon they were all eating and drinking merrily before Stalin suddenly said: 'Where's Maya? I admired her letter.'
Her parents were chilled. 'It was best to keep children out of any politics and away from Stalin,' Maya told me. But the tyrant insisted. Sophia went to Maya's room and said: 'Stalin is here and he wants to meet you.'
'I don't want to,' whispered Maya. 'I hate him for what he did to you and Papa.'
'Say nothing of that,' hissed Sophia. 'You must meet him.'
Maya dressed and came out. 'When I saw him there it was like a poster brought to life,' she recalled.
Stalin greeted her warmly. 'Thank you for your letter,' he said, asking her to sit on his knee. 'Do you spoil her?' he asked her parents. 'I hope you do.'
He questioned Maya about her life when her parents were in jail. Sergo and Sophia tensed - one whisper of complaint could have doomed them all - but Maya, then aged 11, answered him carefully.
'My poor parents dreaded what I might say to him,' she said. 'He was so kind, so gentle - he kissed me on the cheek and I looked into his honey-coloured, gleaming eyes, but I was so anxious.'
Then Stalin turned to Sophia: 'We tortured you too much,' he said. Sophia knew better than to even acknowledge that they had ever been anything other than friends.
'May anyone who brings up the past lose their eyes!' she said. Stalin laughed. 'Are you happy with your home?' Stalin asked mother and daughter. 'Show me round.'
In the Twenties and early Thirties, Stalin often visited the houses of friends for dinner, but after the Terror of 1937 he visited very few private homes, making Maya's story most unusual, if not unique.
When Stalin went visiting he usually brought his own wine and food because he was suspicious of poisoning, but on this occasion food was provided by Aragvi, Moscow's famous Georgian restaurant. Needless to say, Stalin made sure someone else sampled it first.
The explanation for the visit seems to have been simply that Stalin missed old friends such as Sergo. He just wanted the chance to catch up.
Later, when Maya was tired, Stalin sang to the girl in a sweet tenor. The party continued until 10am.
When he eventually left, Stalin playfully slapped Maya's cheek. 'When princes visited the houses of peasants in old Georgia, they used to slap the face of the children so they would remember,' he told her. Maya did not forget. But she never told anyone about the visit. Gossip could be fatal.
Kavtaradze went on to become an important part of Stalin's court. During the Second World War, he was made Deputy Foreign Minister and travelled with Stalin to meet Winston Churchill at Tehran.
The Kavtaradzes outlived Stalin and Maya outlived Communism. She recently died, but her encounter not only inspired my novel, it remains one of the most bizarre untold stories of Stalin's terrible reign.
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