Opinion ID: 744062
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Book

Text: 3 The Ransom of Russian Art (hereinafter Ransom  or the book) recounts the story of Norton Dodge, an American, who for a thirty year period beginning in the 1950's, travelled throughout the Soviet Union meeting with and collecting the works of dissident Russian artists. 1 Dodge smuggled the works out of the former Soviet Union, amassing the world's largest collection of such art at an expense to him of approximately $3,000,000. 4 One of the artists prominently featured in McPhee's story of Dodge's travels is Evgeny Rukhin, a prolific dissident painter. 2 Rukhin helped to arrange some of Dodge's clandestine meetings with other artists, accompanied Dodge on many of those encounters, and contributed much of his own work to Dodge's collection. 5 Plaintiff Ilya Levin, a writer and himself a former Russian dissident, is credited with helping to found the Leningrad chapter of Amnesty International. See Dissident Pair Can Leave Soviet, Baltimore Sun, June 22, 1977. Currently a resident of Washington, D.C., Levin fled the Soviet Union in 1977 after years of government persecution for his human rights activities and his Jewish identity. 6 Levin's complaint focuses on a ten-page chapter of McPhee's 181-page book that describes the circumstances surrounding Rukhin's death in a studio fire in Leningrad in 1976. Some facts about the fire, recounted in this chapter, are undisputed. When the fire broke out, Rukhin was in his studio with Levin; Evgeny Esaulenko, a writer; and Ludmila Boblyak (Ludmila), Esaulenko's wife. After the fire broke out, Levin and Esaulenko managed to escape; Rukhin and Ludmila were found dead in the studio. 7 The disputed aspects of Rukhin's death are set forth in eight pages of this chapter that recount interviews McPhee had with five people who knew Rukhin but were not at the scene of the fire. In five separately captioned versions, each of the five tells McPhee what each believed and/or heard to be the facts concerning Rukhin's death. Levin asserts that the chapter defames him by accusing him of assisting the K.G.B. in Rukhin's murder. Levin also complains that the chapter accuses him of cowardice. 8 The first section of this chapter, captioned Dodge's Version, recounts an interview with Dodge in which Dodge  'imagines'  the details of Rukhin's death. Ransom at 151. The text of the interview conveys Dodge's suspicion that the K.G.B.  'probably'  burned the studio to teach Rukhin  'an object lesson,'  unaware that Rukhin was then in the studio. Id. On the day of the fire, however, Rukhin was having a party at his studio with Levin, Esaulenko, and Ludmila. McPhee quotes Dodge as alleging that the fire department  'held back'  since  'burning [Rukhin's] place was a warning to all.'  Id. McPhee also attributes to Dodge, without exact quotation, the views 9 that the death of Rukhin quickly became a story variously told, and with about as many versions as there were tellers, and since it was also a story seemingly known to silent narrators its mystery had been preserved. 10 Id. 11 Next, the same chapter recounts a version told by Alexander Melamid, a Russian artist. Melamid, like Dodge, did not witness the fire. In Melamid's Version, McPhee quotes Melamid as reporting  'two main versions'  of Rukhin's death:  '(1) K.G.B.'  and  '(2) He lived dangerously.'  Id. In Melamid's words, 12 Either God or the K.G.B. punished him. Was it intended that he die? It doesn't matter. Crime and punishment. 13 Id. at 152. 14 The third account, Burke's Version, is attributed to Sarah Burke, an American who is said to have been romantically involved with Rukhin, id. at 136-37, and who was expecting a telephone call from him at the time of the fire, id. at 152. Burke offers three theories: (1) the K.G.B., (2) an accident, or (3) Rukhin's wife. Burke then elaborates on each version, and is quoted as saying: 15 The K.G.B. were following his movements pretty carefully. Some people think that Ilya Levin did it for them, that he was 'politically inspired.' It's a possibility.... No one knows where the fire started. Buckets with oily rags in them were always on the stairs. Someone could have thrown a match in. Artists really ran scared after that. Most people believe that the fire was set, but I think it could have been an accident--the studio full of vodka, cigarettes, and the chemically soaked rags. Of the four, two ran. They didn't call the fire department. Esaulenko ran. His wife died. [Rukhin] died.... The other who ran was Ilya Levin. Some people think that [Rukhin's wife] did it, because [Rukhin] meant to leave and come to the United States. 16 Id. at 152. 17 The fourth version is told by a person McPhee identifies as the poet Kuzminsky, id. at 137, a friend of Rukhin's, id. Kuzminsky's Version rejects any possibility that the fire was an accident, but concedes that the incident is still a mystery. Id. at 153. Kuzminsky claims to have made a  'careful investigation.'  Id. After offering a description of the floor plan of Rukhin's studio, Kuzminsky relates that Esaulenko was drinking and dozing in one room of the studio while Levin, Rukhin, and Esaulenko's wife were having sexual intercourse together,  'sandwich-style'  in another. Id. The fire started in a storage room on the other side of the stairs, blocking the exit immediately. Kuzminsky offers an imagin[ed] version of what happened when the K.G.B. entered the studio and encountered the threesome in bed together: 18 Maybe Esaulenko opened the door. Maybe they used their own keys. When they came to the last room, seeing the lady intercoursing with two fellows, I know what those K.G.B. prudists would think. They said something nasty. Ludmila attacked them. They hit her. Even if a lady strikes them they answer with a good professional blow. Rukhin defended her. They hit him. Then they set the fire. [Rukhin's wife] says that when they put Rukhin in the ambulance he was alive. They finished him there. Levin and Esaulenko are selfish cowards. They never will protect anybody. 19 Id. at 154. 20 The final version is told by Rukhin's wife, Galina, who was at home with her children when she learned about the fire. In Galina's Version she recounts that bystanders told her that two men appeared in the studio windows, one holding a purse. The two managed to escape the fire by using a ladder. From the bystanders' description, she knew that one of the two men was Esaulenko. The bystanders told her that that man said that they should wait twenty minutes before calling her. The two men promptly left the scene. At the morgue, Galina identified the body of her husband and that of Esaulenko's wife, Ludmila. Galina immediately suspected that the deaths were not accidental: 21 Galina went straight to the K.G.B., and said, I saw him at the morgue. I know he was killed. I saw it in his face. 22 Id. at 156. 23 Galina's Version explicitly accuses Esaulenko: 24 Galina went to Ludmila's funeral, in St. Vladimir's Cathedral. Ludmila in her coffin had a blue face, and black marks on her throat. Galina was startled to see Esaulenko there. I said to him, 'What are you doing here, murderer?'  After pausing as she tells the story, she adds distractedly, He left her [Ludmila] but took her purse. He went down the ladder with her purse. 25 Id. at 157. Galina also states that a doctor and a medical student who examined Rukhin's body later told her that her husband had been murdered by drug injection before the fire. McPhee quotes her as making the following surmise: 26 Ludmila probably rebelled and was choked when she refused to cooperate with the murderers.... They burned out the studio to cover the murder. 27 Id. at 157. 28 Dodge's Version places Levin in the apartment at the time of the fire, which is undisputed, but makes no accusation against him. Malimid's Version makes no accusation against Levin. Kuzminsky's Version accuses Levin, along with Esaulenko, of cowardice in not protecting Rukhin. Burke's Version reports that some people think that Levin committed Rukhin's murder for the K.G.B., and adds her view that this theory is a possibility. Galina's Version makes no explicit allegation against Levin, but, by alleging that Rukhin was murdered before the fire, labeling Esaulenko a murderer, and referring to murderers, arguably implies complicity by Levin, who was present with Esaulenko. Apart from the references in this chapter, Levin is not mentioned elsewhere in the book.