her life,
obviously, after she was 3. He was said to have rescued her from drowning as a child.

LAMB: When did she die?

MONTEFIORE: She died in 1932, the 8th of November, and she committed suicide.

LAMB: How?

MONTEFIORE: It was on the evening of a great party, and Bolsheviks were great partiers. They
had a great party at Voroshilov`s flat in the Kremlin, and afterwards she argued with Stalin, she went out,
she went back to her flat and she shot herself with a pistol. And no one found her until morning. And when
Stalin was informed, he was absolutely poleaxed by it.

LAMB: How long had they been married?

MONTEFIORE: They`ve been married for 12 years or so, just over, since 1918.

LAMB: And what was the difference in age?

MONTEFIORE: About 25, 30 years.

LAMB: And whatwas the relationship like?

MONTEFIORE: It was like -- it was a mosaic of like misery. She was a schizophrenic, she had
psychological problems, and he was of course impossible, rough, egocentric. So like moments of great
happiness. And we have all the love letters in the book, which are fascinating. That`s one of the great
things about this treasure trove of material on which the book is based.

And other times, you know, great unhappiness, great happiness, great love, and also sort of a
rising, a rising disquiet, leading to this tragic end.

LAMB: His first marriage?

MONTEFIORE: First marriage. Katya Svanidze. A young, educated girl, Georgian, dies after
just two years of marriage of tuberculosis. He afterwards says, "I`ll never recover from this. My stony
heart will never recover, will be cold forever."

LAMB: And did he