Shcherbakov

When Stalin exited the Bolshoi performance of the opera in disgust, Kerzhentsev launched an arrow at his rival Alexander Shcherbakov, the first secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers.

Shcherbakov had praised the original Leningrad production of “Lady Macbeth” in a letter to Stalin.

“I heard noise and woke up. I realized it sounded like artillery,” Shcherbakov said.

Two others, Denis Kharitonov and Sergey Shcherbakov, were part of a group of alleged Wagner mercenaries who were briefly detained in Belarus last year and sent back to Russia, according to Belarus state news agency Belta.

Online news agency BelaPAN had been unable to contact either Irina Levshyna or one of its reporters, Zakhar Shcherbakov, the association said.