"My point is that the Communists are in the position Nehru speaks of.
They're in power and won't let go. The longer they remain in power after
their usefulness is over, the more vicious they must become to maintain
themselves. Since this is a police state the only way to get them out is
through violence. That's why I find myself in the underground. But I am
a patriotic Russian!" She turned to him. "Why do _you_ hate the Soviets
so, Mr. Smith?"
The American agent shrugged. "My grandfather was a member of the minor
aristocracy. When the Bolsheviks came to power he joined Wrangel's White
Army. When the Crimea fell he was in the rear guard. They shot him."
"That was your grandfather?" Shvernik said.
"Right. However, my own father was a student at the Petrograd University
at that time. Left wing inclined, in fact. I think he belonged to
Kerensky's Social Democrats. At any rate, in spite of his upper class
background he made out all right for a time. In fact he became an
instructor and our early life wasn't particularly bad." Paul cleared his
throat. "Until the purges in the 1930s. It was decided that my father
was a Bukharinist Right Deviationist, whatever that was. They came and
got him one night in 1938 and my family never saw him again."
Paul disliked the subject. "To cut it short, when the war came along, my
mother was killed in the Nazi bombardment of Leningrad. My brother went
into the army and became a lieutenant. He was captured by the Germans
when they took Kharkov, along with a hundred thousand or so others of
the Red Army. When the Soviets, a couple of years later, pushed back
into Poland he was recaptured."