"Ha!" the other snorted. "The vote for the Party has fallen off by more
than a third."
The security colonel scowled at him. "That doesn't sound reasonable, if
the economic situation is as bad as has been reported."
His table mate put down the paper. "Why not? Has there ever been a country
where the Party was _voted_ into power? Anywhere--at any time during the
more than half a century since the Bolsheviks first took over here in
Russia?"
Simonov looked at him.
The other was talking out opinions he'd evidently formed while reading the
_Izvestia_ account of the Italian elections, not paying particular
attention to the stranger across from him.
He said, his voice irritated, "Nor will there ever be. They know better.
In the early days of the revolution the workers might have had illusions
about the Party and it goals. Now they've lost them. Everywhere, they've
lost them."