One of Dmitri Dmitrievich’s former duties as professor at the Conservatoire had been to help examine the students on Marxist-Leninist ideology. He would sit with the chief examiner beneath an enormous banner which declared: ART BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE—V. I. LENIN. As his own understanding of political theory was not profound, he remained largely silent, until one day his superior rebuked him for non-participation. So
