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The dacha, larger than most citizens’ regular homes, was provided to him by the government. In fact, the entire colony of Peredelkino was a gift from Stalin himself, to help the Motherland’s handpicked writers flourish. “The production of souls is more important than the production of tanks,” he’d said. As Borya said, it was also a fine way to keep track of them.
The men at the Agency thought we were just sitting in the corner typing away quietly. But we weren’t just taking memos—we were also taking names.
welcoming. I wanted to be part of the group, but didn’t want it to seem like I wanted to be part of the group. One might think this scenario plays out only in high school or college, but the politics of friendship are tricky at every age.
He taught me how to tell if someone was following me—to look out for anyone suspicious, anyone watching, and especially to be careful of LOPs. “Little Old People have a lot of time on their hands,” he explained. “They sit in parks for hours and will call the cops at the drop of a hat if they see something out of the ordinary.”
The trick to pinpointing the man with the biggest bank account in the room is not to look to the man in the nicest tux, but to the man not trying to impress.
The flat was furnished with the luxurious but eclectic décor of someone who was new to money and had hired someone to give him taste.
“Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes.” “From Virgil,” Fedin says. “And they who bettered life on earth by their newly found mastery.” “It’s engraved on the Nobel medal.”
I’d been trained to spot a double. Calm under duress, above average in intelligence, transient, easily bored. Ambitious, but with short-term goals. Unable to form lasting relationships. They often defect because of their own interests—money, power, ideology, revenge.
