Summary

Eight years after he was exiled to Siberia, Mishka returned to Moscow. On that day he watched as nearly 150 people stood in line to visit Lenin’s tomb. He noted that the people of Russia had at least learned how to stand in line during the years of what he had believed would be the age of enlightenment in the country.

Mishka was surprised so many of the familiar buildings of Moscow still stood, especially since five years before the Germans had intended to capture Moscow. The country was in the middle of transferring the capital of the country out of Moscow when Stalin arrived in the city in full military dress. He told the other members of the Party that they could leave if they would like but that he was going nowhere.

In the chapter “Antics, Antitheses, an Accident,” the Count...