They’d been telling people that he’d been murdered. By whom – they had no idea. For what reason – they had no idea. How could such a thing even be possible – once again, they had no idea.
-- Narrator (14 February paragraph 2)

Importance: Communist Russia maintains that serious crimes, like murder, do not exist in a Communist system, for the supposed equality guaranteed to every citizen makes such crimes impossible. As such, though Fyodor and his family have suspicions their son was murdered, they cannot say why to any degree at all, and Leo understands this as he goes to get them to shut up about it.

Although his own employment in the State Security force was frequently unpleasant, he understood its necessity, the necessity of guarding their revolution from enemies both foreign and domestic, from those who sought to undermine it and those determined to see it fail. To this end, Leo would lay down...
-- Narrator (14 February paragraph 6)