Chapter 9 Summary

Arnold Yeryomenko, leader of the first non-Communist political group in Magadan, arrives in Moscow. Having grown up not far from one of the many prison camps in the infamous Kolyma region, Yeryomenko witnessed the cruel fate of t he many prisoners firsthand. Yeryomenko comes to Moscow to deliver the manifest of the Democratic Initiative (the group he represents) and their numerous signed petitions. Yeryomenko is denied access to the conference and instead watches it on television from his hotel room, delighted to see signs that the Communist Party is falling apart.

Despite the revelations about Stalin, Yeryomenko remains very popular with the masses. Filmmaker Tofik Shakhverdiyev believes this has more to due with the Soviet peoples' need for control and order than it does with Stalin himself. Iosif Vissarionovich Djugashvili was born in 1879, His abusive father died early, so he was raised by...