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"The First Circle" by Solzhenitzyn is a great read. The caricature of Stalin in that book is absurd, I am not talking about that.

There is a historical character Abakumov [1], and in one of his reflections, (from my memory) he rues the fact that he was inducted into the inner circle of Stalin. One moment of displeasure, and he could be gone. And there is no way out of the inner circle other than perhaps, death.

A truly frightening, strangling, situation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Abakumov



The caricature of Stalin is a take-off or tribute to the picture of Nicholas I in Tolstoy's Hadji Murad, isn't it?


hmmm... never made this connection. I thought it was an independent portrait. Thanks, I will read Hadji Murad again.




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