Zinaida Cherkovskaya

One of the most unfortunate aspects of life under Soviet communism was the treatment of "criminals without crimes," the relatives of political outcasts. Although these people had done nothing wrong, they were tainted by their relationships with those who had been found guilty of trying to sabotage communism. Quite often, the relatives were treated as if they themselves had committed the crimes of which their loved ones had been convicted.

Zinaida Cherkovskaya was a young woman whose exhusband was exiled after being found guilty of "wrecking," or sabotaging, the development of communism. Later, she fell in love with P.A. Melnikov, a rising star in the Smolensk branch of the Communist Party (CPSU). But because Cherkovskaya had once been married to a wrecker, even though she had left him before his conviction, Melnikov was ordered by the Party to have nothing...