Chapter 2 Summary

The author, David Remnick, is a reporter for the Washington Post assigned to Moscow. He visits with his Russian friends Flora and Misha Litinov, a couple in their seventies who survived the Stalin years. Misha Litinov's father was part of Stalin's inner circle, so the family is still considered part of the privileged class. Remnick tells the Litinovs that he is hoping to find Lazar Kaganovich, the last living member of Stalin's inner circle. During Stalin's reign, Kaganovich helped direct the collectivization program that annihilated most of the peasant population and left the villages of Ukraine in ruins. Remnick says he wants to talk to Kaganovich for many reasons, but mostly he just "wants to see what an evil man looks like" and how one lives. The Litinovs tell Remnick that Kaganovich lives in their building, downstairs, so Remnick begins a campaign of...