A heated conversation broke out. Or rather, a duel. The political instructor and I were locked in debate. [I asked him: Can you explain the famine of 1933? What public or state body controls Stalin's moves, and how can the people put limits to his power and so prevent autocratic rule from developing?] Beside him the veterinary surgeon had meanwhile lain down and gone to sleep. Strange! He was asleep, yet every now and then he opened his eyes and tried to signal to me. [How far from my thoughts it was that you could be punished for expressing your point of view in the twentieth century!]