Baleful Smile of the Crocodile 
Neal Ascherson
- D.S. Mirsky: A Russian-English Life 1890-1939 by G.S Smith
They came for Comrade Prince D.S. Mirsky, ‘aristocrat of critics’, some time in the night of 2 to 3 June 1937. He lived in a high, bare room which had a fine view over Moscow. It was five floors up, with no lift, so he had plenty of time to hear them climbing towards him. Many Soviet citizens slept little that year, listening for the boots on the stairs.
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Neal Ascherson’s books include The Struggles for Poland and Black Sea. He is an honorary lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
Other articles by this contributor:
Imagined Soil · The German War on Nature
Victory in Defeat · Trotsky
After the Revolution · Neal Ascherson reports from Georgia
Oo, Oo! · Khrushchev the Stalinist
What Sort of Traitors? · the British Spy Opera
Even Now · The Silence of Günter Grass
On with the Pooling and Merging · The Incomparable Tom Nairn
Hitler’s Teeth · Berlin 1945
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