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The moment Marina fell in love with Nikolai was an unlikely one: it wasn't a romantic date, there was no slow music, and no red roses. It was a weekly classroom meeting with the young woman nicknamed the Circle who was the big Communist boss from the district.
What Nikolai did during that fateful classroom meeting impressed Marina. Even in these difficult circumstances, Nikolai stood up for his beliefs when others did not dare. He was a hero.
... The Circle sat down in the teacher's chair, opened her notebook, and started talking. She droned on about the importance of education, the latest accomplishments in space research, and the forefronts of science where Russia supposedly stood. The atmosphere in the classroom was sleepy and monotonous.
The room was quiet except for occasional shuffling of papers and scribbling of pens.
"I don't believe a word you're saying," Nikolai's voice broke the silence.
The Circle dropped her papers on the desk and looked straight at Nikolai, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses. Everybody else in the class stopped what they had been doing. All eyes were focused on the Circle.
Nikolai shook his head. "Do you know that the Academy of Sciences had no heat this winter? None. For sixth months. Those highly respected and valued scientists, as you put it, had to bring space heaters from home and work in gloves, their fingers freezing every second of their long work day. Salaries in research institutes can't keep up with inflation, and funding for science has been cut over and over again."
"I can't help that."
Nikolai raised his voice slightly. "Everybody says that. And everybody said that to my brother, too. He is a scientist at this cutting edge you keep talking about. And you know what? His salary is no longer enough to buy food. Is that how the communist party supports science?"
"What do you expect me to do? I am just a cog in this big machine," the Circle said.
A cog in the machine. That expression was a familiar one. Too familiar. To turn human beings into cogs in the machine of the state, in the service of the Communist ideology, was the dream of the tyrannical
"Nobody cares about science or our future anymore. It's all just words. Empty words. Money is what matters. Money and power," Nikolai said.
"My job is to disseminate information." The Circle leaned forward.
"This is not information. These are lies," Nikolai said calmly.
"I'm just doing my job, upholding the values of the Communist Party."
"What about your own values? How can you stand yourself? You are an ostrich with its head in the sand," Nikolai said.
The Circle shook her head and chuckled. "You're no different. You're a part of this organization, too. You're here, aren't you? Listening, voting, paying your membership dues, ticking off your community service projects. Why? Just to ensure a bright future for yourself. Aren't we the same?" Her narrowed eyes glinted with mockery and triumph of winning this argument.
"Not anymore." Nikolai got up, walked to the Circle's desk and dropped his Komsomol membership card in front of her. "Count me out."
For a moment, the Circle was quiet. Then, her cheeks slowly turned red, and her eyes narrowed into angry slits behind her round glasses.
"This meeting is adjourned." She collected her papers and got up from the desk.
"You'll be hearing from the head of the District Communist Committee."
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