need for it. It's not just our few tens of thousands of members of
the underground who see the need for overthrowing the Soviet
bureaucracy. It's millions of average Russians in every walk of life and
every strata, from top to bottom. What does the scientist think when
some bureaucrat knowing nothing of his speciality comes into the
laboratory and directs his work? What does the engineer in an automobile
plant think when some silly politician decides that since cars in
capitalist countries have four wheels, that Russia should surpass them
by producing a car with five? What does your scholar think when he is
told what to study, how to interpret it, and then what to write? What
does your worker think when he sees the bureaucrat living in luxury
while his wage is a comparatively meager one? What do your young people
think in their continual striving for a greater degree of freedom than
was possessed by their parents? What does your painter think? Your poet?
Your philosopher?"

Shvernik shook his head. "When a nation is ready for revolution, it's
the _people_ who put it over. Often, the so-called leaders are hard put
to run fast enough to say out in front."

* * * * *

Paul said, "After it's all over, we'll go back to the States. I know a
town up in the Sierras called Grass Valley. Hunting, fishing, mountains,
clean air, but still available to cities such as San Francisco where you
can go for shopping and for restaurants and entertainment."

She kissed him again.

Paul said, "You know, I've done this sort of work--never on this scale
before, of course--ever since I was nineteen. Nineteen, mind you! And
this is the first time I've realized I'm tired of it. Fed up to here.
I'm nearly thirty-five, Ana, and for the first time I want what a man is
expected to want out of life. A woman, a home, children. You've never
seen America. You'll love it. You'll like Americans too, especially the
kind that live in places like Grass Valley."

Ana laughed softly. "But we're Russians, Paul."

"Eh?"

"Our home and our life should be here. In Russia. The New Russia that
we'll have shortly."

He scoffed at her. "Live here when there's California? Ana, Ana, you
don't know what living is. Why--"

"But, Paul, I'm a Russian. If the United States is a more pleasant place
to live than Russia will be, when we have ended the police state, then
it is part of my duty to improve Russia."

It suddenly came to hi