ABSTRACT
Ivan Ivanovich, sovereign member of the Russian ruling class, fretted at the snail-slow pace of the trolley car that carried him, sardine-fashion, along with eighty-eight co-rulers of the Russian land, to their respective places of work. It was Thursday morning, June 27, 1940. Ivan had got up early, because twenty minutes' lateness meant obligatory dismissal and the entry of his dereliction in his workbook, which he must show wherever he applied for a new job.
