—World-famous Negro singer and dedicated Communist, Jesse Austin, has come to visit the countryside as part of his tour of this great land. Though a citizen of the United States, Mr Austin has proved himself to be a most loyal friend of the Soviet Union, singing about our way of life and this country’s belief in freedom and fairness.

The footage changed to a close-up of Mr Austin. His answers were dubbed in Russian, the English still audible in the gaps in the translation.

—I have a message to tell the world! This nation loves its citizens! This nation feeds its citizens! There is food here! And plenty of it! The stories of starvation are lies. The stories of hardship and misery are the propaganda of capitalist big businesses that want you to believe that only they can provide the things you need. They want you to smile and say thank you when you pay a dollar for a cent’s worth of fd! They want the workers to feel gratitude when they’re paid a couple of dollars for their labour while big business makes millions. Not here! Not in this nation! I say to the world – there is another way! I say again – there is another way! And I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

The men in suits surrounded Austin in a protective circle, laughing and applauding. Leo wondered how many of the farmers were agents of state security. All of them, he suspected. No real farmer would be trusted to pull off this performance.

The footage ended. From the back of the room, their superior officer, Major Kuzmin, stepped forward. Short and stout, with thick-lensed glasses, to an outsider he might appear comic. To officers in the MGB, he did not, for they understood the scope of his power and his readiness to use it. He declared:

—That footage was filmed in 1934 when Mr Austin was twenty-seven years old. His enthusiasm for our regime has not diminished. How can we be sure he’s not an American spy? How can we be certain his Communism isn’t a trick?

Leo knew a little of the singer. He’d heard his songs on the radio. He’d read some articles about him, none of which would have been published unless the authorities considered the American a valuable asset. Sensing Kuzmin’s questions were rhetorical he said nothing, waiting for Kuzmin to continue, reading from a file:

—Mr Jesse Austin was born in 1907, in Braxton, Mississippi, migrating with his family at the age of ten to New York. Many Negro families moved out of the South, where they experienced persecution. Mr Austin talks extensively about the experience in the transcripts I’ve given you. This hatred is a powerful source of discontent among black Americans and an effective tool in recruiting them to Communism, perhaps the most effective tool we have.