Leo glanced up at his superior officer. He spoke of hatred not as a crime, there were no acts of right or wrong, everything was weighed politically. It was not a question of outrage but calculation and analysis. Kuzmin caught Leo’s glance.

—You have something you wish to say?

Leo shook his head. Kuzmin finished reading:

—Mr Austin’s family moved in 1917, along with many others, a period of mass migration from South to North. Of all the hatreds Jesse Austin experienced, we speculate that it was the hatred in New York that made him a Communist. Not only was he hated by white families, he also found himself hated by the Negro middle-class families who were already established in the area. They were terrified that the migrants were going to flood the northern cities. It was a pivotal moment in his life, watching people who should have stood in solidarity with the new arrivals turn on them. He witnessed the way class divides even the closest of communities.

Leo flicked through his copy of the file. There was only one photograph of the young Mr Austin with his parents. Mother and father standing straight, as if nervous of the camera, the young Austin standing in between them. Kuzmin continued:

—In New York his father was an elevator man in a run-down hotel called the Skyline, which has since gone bankrupt. The hotel specialized in all the corruptions typical of a capitalist city – especially drugs and prostitution. As far as we are aware, his father was involved in none of the illegal activity; although he was arrested on numerous occasions haps as freed without charge. His mother was a domestic. Jesse Austin claims his childhood was untroubled by violence, or drink, instead his family was broken by squalor. Their room was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. His father died when Jesse Austin was twelve years old. He contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. Though the United States has some admirable health facilities they are not open to all. For example, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York has built one of the most advanced sanatoria for its employees. However, Mr Austin’s father was not an employee of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He could not afford a stay in a sanatorium. To this day Mr Austin remains sure that had the facilities been available his father would’ve survived. Perhaps this is another important event in Mr Austin’s political development. Watching his father die, in a country where healthcare is contingent on your employment circumstances, themselves dependent upon the colour of your skin, the accident of your birth.

This time Leo raised his hand. Kuzmin nodded at him.

—If this is the case why don’t more Americans become Communists?

—That is a very important question, and one we are puzzling over. If you come up with the answer, you can have my job.