She got up and looked out of the window. The cars parked on either side of the street were covered with a fresh layer of snow. In the middle of the road were two police cars and a BTR-60 armored personnel carrier, carelessly parked at random angles in the manner of cops who knew they could do anything they liked.

The noise from outside her apartment changed from banging to crashing. It sounded as if someone was trying to demolish the building with a sledgehammer.

Tanya put on a bathrobe and went to the hall. She picked up her TASS press card, which was lying on a hall table with her car keys and change. She opened her door and looked into the corridor. Nothing was happening, except that two of her neighbors were also nervously peeping out.

Tanya propped her door open with a chair and went out. The noise was coming from the next floor down. She looked over the banisters and saw a group of men in the military camouflage uniform of the ZOMO, the notorious security police. Wielding crowbars and hammers, they were breaking down the door of Tanya’s friend Danuta Gorski.

Tanya yelled: “What are you doing? What’s happening?”

Some of her neighbors also shouted questions. The police took no notice.

The door was opened from inside, and Danuta’s husband stood there, a frightened man in pajamas and glasses. “What do you want?” he said. From within the apartment came the sound of children crying.

The cops strode in, shoving him out of the way.

Tanya ran down the stairs. “You can’t do this!” she yelled. “You have to identify yourselves!”

Two big policemen came out of the apartment dragging Danuta, her abundant hair in disarray, wearing a nightdress and a white candlewick dressing gown.

Tanya stood in front of them, blocking the staircase. She held up her press card. “I am a Soviet reporter!” she shouted.

“Then get the fuck out of the way,” one replied. He lashed out at her with a crowbar he held in his left hand. It was not a calculated blow, for he was striving to control the struggling Danuta with the other hand, but the iron bar caught Tanya across the face. She felt a blaze of pain and staggered back. The two police pushed past her and hauled Danuta down the stairs.

Tanya had blood in her right eye but she could see with her left. Another cop emerged from the apartment carrying a typewriter and a telephone answering device.

Danuta’s husband reappeared with a child in his arms. “Where are you taking her?” he shouted. The police did not reply.

Tanya said to him: “I’m going to call the army right now and find out.” Holding one hand to her injured face, she went back up the stairs.

She glanced in the hall mirror. She had a gash on her forehead and her cheek was red and already swelling with a bruise, but she thought the blow had not broken any bones.