Throughout 1936, Yuri is absent from Leningrad for weeks at a time, working in Moscow with other mathematicians and social scientists preparing the census. This huge enterprise, they are told, will be a triumph for socialism: it will reveal the extent to which living standards have improved, it will provide scientific proof of the success of Stalin’s reforms, and it will boost the people’s faith in the revolutionary project. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers have been recruited for this mammoth national undertaking.

After one sojourn in Moscow, Yuri returns home full of excitement. ‘I’ve seen Stalin’s handwriting,’ he tells Vera and the children. ‘Corrections, in his own hand, on one of the drafts of the census. That’s how committed he is to this project. Our General Secretary takes time out of his busy schedule to edit the questions.’

It is summer. The days stretch long into the night, the Leningrad winds are softer, and according to Yuri, there’s a mood of optimism throughout the country. He is convinced that Stalin would not be putting so much faith in the census unless he knew it would prove the success of his reforms.

‘If he knows so much,’ Vera the pragmatist says, ‘then why do we need a national census at all?’

Yuri laughs. ‘Hard data is better than hearsay. And besides, there are foreigners to convince. Communism is for the world, not just for Russia.’

Vera is not laughing. ‘You’re sounding like a sloganeer yourself.’

Misha glares at his mother. What would she know about the real Russia? What would she know about anything, holed up at her institute with her students and her translations? He’s proud of his father’s work. His father is working for Comrade Stalin, and when he’s older he, Mikhail Yuryevich Kogan, will work for Comrade Stalin too. In the meantime, he’s determined to be the first of his Pioneers group to be invited to join the Komsomol, and then, in another couple of years … well, he has plans.

Not that he’s been unhappy as a Pioneer. He’s loved the rules and rituals, the games and other activities, and best of all he’s loved being part of the struggle to liberate the labouring classes of the world. A year ago, in probably his greatest triumph during his time as a Pioneer, he was promoted to events secretary at the Pioneer Palace. This would have been an honour wherever it might have happened, but everyone knows that the Leningrad Pioneer Palace is the best in all of the Soviet Union. Their palace really is a palace, the former Anichkov Palace, where the last czar was born.