Every morning for the next three weeks, Vera Kogan goes to the Big House with provisions for her husband and questions for any official who will speak to her. The queue is long, some days she does not reach the top of the line. She will never know if Yuri receives her parcels. Every evening and long into the night, she calls on friends and colleagues of her husband, most of whom are reluctant to speak to her, much less offer help. Vera writes letters to party officials, she writes to the local Soviet deputy, she writes several times to Stalin himself. At the same time, knowing that she, too, could be arrested, she needs to make plans to keep her children safe.

Misha wants nothing to do with his father’s arrest. At fifteen, he might still be a child to his mother, but this is a boy who stubbornly knows his own mind. The morning after Yuri is taken, Misha slips out of the flat carrying a box of possessions. He leaves a note for Vera — not to allay her anxiety, so Lidiya will come to believe, but to stop her from attempting to find him. He writes that he will be staying with Komsomol friends, older fellows who will see to his welfare.

As always, Lidiya takes a different approach. She tries to reassure her mother with hugs and soothing words, she stands in line at shops, she helps prepare their meals. The other women who share the kitchen assiduously ignore both mother and daughter. They have their own families to protect.

Lidiya might well be old beyond her years, but at nine years of age she still needs looking after. Vera goes to see Marya, an old friend of her own mother. There are no grandparents, she explains. Nothing stands between the children and an orphanage if Vera is arrested. Neither she nor Yuri are enemies of the people so they should be released within a short time. While she says this without hesitation, she knows nothing is certain in these precarious times.

Marya needs no convincing. She packs a bag, and moves in with Vera and Lidiya. Should they come for Vera, it will be Marya, born more than sixty years earlier, a woman of the old school who secretly believes that despite the greatness of Lenin and Stalin, God in Heaven is far greater, who will look after Lidiya — and Mikhail, too, should he return.

Another night, and more boots in the passage, this time marching towards Vera. They check Marya’s passport and push her aside; they glance at Lidiya and push her aside too. It’s Vera they want. Two men take her away; two others remain for a perfunctory search. When they’ve finished, they pause in the open doorway, turn to face Marya and Lidiya, make a threatening gesture, and leave.