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about in bed. Several of the district party comrades who held Communist Party cards turned away in disgust. And then a curious thing happened. My Englishman, who had been following the conversation attentively, looking from one speaker to the other as if he were at a country club tennis match, addressed himself directly to Sonja. Here, as best I can reconstruct it, is what he said: “When you say Soviet Communism, you of course mean Stalinism. I think we must distinguish between the two. Stalin’s fastidious autocracy must be seen in historical p-perspective. The cadres that organized the B-bolshevik uprising lived as illegals for years, even decades, before the revolution thrust them into positions of power. Even then their grip on p-power was tenuous—they had to defend the revolution against foreign invaders and their White Russian lackeys in a b-brutal civil war. This surely explains, in p-part, the invasive role of the Soviet secret police and the disagreeable purging of the party ranks in the twenties, explains also Stalin’s conviction that he is surrounded by enemies and must eliminate them before they eliminate him. In the pursuit of enemies, real or imagined, Stalin has undoubtedly d-distorted Communism. But Communism, as opposed to Stalinism, is another cup of tea entirely. Communism will carry on after Stalin and Stalinism. To answer your question: Hitler, who has the loyalty of the German military, and Fascism, which has captured the imagination of the German masses, are clearly the greater evil.”
    Blushing in embarrassment, Kim glanced quickly at me. “Our Englishman is less innocent than we thought,” I said. “He has answered the question correctly. Those of us who have pledged allegiance to the Communist cause defend an ideal, not an individual.”
    “You’re saying,” Sonja said, looking intently at the Englishman in her eagerness to understand, “that Stalin is the lesser of two evils?”
    “That’s not exactly—”
    “If Hitler is the greater of two evils, it follows that Stalin must be the lesser of two evils.”
    “It’s more complicated than you’re suggesting.…”
    “The lesser of two evils is still evil?”
    “You’re twisting my meaning.…”
    Sonja would not let go. “You’re saying that Stalin’s betrayal of Communism does not invalidate Communism?”
    “Nobody said anything about Stalin betraying Communism,” Dietrich declared heatedly. “There is a difference between distorting and betraying. Distorting is a tactical course change. It’s trimming your sails to the wind. It’s adapting to an evolving reality so the strategic objective, which is dictatorship of the proletariat, can be reached.”
    Sergius agreed. “It’s Lenin’s two steps forward, one step back.”
    The professor touched Sonja’s shoulder blade. “Stalin is Communism, dear child. Whichever path he decides on, rest assured it is the right path.”
    “With or without Stalin, world revolution is inevitable,” I said. “Talking eternally about it at Latschgasse 9, apartment number seven, won’t speed it up. I propose we put the theoretical portion of our meeting behind us and move on to practical matters. Those in favor?”
    All the members of the district committee except Sonja raised their hands. Seeing she was outvoted, she frowned at Dietrich, who seized her wrist and lifted it for her. The others laughed.
    Dietrich brought up the question of acquiring arms for the workers’ militia units, which skirmished nightly with the toughs in Dollfuss’s militia. An important arms shipment hidden on one of the barges that plied the Danube, which flowed through Vienna’s outer suburbs, had been discovered and confiscated by the police earlier in the week. The story had made headlines in the government-run newspapers. One of the militia delegates pointed out that we were starved for funds, which were desperately needed in order to purchase arms abroad. The district committees had been asked to