One Night In Winter, Montefiore - B +

                                              This is the second novel in this blog this year by the noted historian Simon Montefiore. This one is set in 1945 and is based on a true story.  A group of students (ages 6-18) who attend a special school in Moscow for the children of the elite are arrested.  Their crime was a clandestine worship of Pushkin and a juvenile passion for romanticism. The organs of the state keep them at the Lubyanka and  build a mountain out of a mole hill. The master of all deception, the one whose name is never mentioned, follows the case with particular interest and uses the children to test and diminish the parents. It's a very well done novel and includes details that only someone who wrote 'Stalin: The Court Of The Red Tsar' could dream up. It reminds me of a resolution I made years ago. I swore I would avoid anything to do with the Bolsheviks, particularly of the Stalin era, because of the sheer pain of reading of the deceit, dishonesty, and evil that dominated their perverse world. I'll continue to try to avoid them.