"Papa, why are the Americans different from us?" six-year-old Illya Kuryakin asked his father, Nicolai. Illya was a cute little boy with unruly blond hair, blue eyes, and one front tooth missing.
"Well, son, they just have a whole different way of doing things," Nicolai replied. "Over here, the government runs everything and makes sure that everyone gets what they need and no more. In America there are greedy rich people who take everything and leave the poor people to do without. It's a very unfair system. When their stock market crashed ten years ago, everything just fell apart. Nothing like that would ever happen here."
"But Papa, why do people keep disappearing?" People had been disappearing for as long as Illya could remember. Some of them had even been the parents of his friends.
"Some people who live here don't agree with the way things are done," Nicolai explained. "Comrade Stalin has to purge our nation of all those who disagree with us so that the rest of us can all get along and live in peace."
"Is it true that they are sent to Siberia to freeze or starve to death?"
"Of course not," Nicolai said quickly, not looking at his son. "They are merely sent somewhere where they can be taught to think differently."
"Oh." Nicolai was relieved to see that his son seemed satisfied with that answer.
"There may be a war coming soon with Germany," Nicolai told Illya. "A crazy man named Adolf Hitler wants to make our country part of his own. I might have to go and fight."
Before Illya had only been worried that his father might also disappear. Now he was even more worried about Nicolai having to go to war.