In the twenties, young people of education willingly gathered information for the authorities and the secret police, and thought they were doing so for “the good of the Revolution,” for the sake of the mysterious majority which was supposedly interested in the defense and the consolidation of the regime. From the thirties, and right up to Stalin’s death, they continued to do the same, except that their motivation had changed–they now acted to benefit themselves, in the hope of reward, or out of fear. They took copies of M.’s* verse to the police, or denounced colleagues in the hope of getting their own writings published, or of being promoted in their work. Others did this kind of thing out of sheer terror–not to be arrested or destroyed themselves. They were very easily intimidated, and eagerly seized on any small favors offered to them. At the same time they were always assured that nothing about their activities would ever leak out or become public knowledge. This promise has been kept and the people concerned can calmly live out their days, enjoying the modest privileges their activities have earned them.
–Nadezhda Mandelstam, Hope against Hope
* Osip Mandelstam
