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Mama enters and carefully closes the door behind her.

„Sit down,“ Aleksey Ivanovich instructs her.

Mama obediently sits on the edge of the chair and puts her hands on her knees like an exemplary student.

„There’s been an emergency with your artist, an emergency,“ Mama’s boss says reproachfully.

„What happened, Aleksey Ivanovich?“ Mama asks fearfully.

„During the seminar class on Scientific Communism, that doodler of yours…“ Aleksey Ivanovich stammered and asked with disgust. „What’s his name?“

„Schwartz.“

„Yes, Schwartz. He called Trotsky a comrade. And when Associate Professor Yukhatov reprimanded him, he insolently declared that he was talking about the time when Lenin himself called Trotsky his comrade. That’s what happened! We’ll recommend not allowing him to take the State Examination in Scientific Communism and expelling him from the University. Of course you realize he can’t be permitted to work in the editorial office.“

„Aleksey Ivanovich, could it be that he misspoke?“ Mama asks ingratiatingly. „All kinds of things can happen. Sometimes I blurt out things like that too,“ she tried to think of an excuse, „and them I regret it. I have to apologize a hundred times.“ She waves her left hand, as if rejecting the nonsense she has spoken by accident.