Stalin and the Angels
Keke would have been so proud. When her son Joseph was growing up in the small, dusty town of Gori, she dreamed that one day he would be a priest. He did eventually study at the Tbilisi Theological Seminary, but like so many others, he spent more time secretly reading banned books than studying for the priesthood. He was eventually thrown out of the seminary, and according to stories that made the rounds, he told the authorities about all the other students at the seminary who shared his radical views — who were then expelled as well. Joseph went on to become a revolutionary, and took on the...