For a similarly fascinating, curiously parallel autobiography -- another western, idealistic leftist losing his illusions about Stalin's regime -- pick up Whita

For a similarly fascinating, curiously parallel autobiography -- another western, idealistic leftist losing his illusions about Stalin's regime -- pick up Whitaker Chambers' Witness. A favorite passage ponders at length a tiny note, smuggled out of a Moscow prison, where Chambers' now-purged controller awaited execution. From memory: "'You will meet a man. You will think of him as your friend.' What could it mean but that he would not be my friend?"