> For the urban middle/upper class it didn't mean much except if you were involved in politics. This was not the case in the Soviet Union, certainly not under

> For the urban middle/upper class it didn't mean much except if you were involved in politics. This was not the case in the Soviet Union, certainly not under Stalin. The secret police was not only a means of subjugation but a means of extraction - if you had a house, a job, an apartment, or even a wife, that someone in the system wanted, you would be accused, tried, and repressed.