Encounters make this far too easy. (Though it also helps that I'm from Finland.) Path 1: When I was a kid, Raisa Gorbacheva visited our school. I didn't talk t

Encounters make this far too easy. (Though it also helps that I'm from Finland.) Path 1: When I was a kid, Raisa Gorbacheva visited our school. I didn't talk to her personally, but some people I knew did. Due to her position, I'm fairly sure she knew many people who knew Stalin. Path 2: Because I was involved in student politics, I know some Finnish politicans and have met many more. Some of them must have met Putin, but I'm not completely sure who. Putin's grandfather Spiridon Putin was a chef for both Lenin and Stalin. Path 3: I have mutual friends with former Finnish politician Erkki Tuomioja. His grandmother was Hella Wuolijoki, who was likely a Soviet spy, was married for a while to a personal friend of Lenin, and claimed to have met Stalin in the 1930s.