How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Since the civil war and the revolutions nobody was really safe, yet Alex's father behaved as if they were. (1.5)
Things are rough in the U.S.S.R. When the Soviet government took power, it promised its citizens that a golden age was coming and all of their problems were about to disappear. Didn't quite work out like that, huh?
Quote #2
He thought of the city as he remembered it, softly lit at night, people laughing at the restaurants, and the warm, book-lined walls of his uncle's house. (2.9)
Sadly, Moscow has changed a lot—what was once a bustling center of commerce, art, and literature is now a mere shadow of its former shelf. So what happened? What could have caused such a huge downfall? The book doesn't give a definitive reason, but instead places the blame solely on the Soviet government.
Quote #3
If they could have looked down upon themselves from the height of a cloud, they would have seen that they were just a wave […] in a large ocean of people along the roads to Moscow. (2.41)
There are tons of people going through the exact same thing as Alex. They've had their families taken from them and their dreams crushed; they've witnessed things that no human being should ever have to witness. At this point, it's clear as day that the Soviet government is doing some awful things to its citizens for seemingly no reason.