I wanted to choose somewhere public, because I was scared of the KGB.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've met enough KGB colonels in my life.
I decided to go into politics because of our Soviet-style government.
I went to Moscow and met some slightly powerful and scary people.
I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place.
I was very restless. I really wanted to be a part of a kind of a progressive society. I was fed up with these Communist doctrines and you were hassled all the time with members of the Party committee who were KGB, what you have to do, where in the West you can go or not to go.
We were fortunate to have the Russians as our childhood enemies. We practiced hiding under our desks in case they had the temerity to drop a nuclear weapon.
Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.
I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.
One of my books, called 'Moscow Station,' revealed that a KGB archivist had defected from Russia to the FBI. And I knew that he was safe, and revealing this would not jeopardize him. But nevertheless, the FBI started a leak investigation.