ngs were getting more and more dangerous, and we had to
invent something if we were to save ourselves.

Earlier, before our marriage, when things were not so bad and we were
all seeking ways of getting out of Russia, I had applied for a
foreign passport to go abroad. At first some people were being let
out before the Bolsheviks clamped down on everybody.

Now, this application at the Foreign Office or Commissariat was a
dangerous identity of myself and a disclosure, especially when I was
being searched for because of my connection with the British Mission.

Nelka knew this situation and one day unknown to me she went to the
Commissariat. There she very naively inquired about the application
of Michael Moukhanoff. The girl looked up and brought out my file,
looked it over and said that no decision had been made yet. Nelka
then asked when one could hope to have an answer. The girl said she
did not know but could go and find out. If Nelka would wait she would
go and inquire. She left the room and Nelka then did a very desperate
thing. She picked up the file from the table, walked quickly out of
the room, down the corridor and then faster down the steps and into
the street where she mixed into the crowd. A dangerous thing to do,
but my file was gone, even though my position became that way only
more illegal and perhaps even more dangerous. But Nelka as usual did
the decided thing with courage and determination.

Like many others we were now trying to escape. Like always in such
cases, there are people who for a price were getting people out of
town and over the Finish border. It was very dangerous work for
them--dangerous for the people trying to leave and also expensive. We
established contact with one such person who turned out to be a very
decent fellow, and he agreed to try and get us out. He had peasants
along the border whom he knew and who were helping him. These he had
to pay and quite highly for it was all dangerous work for them also.
He warned us that he could not tell when he would be ready to move us
and that we should be ready to go on a moment's notice. Therefore, we
prepared what we thought we could take with us and waited.

In the meantime my father had succeeded to get some false papers
through his Jewish friend in Moscow and with these he and my mother
managed to get over the Finnish border into Finland by train. They
were by now in Stockholm and getting ready to sail to America.

By this time also,