Boris Shternberg was a believer. As the Soviet Union formed, he held a series of official positions, including administrator of Moscow’s reservoir. But the system in which he had placed his faith ultimately betrayed him, as it did so many Communists of his era: One day late in 1937, Joseph Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD, snatched Shternberg from his Moscow apartment. He spent the next two months being interrogated and tortured. On December 19, 1937, the NKVD ordered him shot. (more…)