Stumbled upon an old FB comment by philologist Kirill Ospovat. He wrote:
"Grandfather of mine was invited to Lubyanka [the KGB HQ] once to give lectures on Latin American literature. He did not dare to refuse, so he came and began lecturing. He started with biographies: "co-operated with the local communist party" and so on. A senior officer in the audience politely interrupted: "Lev Samoilovich, you can leave that out, this we already know".
