Yagoda and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in Irkutsk seem to have learned nothing from the fall of Bukharin's Union. They insist they are the true heirs to Lenin's revolution while the NKVD snuffs out all intra-party criticism. Worse yet, they stifle the local Buryat people's autonomy under a Russo-centric hegemony. After years of Yagoda's tyranny, the various dissidents within his fiefdom have risen up to overthrow him and his Presidium.They have rallied around the charismatic young idealist Valery Sablin, a passionate Leninist who has called for true freedom and equality for all the peoples of Russia. Everyone from Bukharinites distressed by growing NKVD control, Buryats who desire autonomy, junior officers and women who seek equality have joined his mutiny. But when Sablin wins - if he wins - he will have to come face to face with pragmatic challenges of governing a state. Will Sablin's Union live up to Lenin's ideals? Or will it backslide into Bukharinist dictatorial pragmatism?