Decent English Leftists. Nation Marvels.

The BBC brings us the story of a young girl growing up in Soviet Russia. Her father was in the gulag for trying to obtain a printing press and her neighbors avoided her and her mother because the state considered dissent contagious. Her one lifeline with sanity came through letters from an English couple who, though apparently leftists, made it a point to write to the families of political prisoners. They became penpals, and the English couple began to send care packages. A book chronicling the relationship is coming out and the girl, now 41, is retelling how "When the first letter came it was like something from another planet. We were living in such a closed society that it was like getting a message from a UFO."

Luckily, there are plenty of commenters ready to remind us that, while brutal dictatorships are bad, so is consumerism.