For years, this was the reality for those living in the subjugated corners of the Soviet Union, where prosperous and forward-thinking individuals suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Communist ideals were imposed with an iron fist, and any dissenters—from politicians to poets—were disposed of in a variety of decisive ways: deportation, torture, execution.
The agents responsible for cleansing society of the bees that didn’t belong in the hive were known as the KGB, the Committee for State Security (or the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, in Russian.) The organization rivaled the Stasi in its ability to gather information, purge adversaries, and evoke silent fear through an elaborate network of officers and collaborators.
In Riga, Latvia’s capital, the KGB set up its stronghold in an elegant building along the grand boulevards of the city center. The Latvians dubbed it “Stūra māja”—the Corner House, an ironically docile name considering the wicked machinations undertaken behind its walls.