"By 1937 the Great Terror was in full swing. Anyone with connections to the world outside the Soviet Union was a suspect."

Time After Time

Fritz Houtermans at the beginning—and nearly the end—of the world.

By Jacob Mikanowski

In December 1934, Sergei Kirov, the Communist Party boss of Leningrad, was assassinated by a disgruntled former cadre, setting off a wave of arrests and inquisitions. Meanwhile, the second Five-Year Plan wasn’t going well. There was famine in the countryside (some of it deliberate) and economic malfunction everywhere. Someone had to be at fault. Blame settled on foreign agents and saboteurs.

By 1937 the Great Terror was in full swing. Anyone with connections to the world outside the Soviet Union was a suspect. The atmosphere at the Physico-Technical Institute became unbearably tense. One after another, Fritz’s friends and colleagues were being arrested. Unable to withstand the pressure any longer, one of his scientific collaborators drank acid and threw himself from the institute’s windows. He survived just long enough to be arrested.