Sidorovich was definitely not in Brussels in 1903; he may or may not have been in Petersburg in October; but he was, finally, at the Constituent Assembly in January. He had even produced a witticism on the subject. “The Constituent Assembly was like the opera,” said Sidorovich. “It was very boring but you felt, given how much it had cost, that you had to stay.” It had cost nearly a hundred years of tireless labor; the fight for an all-Russian democratic congress—which is what the Constituent Assembly was—had destroyed the lives of countless men and women. And when it finally came, during the early months of the Bolshevik dictatorship, it lasted exactly one day. When it became clear to the delegates on that day that they would not be allowed to return, they decided not to leave. At 4:00 a.m. they were expelled from the building. And it was over. A Bolshevik, asked by a journalist before the event what would happen if the Mensheviks and others tried to protest against the regime, had made a witticism of his own. “First, we will try to dissuade them,” he said. “Then we will shoot.”

Sidorovich didn’t really have a comeback for that one. Neither did the Mensheviks. Even in Russian, some things aren’t all that funny.