Be As Little Children

At the centre of 'Be as Little Children' is an ailing Vladimir Lenin, infected not with syphilis, as some historians have claimed, but with Christian fervour. Regressing stroke by stroke to an infancy of his own, he renounces his faith in the proletariat and puts all his hope in the many children left homeless and orphaned by the Civil War. Only they will be loyal to the cause and only they can save it. Around this Sharov weaves two other plots: a murderer who converts a Siberian people to Christianity and the life story of a female holy fool.