Many people go through fire and water, but only a few go through copper pipes. Lenin’s parents were unmercenary people of the sixties, and her own family was not much different from her parents’: she and her husband worked a lot, but lived very modestly. Wealth fell upon them unexpectedly and, as Lena naively thought, quite deservedly. But she was in vain to rejoice: easy money is always a test, a temptation that few can cope with.