What is the importance of Communist Russia in the collection, Table For Two?

One of the stories in the collection, "The Line," takes place during the early days of Communist Russia, and serves as an important thematic nut for the remainder of the book as this allows Towles to elaborate on his theses about political ideology. In effect, the first story in the collection builds a bridge between the social and economic realities in mid-twentieth-century America and mid-twentieth-century Russia, arguing that the basic facts of life are the same in both nations. This critique is one that Towles uses to question the idea that political parties really serve any meaningful articulation of ideological difference, and it is dependent on the dichotomy he creates between America and Russia. Thus, the Russian setting has important implications even beyond the story in which it is featured.