Fiona Hill

And we'd be like, this is ridiculous, Dad.

And we would all try to see if we could squeeze in the space under the stairs, a cupboard under the stairs like Harry Potter.

I mean, it's all just, you know, totally nuts.

Or you had to throw yourself in a ditch if you were outside.

And I thought, well, this isn't going to work.

And one of my great uncles who had fought in World War II said, well, look, you're good at languages, Fiona.

Why don't you go and study Russian?

Try to figure it out.

Figure out why the Russians are trying to blow us up.

Because, you know, during the... Go talk to them.

During World War II, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union had all been wartime allies.

And my uncle Charlie thought, well, there's something gone wrong here.

Maybe you can figure it out.

And as you said, go talk to them.

So I thought, okay, I'll study Russian.

So that's really how this came about.

I thought, well, it's applying education.

I'll just do my very best to understand everything I possibly can about the Russian language and the Soviet Union.

And I'll see what I can do.

And I thought, well, maybe I could become a translator.