With the help of some friends who are better educated than I am, I came to understand a few things both in an in-universe sense and a meta sense about what it would be like putting Alec in Indonesia in the middle of the 20th century. I hadn't really comprehended before how much the country was fracturing at that time, and the degree to which that was spurred on by England. Over the course of a few conversations I realized that not only would Alec be unlikely to survive the civil wars happening in Indonesia then, but that as a writer I find it in poor taste to take all the atrocities that were happening then due in part to England and use it as a backdrop for the story of an English character. I hope that makes sense!

As for "why Leningrad", there are a few aesthetic parameters I wanted that the city fits at the time of Alec's stay there. It's got lots of waterways, it's highly populous, and it's not without its own struggles, although they're struggles I feel more comfortable incorporating Alec into. As far as a place for Alec's father to throw him away goes, the USSR also just seems to fit because it's hard to get out of and because Alec could have easily died there between his poverty and the harsh conditions. So as far as options went that were not Indonesia and did not pose similar problems to Indonesia as a choice for Alec's exile, it seemed like a good one! I still need to do more research but I feel more confident using it as a starting point.