Soviet leader in America pulled up by revolutionaries who are under cover, waiting for payment (8)
I believe the answer is:
assureds
'are under cover waiting for payment' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'soviet leader in america pulled up by revolutionaries' is the wordplay.
'soviet leader in' becomes 'as' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'america' becomes 'US' (United States).
'pulled up' says the letters should be written backwards.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'revolutionaries' becomes 'reds' (I've seen this in another clue).
'us' reversed gives 'su'.
'as'+'su'+'reds'='ASSUREDS'
'who' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?