I mean, are they reactionaries who are gonna want to murder you or something? If you're not in actual danger with your positions, you can let your positions show in context when the conversations come up. I remember a time with a situation a little something like that where the conversation was beating around the bush a bit with criticisms of how things are going and I mentioned capitalism directly as a problem and got straightforward agreement from someone who I had thought would be more liberal about it. Not to say this person was a commie, I doubt they were that far, but you really don't know sometimes until you poke. And people can change their views, albeit with time.

So though I wouldn't advise coming in hot with "Stalin did nothing wrong" type rhetoric unless you want to start a fight and thrive on that energy, you also don't need to act like your views are going to get you shot unless you have reason to believe it's actually that bad in a specific context.