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Book 3, Ascending, Alighting
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Gentleman in Moscow, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Imprisonment, Freedom, and Purpose
Change and Adaptation
Friendship, Family, and Love
Chance, Luck, and Fate
Bolshevism and Class Struggle
Summary
Analysis
Eight years later, on June 21, 1946, Russia is recovering from World War II; there are men limping in borrowed clothes in every quarter of the city, and in every city of Europe. Yet many of the façades in Theatre Square, including the Metropol Hotel’s, are unchanged.
Now that the Bolsheviks have rejoined the world stage, Russia itself must continue to adapt to the greater changes in Europe and the United States, getting involved in World War II and subsequently the Cold War.
Themes
Five years prior, in June 1941, the Germans had launched an operation to send three million soldiers to Moscow. In October, the Germans were approaching the capital. By this time, the city was in a state of lawlessness and the government was being relocated. The streets were crowded with refugees cooking stolen food over open fires.
In this chapter, it is notable that even in times of global war, the Bolsheviks’ ideals are still on display. Though they had previously been resistant to foreign immigrants, they still accept refugees in order to protect them from the tyranny of the German government and to promote the common good.
Themes
On October 30, Stalin arrived in Moscow and convened the Party leadership. He said he planned to remain in Moscow rather than relocate, and that in a week’s time, the annual festivities in honor of the Revolution would be celebrated as usual. This celebration constituted a turning point in morale for many people, which would be aided by 700,000 soldiers that would arrive in November. Hitler’s troops arrived in January, but they would never pass through the city’s gates.
In celebrating the Revolution, Stalin and the rest of the Bolsheviks also play upon feelings of patriotism in order to boost morale. Thus, even though times had been difficult throughout the 1930s and the early 40s, the Revolution is still officially looked upon as a great success.
Themes
