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Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sofia Petrovna, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Uncertainty and Disbelief
Patriotism and Fanaticism
Pride, Status, and Moral Superiority
Loyalty, Political Allegiance, and Truth
Summary
Analysis
Alik returns to his job in the factory, and Sofia goes back to the publishing house. She has learned from the other women in line that there’s probably nothing for her to do until Kolya’s case reaches the prosecutor’s office, at which point she should pay the prosecutor a visit. For now, then, she spends her days mechanically going through the motions of her job, all the while thinking of Kolya.
The trouble with Sofia’s current predicament is that she’s powerless to do anything about Kolya’s arrest. As such, she’s forced to continue with her everyday life, constantly dealing with the frightening uncertainty of her son’s fate—which undoubtedly makes it quite difficult for her to focus on anything else.
Themes
Before he left, Alik advised Sofia against talking about Kolya’s arrest. At first, she was offended by this suggestion and insisted that she doesn’t have to be ashamed of her son, but then she agreed. The only person she talks to about the arrest, then, is Degtyarenko’s wife, who finds her crying in the bathroom one day. She tells Sofia that Kolya will most likely return unharmed, though it has now been five months since he was first arrested.
Alik seems to understand that the Soviet Union is in turmoil and that the tense political atmosphere might turn ordinary citizens against one another. For this reason, it would be wisest for Sofia to refrain from talking about Kolya’s arrest, since people might ostracize her for her association with an alleged criminal. In other words, Alik recognizes the hysteria at foot in the Soviet Union.
Themes
One day, Comrade Timofeyev tells Sofia to send Natasha to his office. Then, at the end of the day, Natasha tells her that she has been fired. Apparently, Erna Semyonovna showed Timofeyev an article that Natasha typed about the Red Army, in which she accidentally typed “Ret Army.” As a result, she has been fired for a “lack of vigilance.” The next day, there’s a bulletin posted at work explaining that Natasha and another employee have been fired. The other employee is the director’s former secretary, who is being let go for associating with an “unmasked enemy of the people”—that is, the director.
The firing of the director’s secretary is a good illustration of how even the most arbitrary association with an alleged criminal in the Soviet Union can lead to ostracization and persecution. This, it seems, is why Alik urged Sofia not to talk to anyone about Kolya’s arrest. Now, though, she’s not only associated with Kolya, but also with Natasha, who has been fired. The walls are essentially closing around Sofia, as seemingly everyone around her comes under suspicion—which, in turn, increases the likelihood that the same thing will happen to her.
Themes
The publishing house holds a mandatory meeting for employees. Comrade Timofeyev outlines that Natasha was hired by the director himself—something Timofeyev thinks is proof of Natasha’s wrongdoing. He also points out that Natasha is from a bourgeois, landowning family, and he accuses her of calling the Red Army the “Rat Army.” He also insists that the director’s secretary is guilty simply by her close association with the director himself. The publishing house should never have let Natasha nor the director’s secretary continue in their roles, which is—Timofeyev claims—nothing short of “the criminal relaxation of political vigilance.”
It’s quite clear at this point in the novel that the political and social climate surrounding Sofia is getting out of hand, as everyone around her succumbs to a hypervigilant kind of patriotism that leads to hysteria and panic. Natasha’s firing demonstrates how easy it is to attract suspicion, since she was let go for a small typo. And yet, the real reason she’s fired is that she originally comes from a bourgeois family. And though it’s obvious that she has no lingering sympathies for her bourgeois roots, she gets fired anyway—a good illustration of the unreasonable paranoia at foot at the publishing house (and in society at large).
Themes
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When Timofeyev and Anna Grigorievna open the floor for questions, Sofia meekly raises her hand and points out that Natasha didn’t mean to call the Red Army the “Rat Army.” It was just a typo. Anyone might make such a mistake. Plus, Natasha is extremely devoted to the communist cause. There’s a long silence after Sofia speaks, and then Timofeyev dismisses her point, saying that the typo Natasha made is an “obvious act of class hostility.”
Though Sofia’s objection may be honorable, it’s not very wise. She wants to defend her friend’s honor, but doing so only puts her in danger of falling under the suspicion of her peers and superiors, all of whom are quite eager to punish anyone who shows even the slightest sign of doubting the Communist Party. Still, though, Sofia stands by her principles, demonstrating that she has yet to recognize just how dangerous the social climate around her has become.
Themes
Sofia goes home in low spirits that night. When she arrives, she finds a note from Alik informing her that he has returned to Leningrad after being kicked out of the Komsomol. He was kicked out, he explains, because of his association with Kolya. He refused to denounce Kolya, so he was fired from his job. Sofia turns this over in her mind, remembering how angry Alik became when she asked him if Kolya accidentally said something to upset somebody in power—perhaps, Sofia thought, that’s why he was arrested. Alik insisted that this didn’t happen, but now Sofia wonders if he’s wrong. Perhaps Alik himself lost his temper or said something ill-advised, and that’s why he has been fired.
Sofia still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that the Soviet government is unjust and corrupt. She thinks there has to be a valid reason that Kolya was arrested. After all, she still feels a sense of allegiance to the Communist Party, and in order to maintain this allegiance, she can’t let herself believe that they wrongfully (but intentionally) arrested Kolya—she has to believe that there was some kind of misunderstanding. Similarly, she thinks Alik must have been kicked out of the Komsomol for losing his temper. In short, she’s trying to make sense of the tense and chaotic political climate that is confusing and uncertain by design.
Themes
Sofia takes a bath and continues to think about Alik. He once lost his temper while standing in line with her, calling the governmental officials “damned bureaucrats.” This is the kind of behavior that must have gotten him fired. As she lies there in the bath thinking about this, Sofia hears her neighbors talking about her in the kitchen. She listens as the mean-spirited nurse tells Degtyarenko’s wife that she—Sofia—has been stealing her kerosene. It must be Sofia, the nurse says. If a family member is in jail, she claims, then the others must also have something to hide. After all, people wind up in jail for a reason. Innocent people don’t stay in jail in the Soviet Union, she says.
The nurse now subjects Sofia to the same harsh, idealistic rhetoric that Sofia herself has privately applied to the people beside her in line at the prison. In the same way that Sofia silently judges the other people at the prison because they’re related to criminals, the nurse now judges Sofia. For the first time, then, Sofia experiences what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the political hysteria sweeping through Leningrad.
Themes
Horrified by the nurse’s words about her and Kolya, Sofia sneaks down to the kitchen that night and collects all of her personal belongings. She moves them to her bedroom so that she won’t have to cross paths with the nurse or anyone else in the house.
Sofia is a very proud person. She likes to think of herself as respectable and important, taking pride in the idea that she’s someone with a certain amount of social status. Now, though, her association with Kolya has given people like the nurse cause to doubt her, and this is so mortifying to her that she would rather hide away in her room than have to face the nurse.
Themes
