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Chapter 11
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
Kolya’s case has finally made its way to the prosecutor. Alik and Natasha get in line early for Sofia, who refuses to leave to rest once she gets there in the morning—she’s too nervous to miss her opportunity to talk to the prosecutor and show him that Kolya is innocent. She plans to tell him about how Kolya was a member of the Komsomol and how the newspaper recently celebrated him for his ingenuity as a Soviet engineer.
Sofia’s plan to reason with the prosecutor is unrealistic. There are hundreds of people trying to do the exact same thing, and nobody seems to have had any success in convincing the government to release their loved ones from prison. In fact, the whole idea that there’s actually a legitimate judicial process in place is out of touch with reality, since the Soviet government has clearly begun to repress its citizens in a very authoritarian way. For Sofia to recognize this, though, would mean she’d have to give up her hope of freeing Kolya, which she isn’t emotionally ready to do.
Themes
Once Sofia is there to stand in line, Natasha leaves. Alik explains to Sofia that times are hard for Natasha, who can’t find anywhere to work because she was fired from the publishing house. Everyone sees her as an untrustworthy enemy of the Soviet regime. Alik, in fact, now faces the same thing, since he was let go from the factory. He speaks angrily about what happened, but Sofia tells him to watch his language—how could he be so foolish? His angry outbursts are clearly what got him in trouble in the first place. He needs to learn to control himself. She, for instance, managed to stand up for Natasha at the meeting yesterday, and nothing bad happened to her.
Sofia still clings to the idea that the Soviet Union is a fair and just place to live. Instead of recognizing that Alik’s anger is legitimate, she warns him against voicing his frustration, insisting that his inability to keep quiet is what has landed him in trouble. She therefore overlooks the obvious fact that he was fired without just cause. She is, then, in a state of disbelief and denial, as she refuses to accept the harsh reality of her surrounding circumstances.
Themes
Sofia looks around at the many people waiting in line. She sees their exhaustion and notices that many of them are holding white pieces of paper. These papers are deportation orders issued to the family members of certain imprisoned people. As she thinks about this, she notices a little girl standing in front of her. The girl looks sad and tired, but she’s also familiar. Sofia then realizes that the girl is the director’s daughter, and the woman standing next to her is his wife. The director’s wife explains that he was sentenced to ten years in a remote work camp. “Then he was guilty after all,” Sofia replies, adding that she never would have suspected him of malice.
Sofia thinks that Kolya was imprisoned because of a misunderstanding, but she doesn’t apply the same thought process to anyone else. She used to have great respect for the director, but she immediately assumes that the Soviet government was in the right by sentencing him to 10 years in a remote camp—after all, she reasons, if he was found guilty, then he must have done something wrong. Her simplistic thinking in this moment might seem naïve, but it’s arguably little more than a mode of self-preservation, since acknowledging the director’s innocence would mean accepting that the same thing could happen to Kolya.
Themes
The director’s wife ignores Sofia’s comment and says that she and her daughter are being deported to Kazakhstan. They will surely starve, she says, because she won’t be able to work. Sofia can hardly believe her ears, wondering how the director and his wife will reunite after the 10-year sentence. The wife doesn’t know how they’ll find each other, but she notes that this isn’t a unique situation—everyone around them holding “travel vouchers” (that is, deportation orders) won’t be able to find their husbands.
Sofia is shocked by what she hears about the director’s situation, but the director’s wife isn’t all that surprised. Whereas Sofia hasn’t yet let herself admit the horror at play in the Soviet Union, the director’s wife seems to have fully recognized the dire circumstances around her. Sofia, however, is still in a state of disbelief, clinging to the conviction that the government is just and fair—something the director’s wife knows for certain isn’t the case.
Themes
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Sofia tells the director’s wife not to lose heart and to remain vigilant in her attempt to track down her husband. Her comment infuriates the director’s wife, who sourly tells Sofia to remain vigilant herself whenever they send away her son. But Sofia rejects this idea, insisting that Kolya won’t be sent away because he’s not guilty—a comment that makes the director’s wife laugh.
Again, Sofia can’t let herself see that it doesn’t matter whether or not a Soviet prisoner is innocent—the government doesn’t care. The director’s wife knows this all too well, but Sofia refuses to grasp the idea because it would mean acknowledging that Kolya will most likely be sent to a work camp regardless of his innocence.
Themes
Finally, Sofia is called into a room where two prosecutors are waiting. The director’s wife and her daughter go to one of the prosecutors, and Sofia goes to the other. The prosecutor working on the director’s case is tidy and polite, but the one working on Kolya’s case is disheveled and rude. He spends most of the time talking on the phone about other matters, and when he finally gets around to hearing what Sofia has to say, he hardly listens. She tries to explain that Kolya was arrested by mistake, but he replies by saying that he has already been sentenced to 10 years in a remote camp.
Sofia finally comes face to face with the injustice of the Soviet government during the Great Purge, when mass political hysteria led to thousands of wrongful arrests and convictions. The mere fact that she goes to see a prosecutor is little more than a gesture toward a fair judicial process, as made quite evident when the prosecutor informs Sofia that Kolya has already been convicted. Without any way of advocating for her son, Sofia is completely powerless, and Kolya is left at the mercy of a repressive regime.
Themes
Sofia is shocked to learn that Kolya’s trial has already taken place. The prosecutor has already started talking on the phone again, but she waits until he’s quiet again, at which point she asks what Kolya was found guilty of doing. As she begins to list his accomplishments, the prosecutor interrupts and informs her that Kolya confessed to his crimes. He even signed a document asserting that he is a terrorist and that he was involved in a plot to undermine the Communist Party. Sofia can hardly answer, but she manages to ask where Kolya will be sent. The prosecutor says this matter doesn’t concern him, and then the conversation is over.
The fact that Kolya signed a confession goes against Sofia’s unyielding belief that her son is innocent. And yet, it’s very unlikely that the confession legitimately reflects the truth, since many Soviet prisoners during the Great Purge were coerced into signing confessions to crimes they didn’t commit. Sofia, however, has not yet begun to question the government, so it wouldn’t occur to her that Kolya might have been tortured until he agreed to make a false confession.
Themes
Outside the prosecutor’s office, Sofia breaks into tears, explaining to Alik that Kolya confessed to engaging in “terrorist activity.” Alik is beside himself. He doesn’t believe Kolya would ever do such a thing, instantly recognizing that the government must have beaten him into signing the confession. But Sofia simply repeats that her son confessed, seemingly perplexed and unable to say anything else.
Sofia finds herself in a difficult position: she still trusts her government, but she’s also convinced that her son would never commit a crime against the Communist Party. In this moment, then, she’s forced to reconcile her political allegiance to the Soviet Union with her abiding love and support of Kolya.
Themes
