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Chapter 13
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
Sofia is tense at work for the next few days, constantly wondering who wrote the article about her. She assumes it was Erna Semyonovna, though she doubts Erna can write so well. One evening, Natasha comes to her apartment and starts speaking very quickly, which is out of character because she’s normally quiet and reserved. She tells Sofia that she must leave the publishing house as soon as possible. If she quits now, she can say that she left on her own terms. But if she waits to get fired, it will be impossible for her to find another job. She makes Sofia promise to resign the very next day, and she even writes a letter of resignation for her to sign. Sofia agrees and signs the letter.
Natasha wants to help Sofia avoid the same fate she herself has been dealt, knowing all too well how hard it is to get a new job after being fired from another. Any association a future employer might make between Sofia and anti-Soviet activity would surely make things quite difficult for her. Getting fired from the publishing house for standing up for Natasha would therefore be a nearly irreversible misfortune, since it would link Sofia to the suspicion surrounding Natasha.
Themes
Natasha wonders why Kolya confessed. She knows that it’s possible for an adept investigator to “trip a person up,” but only when discussing smaller details. And yet, all of the mothers and wives in line have been told that their loved ones confessed. Sofia, for her part, explains to Natasha that Kolya simply failed to provide a good alibi—after all, he’s quite young. And Alik, she adds, was clearly arrested because he can’t control his anger and his language. When their conversation comes to an end, Natasha goes to leave, but not before making Sofia promise her again to resign.
Sofia is still in a state of disbelief. She refuses to believe that Kolya is a saboteur, but she also refuses to accept that she lives under an authoritarian, repressive government. In order to make sense of everything, then, she decides that Kolya signed a confession simply because he’s young, thinking that his inexperience must have caused him to get confused during a lengthy interrogation. Of course, this is clearly not the case, but the story helps her maintain both her love of Kolya and her political allegiance to the Soviet Union.
Themes
Sofia resigns the next day. Timofeyev accepts her letter and wishes her luck—a sentiment echoed by the women in the typing pool. On her way home, she decides to go to Natasha’s apartment. When she arrives, though, Natasha’s neighbor answers the door and informs her that Natasha poisoned herself. Sofia rushes to the hospital, but it’s too late—Natasha is dead.
Natasha’s suicide reveals just how hopeless she must have felt in the aftermath of her dismissal from the publishing house. She was a devoted citizen who strongly believed in the Communist Party’s values, but the Communist Party itself never accepted her. To the contrary, she was fired from the publishing house on the suspicion that she wanted to undermine the Soviet cause, and this ultimately made it impossible for her to find new work. The very thing she cared so much about, then, ended up causing her great misery by stripping her of opportunity and camaraderie.
Themes
