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Chapter 1
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
In the coming months, Sofia Petrovna spends all of her free time with Natasha Frolenko. Mostly, though, she works. Her son, Kolya, jokes about how devoted she is to social activism, as the Mestkom appoints her to be the person who collects union dues from the other workers at the publishing house. She doesn’t pay much thought to the point of these dues, but she does enjoy collecting them. In fact, she learns that she can even gently reprimand the director and the party secretary if they get behind on their payments—and she enjoys doing so.
It’s clear that Sofia likes power. This is not necessarily because she’s hungry for authority, but because having power makes her feel important. In other words, she cares about social status, and the way to gain respect in the Soviet Union during this period is by showing devotion to the Communist Party. Therefore, she takes pride in her duty to collect union dues from her colleagues, since this task makes her feel important.
Themes
Sofia and Natasha frequently stay at work late. Alone in the darkened typing pool, Sofia enjoys talking while Natasha patiently listens. Natasha herself isn’t much of a talker, but Sofia makes up for her lack of input by gossiping about their coworkers and superiors. She also tells Natasha about her late husband, how deeply in love they were, and about Kolya as a child. Natasha, for her part, doesn’t have many stories about love, which Sofia chalks up to the fact that Natasha has a very pasty, sickly complexion.
It becomes obvious that Sofia Petrovna is a very proud woman—not just when it comes to her role as the senior typist or as the labor union’s dues collector, but also when it comes to her family and personal life. She enjoys telling Natasha about her loved ones, and she doesn’t seem to mind that Natasha doesn’t have much to say in return. In particular, her love for Kolya shines through what she says, establishing how much she cares about her son and, in turn, how devastated she would be to lose him.
Themes
Natasha’s father was a wealthy colonel who died when she was a child, at which point she and her mother moved in with a relative. She had to start working at the age of 15, and now both her mother and her relative are dead. She’s a staunch supporter of the Soviet Union, but the Komsomol—a communist youth organization—won’t let her in because her father was a high-ranking military man and a homeowner. The Komsomol thus doubts her allegiance to the ideals of communism.
The Komsomol’s refusal to let Natasha join illustrates how suspicious people were of one another in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Natasha herself has lived a modest life amongst the working class, but the Komsomol refuses to admit her simply because she originally came from a wealthy family. The fact that her father was a colonel implies that he was in the military before the Russian Revolution (1917–1923), meaning that he would have fought to preserve the Russian monarchy against socialist revolutionary forces. Now that Natasha lives in a fully socialist state, then, her family ties to a pre-communist Russia mark her as a threat to the Communist Party—this, at least, is what the Komsomol seems to think.
Themes
Sofia gives a pledge at work to several esteemed guests from Moscow; she was chosen to give the pledge on behalf of the publishing house’s “nonparty workers.” Afterwards, she feels extremely proud and can’t wait to tell Kolya all about it, but she has to wait for him to get home from studying for his final exams with his good friend Alik Finkelstein. As she waits for him, she talks to one of her housemates in the kitchen, saying that it’s really too bad the woman doesn’t have a job, since it adds meaning and purpose to life. “Especially if your job is connected with literature,” Sofia adds.
Sofia delivers a pledge to the Communist Party on behalf of the publishing house’s “nonparty workers” (or people who have no official affiliation with the government or the Communist Party). This pledge gives her the opportunity to prove her loyalty to the Communist Party, but it also satisfies her desire to feel like an important, productive Soviet citizen. Feeling this way, she can’t help but speak condescendingly to her housemate, acting somewhat superior because she has a job that she believes adds value to her life.
Themes
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When Kolya comes home, Sofia doesn’t have time to tell him about the pledge she made at work. He immediately tells her that he’s now an official member of the Komsomol. Going on, he excitedly talks about his day, mentioning that there was an argument at school and that it was instigated by a boy named Sashka Yartsev, whom Kolya says is a “real old-regime jerk.” Apparently, Sashka Yartsev called Alik Finkelstein a Yid (an anti-Semitic term), so now there will be a mock trial. Kolya tells his mother that he has been appointed to act as the public prosecutor. When Sofia finally tells him about the pledge, he expresses his admiration for her and then goes to bed.
Kolya is even more wrapped up in the Communist Party than his mother, as evidenced by his membership in the Komsomol. To that end, he and his friends draw on their power as a communist collective to address inequality head-on when Sashka Yartsev calls Alik an anti-Semitic name. In a way, his experience with the Komsomol during this period hints at the potential benefits of living in a socialist society built on the belief that the people should have the right to govern themselves. In this moment, such a system empowers Kolya to deal with anti-Semitism alongside his peers. Unfortunately, though, the same kind of governmental system also leads to corruption and repression.
Themes
