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Chapter 8
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 immediately determines that she must travel to Sverdlovsk to speak to lawyers, judges, prosecutors—anyone who might be able to help. But Alik informs her that this wouldn’t be useful, since Kolya has most likely been brought back to Leningrad, where he’ll be tried. Instead of rushing off, she should get a good night’s sleep. In the morning, Natasha will tell the people at the publishing house that she’s sick, enabling her to go see the prosecutor in Leningrad and figure out what has happened.
For Sofia, perhaps the most torturous part of Kolya’s arrest is the uncertainty surrounding what, exactly, happened. She doesn’t even know where to go in order to track him down, and the lack of concrete knowledge about why he was arrested and where he was taken only makes it that much harder to cope with this already devastating news.
Themes
All night, Sofia thinks about Kolya getting arrested. She knows it was a mistake and can even imagine what the authorities will say when they realize they arrested the wrong person. She waits all night for a telegram, thinking Kolya will surely return to the hostel and be confused about why Alik isn’t there anymore. But a telegram never comes.
Sofia’s confidence that Kolya will send her a telegram clearing up the entire matter of his arrest underscores how sure she is that he’s innocent. She has every reason to believe that he doesn’t deserve to be arrested, considering that he’s a devoted Communist and a celebrated young mechanical engineer. And yet, what she fails to take into account is the possibility that the government has detained him on false pretenses.
Themes
The next day, Sofia doesn’t go to the prosecutor’s office—like Alik suggested—but instead visits the prison. A guard tells her that the prison doesn’t start letting people in until nine o’clock and that she has to wait elsewhere, so she crosses the street and turns a corner, joining a large crowd of women waiting in the street. They look freezing, as if they’ve been standing there for a long time. She soon learns that they’re all waiting to visit a loved one who has been arrested. She learns which building she should wait in front of. It’s building number 28, and it’s for people with last names between L and M.
The fact that there are so many other people waiting outside the prison doesn’t bode well for Sofia Petrovna. The number of confused relatives with imprisoned loved ones is an ominous sign that the government has been making multiple arrests without giving the public much in the way of justification. Everyone, in other words, has to deal with complete uncertainty about why seemingly innocent citizens have been detained.
Themes
Sofia goes into building 28 and speaks with a woman lying on the first steps of a big staircase. The woman asks if she wants to put her name on a list, but Sofia doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She tries to explain that her son was arrested by mistake, but the woman cuts her off and tells her to lower her voice. Finally, Sofia gives her Kolya’s last name, and the woman gives her a number: 344.
Everything at the prison seems disorganized. It’s unclear why the woman with information about the prison is lying down on the stairs, but it’s possible that this is a sign that she has been overrun by people seeking information about their loved ones. To that end, given that Sofia’s number is 344, it’s obvious that hundreds of people have been imprisoned—a good sign of the paranoia and political hysteria that has overtaken the Soviet Union.
Themes
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Back outside, the other people waiting ask Sofia what her number is. When she tells them, they say she won’t be let in today. As she speaks to them, a door opens and the whole crowd starts running. Sofia gets swept up in the commotion and runs along with the others, who all try to stuff themselves through a small door. She then finds herself in a little lobby, in which everyone lines up according to their number. As she looks around, she remembers that everyone is there because their husband or son is a saboteur. They all look quite ordinary, and Sofia thinks about how terrible it must have been for them to find out that their loved ones are terrorists.
Even though she’s confident that Kolya’s arrest was a mistake, Sofia still thinks that everyone else who has been imprisoned deserves punishment. Instead of recognizing that many of the people rushing into the prison alongside her might be in the exact same situation that she is, she assumes that their loved ones are criminals and saboteurs—an assumption that highlights the fact that she still thinks the government is just and fair. Her somewhat condescending view of her fellow citizens in this moment also hints that she has maintained a slight sense of moral superiority.
Themes
The people waiting in line talk about how long it has been since their loved ones were arrested. Some were taken quite recently by the police, but others have been gone for six months already. When Sofia finally reaches the counter, she asks if her son is there. She tries to explain that he was arrested by mistake, but the man behind the counter cuts her off and asks for Kolya’s last name, telling her to be quiet while he looks. After a moment, he declares that Kolya is in the prison, but he won’t say why.
Sofia learns that Kolya is, in fact, in the Leningrad prison, but she doesn’t gain much more information. The circumstances of his arrest are still confusing and unclear, and this means she has to face the emotional difficulties that come along with uncertainty. And to make matters even worse, she has heard from other people that the government holds certain prisoners for a very long time. It might be a long while, then, before Sofia knows what happened to Kolya—in fact, she might never find out what happened to him.
Themes
Because she has seen other women hand over money to be relayed to their loved ones, Sofia tries to give the man behind the counter some cash. But he won’t accept it. “Not allowed for him,” he says, ending the exchange. Sofia has no choice but to go home. She collapses into a chair in her apartment, and though Alik and Natasha are eagerly waiting for her to explain what happened, she finds herself unable to say anything—she doesn’t know how it’s possible that she still doesn’t know what happened to Kolya.
When Sofia first found out that Kolya had been arrested, she jumped into action by rushing to the prison as soon as it made sense to do so. Now, though, she has no choice but to sit with the uncertainty surrounding his case. With no path forward, she comes face to face with the torturous fact that she has no idea what will happen to her son.
Themes
