Sofia Petrovna Summary

After her husband’s death, Sofia Petrovna starts working as a typist at a Publishing House in her home city of Leningrad. She takes the job because she needs to support her son, Kolya, whom she wants to have a good education. But she also comes to love her job at the publishing house, where she works as the senior typist. She makes friends with an intelligent, hardworking young typist named Natasha, appreciating her work ethic and enjoying her company. The two women often stay late to do extra work, and Sofia gossips to Natasha about the other employees. In particular, she’s fascinated by the director, whom she thinks is a very impressive, admirable man.

As Sofia settles into her job, Kolya studies with his best friend, Alik. They’re preparing to attend the local mechanical engineering institute. They’re both extremely interested in helping the Soviet Union make technological advances, clearly seeing their work as an important part of strengthening the Communist Party. Before long, Kolya is accepted as a member of the Komsomol, which is a youth branch of the Communist Party. His mother sees this as something to be proud of, especially since the Komsomol doesn’t accept just anyone. Natasha, for instance, has been denied entry into the Komsomol multiple times, despite her fierce commitment to the Communist Party. Sofia is frustrated on Natasha’s behalf, but Kolya insists that it makes sense for the Komsomol to deny Natasha’s applications—after all, she comes from a bourgeois, landowning family, so the Komsomol is suspicious of her commitment to the communist cause.

After gaining entrance to the mechanical engineering institute, Kolya and Alik are sent to work at a factory in another city. They will complete their studies by mail while working to increase productivity at the factory. During this time, Kolya invents a new mechanism for creating cogwheels, and though Sofia has no idea what a cogwheel does, she’s immensely proud of her son when his invention gains him widespread acclaim. His picture is even published in a newspaper article about his ingenuity.

Around this time, Sofia learns that the majority of the medical doctors in Leningrad have been rounded up and arrested on suspicion of terrorist activity. She’s shocked, especially because her late husband was a doctor. His close colleague, Mr. Kiparisova, is one of the physicians that has been arrested, but Sofia can’t fathom the idea of this man conspiring against the state. She intends to visit his wife, Mrs. Kiparisova, but she never gets around to it. In the aftermath of the arrests, everyone talks about how stealthy some saboteurs are—there are fascists lurking in the Soviet Union who want to undermine the Communist Party, the newspapers suggest. Even the most unsuspecting person might be a saboteur.

There’s a mandatory meeting at work one day. Comrade Timofeyev (who works at the publishing house on behalf of the Communist Party) gives a speech about the necessity of maintaining “political vigilance,” and then the chairman of the trade union, Anna Grigorievna, announces that someone at the publishing house was arrested the previous night as an “enemy of the people.” When Natasha asks what this employee did, Anna Grigorievna says he’s related to a known saboteur, implying that this is reason enough to fire him.

On her way home that night, Sofia runs into Mrs. Kiparisova and is shocked by how downtrodden she looks. She tells Sofia that Mr. Kiparisova is innocent, and Sofia insists that she knew he couldn’t have possibly conspired against the state. She then reassures Mrs. Kiparisova that since her husband didn’t do anything wrong, he will soon be freed. The Communist Party, after all, doesn’t keep innocent people in prison.

The very next day, the director is arrested. Sofia is shocked, as she can’t believe that he would ever do anything against the Soviet Union. That evening, though, Natasha shows her a newspaper article about a respectable citizen who was duped by an attractive woman into giving up secretive state information while he was traveling abroad. The director, Natasha reminds Sofia, has traveled abroad, too, so it’s entirely possible that he fell prey to a similar scheme. Just as Natasha is about to leave Sofia’s apartment, Alik rushes in and tells them that Kolya has been arrested.

Apparently, authorities appeared in Alik and Kolya’s dormitory in the middle of the night and asked Kolya to come with them. He was sure it was a mistake, so he didn’t even bring a change of clothes (even though they urged him to). They most likely brought him back to Leningrad, so Sofia goes to the prison the following morning to find out more. What she discovers, though, is that she’s not the only person looking for information about the sudden imprisonment of a loved one. There’s a huge line outside the prison, mostly comprised of women who have been standing in the cold for hours in order to talk to somebody about their sons or husbands. Many of these women are getting deported because of their association with their imprisoned loved ones. Others are waiting to give the authorities money, hoping that these officials will pass the cash along to their relatives in jail. But when Sofia finally reaches the attendant and confirms that Kolya is, indeed, imprisoned in Leningrad, she learns that she’s not allowed to send him money. Other prisoners can receive money, but for some reason Kolya can’t.

In the coming weeks, Sofia takes a leave of absence from work. She spends her time standing in line at various government buildings, trying in vain to find out more about Kolya’s arrest. She still doesn’t know why he was imprisoned, but she’s certain it’s all a big mistake. Regardless, she has faith that everything will work out, since she believes the Soviet Union doesn’t hold innocent people in prison.

Sofia returns to work, having learned that there’s not much she can do until Kolya’s case is brought before a prosecutor. During this period, Natasha is fired from the publishing house for accidentally typing “the Ret Army” instead of “the Red Army.” At a meeting after she’s let go, Comrade Timofeyev and Anna Grigorievna claim that her typo was an intentional attack on the Communist Party. They also cite her upbringing in a bourgeois family, failing to acknowledge that her father died when she was quite young and left her to live a rather unglamorous life. Sofia speaks up and points out that Natasha clearly didn’t intend to make such a typo. Her comment is met with silence, until Timofeyev insists once again that Natasha has undermined the Communist Party.

Alik has returned to the factory. Now, though, he returns to Leningrad and informs Sofia that he was fired from his job because of his association with Kolya. Both he and Natasha are in a terrible predicament because nobody will hire them. Still, they wait in line for Sofia, saving her a place at the prosecutor’s office on the day Kolya’s case finally makes its way to his desk. When she meets with the prosecutor, though, he tells her that Kolya has already been sentenced to 10 years in a remote work camp and, moreover, that he signed a confession saying that he engaged in terrorist activities. Sofia can hardly believe what she hears, but she manages to leave the office without losing her temper. She assumes that Kolya must have confessed to undermining the state because a prosecutor confused him.

Sofia soon learns that her job is at risk because she defended Natasha at the company meeting. That night, Natasha comes to her apartment and tells her that Alik has been arrested. Over the next few days, Sofia senses that everyone at work is distancing themselves from her. Eventually, Natasha pays her a visit and urges her to resign from the publishing house before she gets fired. This way, Natasha claims, it will be easier for her to find work. Sofia follows her advice, resigning the very next day. When she goes to tell Natasha, though, she discovers that her friend has taken her own life.

When Sofia goes to the prison, she has nobody to wait with her—Alik is imprisoned, and Natasha is dead. Worse, she learns from the attendant that Kolya has been deported, but he won’t say where; Kolya, the man claims, will write to Sofia himself. She goes home depressed and alone. She wants to send Alik money, but she sees her friend Mrs. Kiparisova one day, and she warns Sofia against doing this; if she gives Alik money, the government will connect Kolya and Alik’s cases, which wouldn’t be good for anyone.

It has now been a year since Kolya was first imprisoned. Sofia works part-time at a library, where she keeps to herself. She also avoids her housemates, since one of them—a nurse—speaks badly about her, saying she can’t be trusted because her son is in jail. She’s huddled in her small room one day when Mrs. Kiparisova rushes in and tells her that some prisoners have been released. Sofia immediately assumes Kolya will soon be freed. If they’re letting innocent people out of prison, she reasons, Kolya surely won’t have to wait much longer. She thinks all night about this seemingly good news.

The next morning, she finds herself telling a housemate that Kolya has already been released. She claims that he wrote a letter saying that he has been freed and that he’s going to work for a little while at the factory, then go for a vacation paid for by the government, and then—finally—come see her at home in Leningrad. She makes this claim multiple times throughout the day, loving how the idea of Kolya’s imminent return makes her feel. But then she actually receives a letter from Kolya, who explains that he’s still imprisoned and that he’s not sure how much longer he’ll be able to survive. An interrogator beat him into signing a confession, and he had to convince a kind soul just to sneak this letter out for him. He implores Sofia to do whatever she can to appeal his case, fearing that he’ll soon die if he has to stay in prison.

Sofia rushes to find Mrs. Kiparisova. When she reaches her friend’s apartment, she learns that Kiparisova and her daughter are being deported. But Mrs. Kiparisova still looks at Kolya’s letter. After considering it for a moment, she tells Sofia not to write an appeal on Kolya’s behalf. Doing so won’t help his case, but it will attract attention to Sofia herself. The government, Mrs. Kiparisova says, has clearly forgotten to deport Sofia. But if she writes an appeal, the authorities will notice this oversight and finally deport her. With her friend’s words in her mind, Sofia goes home and burns Kolya’s letter.