Children of the Arbat

On Pokrov, Sasha Pankratov meets his lover Katya at a shabby workers' house on the outskirts. Over vodka and pies, Katya hints at pregnancy, then retracts it, revealing she is leaving for her mechanic fiancé from her village. Later, at a Party Bureau meeting, Sasha defends the disgraced deputy director Krivoruchko and questions the politicization of accounting, drawing the ire of secretary Baulin and the ambitious aspirant Lozgachev, who push for his censure.

Mark Alexandrovich Riazanov, a high-ranking Soviet industrialist, navigates Moscow's bureaucratic corridors while seeking help for his nephew Sasha, unjustly accused at school. His day culminates in a tense Kremlin audience with Stalin, where he candidly defends realistic construction timelines, earning respect rather than rebuke. The chapter closes with Riazanov's report to Ordzhonikidze and a decisive Politburo meeting that affirms his pragmatic approach, underscoring the era's blend of personal loyalty, political pressure, and the iron will driving the Five-Year Plan.

In 1930s Moscow, ambitious law student Yuri Sharok visits the influential Budyagin family to secure a desirable post-graduation placement, leveraging his connection to the powerful deputy commissar Ivan Budyagin. While navigating the privileged world of the Fifth House of Soviets, Yuri reflects on his family's decline after the Revolution, his criminal brother's imprisonment, and his calculated rise through the Komsomol and factory work to escape his father's tailoring trade. The chapter culminates in Yuri's calculated seduction of Léna Budyagina, revealing his opportunistic nature and desire to transcend his origins through strategic alliances rather than ideological commitment.

On November 7, during the October Revolution anniversary parade, Sasha Pankratov joins his institute's column on Tverskaya Street and learns that the wall newspaper he helped create has been removed for its satirical epigrams on student shock workers. At a subsequent emergency Party bureau meeting with activists, Lozgachev accuses Sasha of anti-Party acts—both the newspaper and his earlier challenge to Azisyan's Marxism lectures—labeling them political sabotage. Sasha defends himself by admitting procedural mistakes but rejecting the charge of deliberate subversion, while his friends and Dean Yanson face pressure to denounce him; the gathering ends with Baurin condemning Yanson for fostering an atmosphere that allowed such "diversions."

Lena continues her secret romance with Yura, embracing his working-class family and their modest life while ignoring her father's disapproval. Yura faces a pivotal career interview at Narkomyust, where his criminal brother's history threatens his Moscow placement, forcing him to navigate between his desire to stay in the capital and the risk of being sent to Siberia. When Lena mentions their mutual friend Sasha's expulsion from the Komsomol and institute, Yura's anxiety deepens about his own precarious position, revealing his growing cynicism and self-preservation instincts.

After his expulsion from the institute, Sasha methodically gathers documents and appeals to the district committee, where Zaitseva instructs him to obtain a reference from his former factory. Returning to the plant after four years, he finds it transformed—new buildings, paved square, stone gates—yet the same people remain: Malov, now party secretary, agrees to write the needed reference while wryly noting Sasha has finally "gotten into trouble." The chapter closes with Sasha receiving a terse, factual reference that Malov promises to supplement at the upcoming bureau meeting, leaving Sasha’s reinstatement still uncertain.

After receiving a letter from his estranged, tyrannical father, Sasha hides his expulsion from his fearful mother and spends his days studying at the apartment of Nadya Ivanova, where he witnesses tense scenes between Nadya and her rebellious younger sister Varya. Summoned before the district Party committee, Sasha watches as First Secretary Stolper dismantles the institute bureau’s defense of him, dredging up his past association with the disgraced engineer Krivoruchko and accusing him of anti-Party activity. Despite Sasha’s attempts to explain the lack of building materials and the poor quality of the Marxism course, Stolper declares that he refuses to disarm before the Party and dismisses him, making clear that expulsion is inevitable.

At Nina Ivanova's New Year's Eve gathering in 1934 Moscow, a group of young friends and acquaintances celebrate amid the warmth of a festive table and the frost outside. Tensions rise as Yura Sharak openly flirts with Vika Marasevich to mask his relationship with Lena, while Vika's boredom and Nina's irritation simmer beneath the surface. The evening fractures when Sasha confronts Yura about his selfishness, leading to a bitter argument that ends with Yura and Lena leaving, leaving the group in a subdued, regretful mood.

Sofya Alexandrovna has withdrawn into obsessive surveillance of their Arbat apartment, convinced three men in turn are tailing Sasha and that the authorities will soon arrest him. Sasha watches his mother’s growing paranoia with horror while wandering the familiar streets, recalling a childhood incident when he expelled a boy from camp and now sees the same ruthless logic turned against himself. When a neighbor urges him to flee Moscow, Sasha refuses, insisting he trusts the Party and will not run from his own case.

Sasha unexpectedly gains entry to Soltz's office at the Central Control Commission, where he witnesses the signing of expulsion orders. Seizing the moment, he presents his case about being expelled from the transport institute over a satirical wall newspaper. Soltz, moved by the injustice, summons all involved parties for a hearing the next day.

After being reinstated at university, Sasha and friends celebrate on the Arbat, gathering Nadya, Varya, Nina, and Vadim at a basement restaurant. Over dinner and drinks, Sasha defends his moral code—rejecting both suffering and exploitation—then intervenes when two thugs harass a woman at the next table, swiftly ending the confrontation with his fists. As the group resumes dancing, Varya draws closer to him, proposing they meet again at the skating rink, while Sasha grapples with the fragile safety of those he loves.

Sasha Pankratov is reinstated at the institute with a reprimand, but the victory feels hollow. He visits the defeated dean Krivoruchko, who is clearing his desk and hints at his own impending purge, then confronts Lozgachev and Baulin, who pressure him to denounce Krivoruchko and align with them. Sasha refuses, defending the old Bolshevik and rejecting their cynical logic, sensing their weakness rather than strength. On the tram home, he observes a peasant whose wary gaze reflects how people change under pressure, prompting him to begin keeping a diary.

Late one January night, Sasha receives a call from Katya, reigniting his desire for her as they arrange to meet the next day. Hours later, a search warrant arrives with an official and soldiers; they arrest him on charges of unknown origin, turning his apartment into a site of methodical intrusion. His mother collapses in grief as he is led away to prison, where the intake process strips him of belongings and dignity, leaving him alone in a cell with only his resolve to preserve his innocence intact.

Mark Alexandrovich, director of a major steel plant, travels to Moscow for the 17th Party Congress after successfully launching the fourth blast furnace ahead of schedule. On the train and in the capital, he reflects on his nephew Sasha’s recent arrest, meets with officials like Budyagin and Berezina to seek information, and navigates the political atmosphere of the Congress, which celebrates Stalin’s leadership and party unity. Amid the triumphant proceedings, he grapples with personal anxiety and the tension between loyalty to family and the demands of political discipline.

In a Butyrka prison cell during Stalin's Red Square parade, young student Sasha Pankratov endures solitary confinement, meager meals, and the first tentative wall-taps from an unseen neighbor. His first interrogation by investigator Dyakov reveals the arrest is not for the institute scandal he expected but for suspected counter-revolutionary conversations; Dyakov pressures him to confess and name accomplices. The chapter closes with Sasha realizing the investigation has only begun, replacing his earlier hope with dread of what unknown charges may yet be revealed.

In this chapter, Yura Sharok distances himself from his pregnant girlfriend Lena after learning of her condition, pressuring her to terminate the pregnancy through a dangerous home remedy rather than risk complicating his future. While Lena agrees out of love and fear of losing him, Yura's mother reacts with vicious class resentment toward the "narcom's daughter," revealing the family's deep-seated hostility toward the educated elite. The emotional tone is one of cold calculation and quiet dread, as Yura manipulates Lena's devotion while concealing his terror at the prospect of fatherhood and social entanglement.

In a cramped Arbat room, Yura administers a scalding mustard-footbath to induce Lena’s miscarriage, coaxing and restraining her as the pain peaks and she finally collapses into exhausted sleep. The next morning she is taken to hospital with hemorrhage; Yura, terrified of legal consequences, keeps his distance, phoning anonymously until she recovers. When she returns home, her tender phone call reveals she has protected him, leaving their future together suspended between relief and unspoken dread.

After school, Nina finds Varya and friend Zoya locked out; Varya sends Nina on errands, then sneaks Zoya inside once Nina leaves for night school. Varya chats flirtatiously on the phone with a boy she refuses to meet, while Zoya’s arrival sparks a petty quarrel over hat colors that ends with Varya refusing to go skating. The scene widens to reveal Varya’s recent ostracism among friends after her boyfriend Sasha’s arrest, her daily prison-queue vigils with his devastated mother Sofya Alexandrovna, and the bitter visit of Sasha’s estranged father, who grudgingly edits a futile appeal letter before departing.

In this chapter, Sasha Pankratov is brought from his cell for another interrogation with investigator Dyakov, who is now joined by his superior. Dyakov accuses Sasha of withholding information about his connections to high-ranking party members Ryzanov and Budyagin, pressing him to admit to using their influence in his institute case. Sasha refuses to implicate them, sensing they are the true targets of the investigation, while also carefully avoiding mention of Krivoruchko's critical remarks about Stalin. The interrogation ends with Dyakov warning Sasha that this is his last chance to cooperate. Later, Sasha receives a food parcel and clean clothes from his mother, a small comfort that reminds him of home and strengthens his resolve to endure.

Sofya Alexandrovna clings to her son Sasha’s crumpled note as proof of his survival, finding new purpose in the prison queues where women teach her how to send parcels, petition officials, and navigate the system. When the housing manager arrives to seal Sasha’s room, she has already prepared herself; with Varya’s help she moves his furniture into her own bedroom, preserving the space and her memories. Meanwhile, Nadya gathers friends to draft a collective letter vouching for Sasha, but Ivan Grigorievich Budyagin curtly dismisses the idea, leaving the young people torn between loyalty and fear.

After returning from abroad, Budyagin waits over a year for a meeting with Stalin that never comes, while his old Siberian exile acquaintance now wields unchecked power. When his nephew Sasha Pankratov is arrested, Budyagin intervenes with the honest Chekist Berezin, who knows the charges are fabricated but cannot act because the case is part of Yagoda’s larger, sinister chain reaching upward. Berezin permits only minor prison comforts for Sasha, while the ruthless investigator Dyakov constructs an elaborate conspiracy theory linking the innocent student to an oppositionist professor and a nonexistent underground cell.

In the twenty-second chapter, Sasha receives a haphazard delivery of books from the Butyrka prison library and spends a week savoring food parcels, fresh linen, and reading while the guards turn a blind eye. Memories of his parents’ bitter marriage and his own awkward sexual awakening surface as he lies awake, and the brief arrival of fellow inmate Savely Kuskóv—a half-mad student awaiting sentence—offers both company and grim lessons about survival and denunciation. When the books are taken away and Savely is led off, Sasha is left once more with the oppressive walls and the knowledge that his real ordeal has barely begun.

In this chapter, Ivan Grigoryevich Budyagin finally meets with Stalin after years of seeking an audience, hoping to convince him that his outdated geopolitical framework—pitting the USSR, USA, and Germany against Britain, France, and Japan—has been rendered obsolete by Hitler's rise. The meeting quickly reveals itself as a test of loyalty rather than a genuine dialogue; Stalin probes Budyagin's connections to rivals like Kirov and Ordzhonikidze, questions his family's Western habits, and dismisses his warnings about the German threat. The encounter ends with Stalin coldly rejecting Budyagin's counsel and signaling his political marginalization, leaving Budyagin to recognize that his principled dissent has sealed his fate.

After Budyagin’s visit, Stalin paces his Kremlin office, brooding over the yellow-white Arsenal and the real threat—Japanese troops in Manchuria—while realizing the visit was not about Germany but a warning from within the Party. He reflects that true leaders owe their power only to themselves, not to those who claim to have elevated them, and that the current apparatus still sees itself as co-author of his victory rather than his instrument. Turning to the Politburo, he mentally sorts allies from potential rivals—trusting Molotov, Kaganovich and Voroshilov, doubting Kirov and Ordzhonikidze most of all—then orders Poskrebyshev to summon Ryazanov, determined to dismantle any hidden opposition before it can coalesce.

Riazanov, summoned to Moscow, defends his unauthorized housing and cultural construction at the Ural plant before Stalin, Voroshilov, Ordzhonikidze, and Ezhov. By isolating the hostile commission sent by Piatakov, he forces its withdrawal and wins Stalin’s explicit endorsement of both the building program and his own authority. The victory cements Riazanov’s direct bond with Stalin, elevates his political stature, and widens the rift with Lominadze and Ordzhonikidze, while the shadow of his arrested nephew Sasha lingers as a potential liability.

In his prison cell, Sasha learns the tapping code from neighbor Chernyavsky and receives news of the Chelyuskin disaster and French strikes, but his gratitude turns to despair as he realizes his arrest stems from protecting counter-revolutionary Krevoruchko rather than his friend Mark. His earlier defiance crumbles into self-blame and apathy—he stops washing, obsesses over food, and accepts his fate as a "counter-revolutionary." When the prison librarian sends a book containing Article 58, Sasha finds renewed courage and refuses to sign Dyaikov's fabricated confession, declaring he will never admit to crimes he did not commit.

On a spring evening in 1930s Moscow, Varya attends a grand graduation ball at the House of the Red Army, where she accepts Seryozha's proposal to marry him and join him on the Far East after finishing school. While the city's Arbat district awakens to renewal and the hall fills with legendary commanders like Tukhachevsky and Budyonny, Varya revels in her new sense of destiny. Meanwhile, Nina gently refuses Maxim's marriage proposal, choosing to stay in Moscow to care for her family rather than follow him to his military posting.

Yura Sharok visits Vsevolod Marasevich's cultured Old Stables Lane apartment to secure a ticket for a Vakhtangov Hamlet, where the host's son Vadim holds forth on art and politics while the professor himself retires early. Through this milieu Yura glimpses an urbane, seemingly untouchable world of actors, critics, and diplomats, contrasting sharply with his own modest origins and the lingering ache of his lost Lena. Meanwhile Lena, still housebound after her illness, receives an unexpected visit from childhood friend Gera Tretyak; their nostalgic laughter momentarily lifts her spirits before the evening ends on a note of quiet melancholy.

Sofya Alexandrovna receives a late-night call summoning her to a prison visit with her son Sasha, who is being exiled the next morning. She frantically gathers warm clothes, food, and money while enlisting neighbors and family—most crucially her practical sister Vera, who arrives with boots and a rucksack—to prepare his belongings. The chapter captures her quiet desperation and the small acts of solidarity that sustain her as Moscow’s indifferent cityscape underscores her isolation.

On the eve of Max and Serafim's departure, Varya skips school to dress up in Zoya's mother's fur coat and meets Nina at the station. Amid the crowd of young Red Army officers, Varya spots her imprisoned brother Sasha being escorted by guards, his face pale and aged by a black beard. The shock shatters the romantic farewell; while the train pulls away with waving cadets, Varya stands weeping on the platform, convinced she has seen her brother transformed into an old man.

In Kanek, newly exiled Sasha Soloveitchik and his companion Boris navigate the disorienting transition from prison to open streets, savoring small freedoms while preparing for the next stage to Boguchany. Boris, a witty economist sentenced for a punctuation error, shares his philosophy of survival—living as if nothing has changed—while Sasha rejects any accommodation with his captors. Amid meals, haircuts, and encounters with other exiles, including the poet Igor and his devoted lover, the chapter captures the fragile, defiant humanity of those cast into Siberia's vastness.

At a late Moscow reconstruction planning meeting, Stalin presents his vision for transforming the city into a monumental socialist capital with radial avenues, high-rises, and the Palace of Soviets at its center, rejecting both preservationist and satellite-city proposals. While sketching childhood ruins of Georgian churches, he recalls his father Vissarion Dzhugashvili, the itinerant cobbler whose gentle, musical nature he idealizes and whose memory he wishes to honor. Later, watching Chaplin’s City Lights alone with Voroshilov, Stalin weeps, equating the tramp’s loneliness with his father’s, then reflects on his own rise, the necessity of strong personal rule, and the rewriting of history to cement his role as Lenin’s true heir.

In the chapter, Sasha receives his sentence of three years' administrative exile to Eastern Siberia and has a heartbreaking final visit with his aging mother, who has taken a job in a laundry to support him. Boris arranges transport for their departure from Kansk, but tensions erupt at the commandant's office when fellow exiles refuse to pay the exorbitant cart fare, leading to Kvaçhadze being bound and loaded onto the wagon. The emotional tone is one of quiet despair and stoic endurance as the group begins its long journey east, marked by small acts of solidarity and the weight of uncertain futures.

On the last day of school, Varya skips the class photo, deepening the rift with her sister Nina, who is leaving for a seminar and demands Varya prepare for university or fend for herself. Varya, still reeling from seeing Sasha escorted into exile, rejects both Nina’s ideals and the memory of Sasha’s quiet compliance; she decides to work instead. Through new acquaintance Vika Marasevich she enters a glittering, privileged circle that promises a drafting job and a life of cafés, foreign records, and influential men—another world from the queues and communal squalor she has known.

In this chapter, Varya is introduced to the glittering world of Moscow's elite restaurants and foreign suitors through her glamorous friend Vika. Key events include their evening at the Metropol with the Swedish engineer Erik, where Varya dances with a charming draftsman named Leva, only to be reprimanded by Vika for lowering their social standing. The next day at the National, Vika arranges for the architect Igor to escort Varya home so she can be alone with Erik. Character developments show Varya navigating class differences and social codes while Igor displays genuine interest in her. The emotional tone shifts from Varya's initial wonder and aspiration to quiet humiliation and budding connection with Igor, as she begins to glimpse both the allure and the transactional nature of this new world.

In late June 1934, as the Central Committee Plenum convenes, Stalin reads Pravda's coverage of Hitler's Night of the Long Knives and recognizes that Zinov'ev and Radek are deliberately misrepresenting the purge as a sign of fascist weakness. He sees their plan to publish Engels's old article on Russian imperialism as a coded attack on his own Georgian origins and a dangerous signal to Hitler that internal opposition exists. Stalin quietly moves to block the publication, replace the journal's editor, and remove Zinov'ev from the editorial board, all while maintaining the appearance of routine administrative decisions.

Mark Alexandrovich arrives in Moscow for a Central Committee plenum and visits his sister Sonya, whose son Sasha has been sentenced to three years' exile in Siberia for counter-revolutionary agitation. While Mark rationalizes the punishment as necessary for revolutionary defense and urges stoic acceptance, Sonya rejects his offers of financial help and accuses the regime of persecuting the innocent, declaring that those who wield the sword against the defenseless will perish by it. The chapter closes on the irreparable fracture between party loyalty and familial love, as Mark leaves without reconciliation.

On the fourth day of their march through the taiga, the party of exiles encounters both the harsh wilderness and the first signs of human settlement. Tensions rise among the group as the principled revolutionary Volodya Kvačadze openly despises the ailing “capitulator” Karcev, while Sasha and Boris attempt to maintain fragile solidarity. After a sudden snowstorm forces them into a drunken village on a local holiday, the exhausted men are denied shelter; Volodya is swiftly absorbed by local political comrades, leaving the others to fend for themselves in the cold, rain-soaked night.

In this chapter, Stalin reflects on the necessity of absolute power and the elimination of all potential opponents, from Zinov'ev and Kamenev to Bukharin, to secure the Soviet state. He analyzes his own rise through the party apparatus, critiques past rivals like Trotsky and Kamenev for failing to grasp the true nature of leadership, and resolves to replace the old guard with a new, unquestioning apparatus. The chapter closes with Stalin summoning Yagoda, signaling the beginning of a purge that will start in Leningrad.

In the remote Siberian village of Boguchany on the Angara River, the exiles are dispersed to different settlements by the local NKVD official Bаранов. While Iвашкин stays behind to work in a printing house, Boris and Sasha are sent further to Kezhma; meanwhile, their companion Kartsev falls gravely ill with pneumonia. As Kartsev's condition worsens, suspicions arise among the group about his loyalty, culminating in his death and burial in the village cemetery, where Sasha confronts the vastness of the Siberian landscape and the resilience of the human spirit against oppression.

In this chapter, Stalin meets with Yagoda, the newly appointed head of the NKVD, to discuss the failure of his deputy Zaporozhets to dismantle the Zinoviev opposition in Leningrad. Stalin criticizes Kirov for surrounding himself with former Zinoviev supporters and warns that this loyalty could turn dangerous, suggesting Kirov might need to be removed to Moscow for closer control. The meeting reveals Stalin's strategy of using mutual suspicion and fear to maintain power, as he simultaneously summons Yezhov to propose new party departments that would strengthen central oversight over industry and undermine potential rivals like Ordzhonikidze.

In spring 1937, recent law graduate Yura Sharok is summoned to the People's Commissariat of Justice, where he is interviewed first by the diminutive D'yakov and then by the imposing OGPU officer Berezin. Despite his efforts to steer the conversation toward a factory posting and his evasive answers about his criminal brother and former schoolmates (including the arrested Sasha Pankratov), the NKVD recruiters see in him the perfect recruit: outwardly sincere, inwardly cynical, and unburdened by inconvenient loyalties. Sharok accepts the offer, is issued a uniform, and is immediately given his first assignment—handling the surveillance of Vika Marasevich—thus beginning his rapid ascent inside the secret police while savoring the prospect of settling old scores with those who once looked down on him.

In this chapter, Yura Sharok navigates the tension between his rising NKVD career and his family's compromised position—his father's illicit tailoring and the household's pre-revolutionary apartment—while concealing these vulnerabilities from his superior Dya-kov. He reestablishes contact with his former lover Lena, arranging a clandestine Sunday meeting at her family's dacha, driven by possessive longing and a desire to reassert control. The emotional tone is one of anxious calculation and suppressed guilt, as Sharok balances professional ambition against lingering personal attachments and the fear of exposure.

In this chapter, Yura Sharok arrives at Lena's dacha in Serebryany Bor, emboldened by his new position in the NKVD, but feels out of place among the intelligentsia. Vadya unexpectedly appears, dominating the conversation with his shifting political opinions and thinly veiled threats, while Lena mediates between the two men. As Yura and Lena swim and reconnect, he manipulates the narrative around Sasha's arrest to position himself as a protector, deepening their bond while concealing his true motives and the precariousness of their reunion.

Zoya excitedly introduces Varya to Lev's fashionable circle of young draftsmen and dancers, but when the group invites them to the Hermitage garden, Varya must choose between them and a more serious invitation from Igor Vladimirovich. At the garden, the clique treats the outing like a public spectacle, then slyly abandons the loud, unwanted Zoya; only Ika returns to fetch both girls for the Savoy restaurant. Varya feels the sting of social maneuvering and her own quiet code of loyalty, while Zoya’s humiliation underscores the precariousness of their place in this glittering, money-less world.

At a lively Moscow restaurant, the group gathers around Kostya, a confident billiards champion and repairman from Kerch, who quietly asserts his dominance by ordering lavish food and drink while the others defer to him. Varya, newly arrived with Zoya, finds herself singled out by Kostya’s attention; he slips her money to keep her from gambling, shares personal details, and abruptly proposes they leave for Crimea together the next day. Though wary of his motives and independence, Varya senses his genuine interest and agrees to go, marking a decisive shift from wary observer to willing participant in his impulsive world.

In this chapter, Sasha and Boris travel up the Angara River with the postman Nil Lavrentievich, pulling their loaded boat against the current. They stop at Goltavino, where they meet a small community of exiles—including the elderly anarchist Maria Fyodorovna, the scholarly Anatoly Georgievich, and the striking young Frida—who warmly welcome the travelers and discuss their shared plight under Soviet repression. The chapter captures the tension between the exiles' intellectual resistance and the encroaching control of the state, while Boris becomes infatuated with Frida, who dreams of emigrating to Palestine, highlighting themes of longing, resilience, and the human cost of political exile.

In the morning, Varya doubts Kostya’s overnight invitation to Crimea, seeing the restaurant promise as unreal in the drab communal apartment. When he calls at noon with tickets for the four o’clock train, she keeps her word and meets him at the corner with only a school satchel. They board an international sleeping car reserved for the elite; Kostya’s easy authority wins deference from staff and passengers alike, and the couple is taken for newlyweds. As night falls, Varya steels herself against the intimacy she fears he expects, determined not to trade the trip for sex yet aware that resistance may prove futile.

In the village of Dvorets, Sasha and Boris part ways with their boatman. Boris, eager to settle and connect with local authorities for Frida's sake, insists on registering at the commandant's office, while Sasha refuses, clinging to the fragile sense of freedom he felt on the river. Boris returns with an ex-imperial chef, Anton Semenovich, whose drunken contempt for them ends in a violent confrontation. The next day, Boris is redirected to Rozhkovo and stripped of his travel papers, leaving Sasha to continue alone toward Kezhma.

In this chapter, exiled Sasha travels by boat along the Angara River toward an unknown future, accompanied by the loquacious Fedya and a taciturn boatman. He spends his final night in the village of Zaïmka on Turgenyev Island, where the young priest Father Vasily offers him profound hospitality—washing his feet, giving up his own bed, and sharing quiet wisdom about endurance and faith. The emotional tone is one of bittersweet farewell and quiet grace, as Sasha confronts isolation yet encounters unexpected human kindness before resuming his journey into exile.

In the remote Siberian village of Mozgova, exiled intellectual Sasha settles into a new household after a violent confrontation with local peasant Timofey, who had threatened him during a hay-cutting trip. The clash paradoxically elevates Sasha's standing among villagers, who admire his refusal to be cowed. Amid the village's economic decay and isolation, Sasha begins a discreet affair with the young Tatar schoolteacher Zida, whose quiet passion and Eastern restraint offer him fleeting intimacy and a fragile sense of humanity in exile.

In this chapter, Sasha is summoned by the local NKVD officer Alferov after being accused of deliberately sabotaging the village's only separator by the kolkhoz chairman Ivan Parfenovich, whom Sasha had publicly insulted. Alferov presents a calculated argument about how the Soviet system uses the charge of 'wrecking' to maintain discipline and protect state property, explaining that Sasha's lack of witnesses and status as an exile make him defenseless against such accusations. Despite the threat of ten years' imprisonment, Alferov ultimately allows Sasha to return to Mozgova with a warning to avoid further conflict, revealing a complex mix of bureaucratic pragmatism and unexpected humanity.

After returning from Crimea, Varya and Kostya settle into Sofya Alexandrovna's apartment, where Varya remains loyal to Sasha's imprisoned memory while Kostya's nocturnal lifestyle as a billiards player raises suspicions. Tensions escalate with neighbor Galya's envy and threats to seize Sasha's room, prompting Sofya to demand Kostya's passport and removal of his hunting rifles. Varya confronts the fragility of her marriage, sensing Kostya's hidden past and their emotional distance despite his lavish gifts and social connections.

Vika Maresvich, having abandoned the Club of Masters of the Arts after an encounter with Yura Sharok, continues feeding him reports on foreign contacts while secretly cultivating a liaison with a prominent architect, one of the designers of the Palace of Soviets. She deliberately plays the role of an adoring, undemanding mistress, shielding their affair from Sharok and the architect’s wife, and positioning herself as the future wife of a man whose prestige will render her untouchable. The chapter closes with the architect’s project receiving Stalin’s approval; the lovers retreat to the architects’ retreat at Sukhanovo for a two-week idyll.

On a sunlit veranda in his Sochi dacha, Stalin reflects on his past while reading history and contemplating the creation of the Writers' Union under Zhdanov. He recalls his early revolutionary days, lost love Sonya, and literary influences, particularly Pushkin's Boris Godunov, whose image of the pretender resonates with his own rise. The chapter's tone shifts from nostalgic introspection to cold calculation as Stalin discovers a pamphlet by Abel Yenukidze that undermines his historical role, prompting him to orchestrate its denunciation and test Kirov's loyalty by summoning him to Sochi.

In this chapter, Sasha's despair deepens as he realizes he has neither hope nor purpose in exile. Accused of sabotage by the local chairman, he is saved only by the intervention of the enigmatic Alferov, who leaves him in a state of anxious uncertainty. Conversations with fellow exiles and a visit from Zida underscore his isolation, the impossibility of escape, and the crushing weight of his sentence.

In Chapter 7, Varya learns Kostya is still legally married to Klara Lukyanovna after a tax inspector seizes his property for unpaid taxes. Kostya claims the marriage was only for Moscow registration and promises a room from an institute job, but Varya suspects his explanations and realizes his income now comes solely from billiards. She decides to work and, through friends, meets architect Igor Vladimirovich at the Grand Hotel design bureau, where she is hired as a draftsman. When Kostya later loses her expensive fur cape in a billiard game, Varya resolves to rely on herself and complete the intrusive employment questionnaire without mentioning him, recognizing the fragility of their unregistered marriage.

In this chapter, Varya visits her sister Nina to obtain family details for a job application, revealing her strained marriage and need for work. Nina reflects on Varya's betrayal of their shared values by marrying a shady man and living with the anti-Soviet Sophy Alexandrovna, while also learning about Lera Budyagina's humiliating discovery of her lover Yura Sharok's infidelity with Vika Marasevich. The narrative shifts between the sisters' apartment and the tense confrontation between Sharok and Vika, who threatens to expose him unless freed from her secret-agent role, highlighting themes of betrayal, ideological divides, and personal disillusionment in 1930s Moscow.

In this chapter, the narrative pivots from personal intrigue to political conspiracy. Sharak, a mid-level NKVD operative, receives an unexpected offer to transfer to Leningrad under Zaporozhets, a rising figure with a murky past. Meanwhile, Berezhin, a seasoned Chekist, pieces together evidence suggesting that Zaporozhets is orchestrating a covert operation in Leningrad, possibly aimed at discrediting or removing Sergei Kirov, the city's popular leader. The chapter ends with Berezhin quietly alerting sympathetic old Bolsheviks, setting the stage for a larger power struggle within the Soviet elite.

Stalin suffers a loose tooth and summons his trusted dentist Dr. Lipman, whose gentle, transparent manner he prefers to more secretive physicians. During an evening dinner with Kirov and Zhdanov, the conversation shifts from food and harvest prospects to history textbooks; Stalin uses the occasion to attack memoirs by Krupskaya and Abel Yenukidze that he believes diminish his pre-revolutionary role. He pressures Kirov to publicly refute Yenukidze’s account of the old Baku printing-press “Nina,” testing the Leningrad leader’s loyalty, then delegates the matter to Beria and the Transcaucasian party organization.

After breakfast, Stalin undergoes a dental extraction under local anesthesia performed by the loyal, unassuming Dr. Lipman. The procedure prompts Stalin's reflections on the doctor's modest devotion and his own need to project strength before the masses. Later, Stalin meets with Zhdanov and a resistant Kirov on the veranda, where the conversation turns to the political threat posed by former oppositionists like Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Bukharin, who Stalin believes are biding their time for revenge. Stalin warns Kirov that his lenient stance toward Leningrad's lingering Zinoviev loyalists endangers him personally and the party as a whole, urging him to relocate to Moscow for safety and control. Kirov firmly refuses, insisting on completing Leningrad's reconstruction, leaving Stalin's tension momentarily eased but the underlying conflict unresolved.

In this chapter, Varya settles into her drafting job at the architectural bureau, quickly mastering the technical work and earning quiet respect from her colleagues, including the principled architect Igor Vladimirovich. She endures mounting tension at home with her gambling husband Kostya, who refuses to leave their shared room and manipulates her sense of responsibility toward their landlady, Sofya Alexandrovna. Through conversations with her neighbor Mikhail Yuryevich and reflections on her past, Varya confronts her own misjudgments and the painful realization that her marriage is over, while quietly beginning to recognize her deeper feelings for the absent Sasha.

Olga Stepanovna arrives after an arduous journey for a three-day visit with her husband Mikhail Mikhailovich, but he treats her with deliberate cruelty during a card game, humiliating her before the others. Sasha is outraged by this behavior and later overhears Mikhail begging his wife to abandon him and their children for their safety. Meanwhile, Sasha receives letters from home revealing his mother's suffering and Varaya's steadfast support, prompting reflections on loyalty, isolation, and his own vulnerability when he survives an assassination attempt in the forest, likely orchestrated by the vengeful local Timohey.

In this chapter, Varya endures a humiliating encounter with Kostya's former lover, Klava, at a restaurant after her perfunctory union acceptance meeting, exposing the sordid realities of her sham marriage. The confrontation shatters her illusions about her new social circle and forces her to confront the degradation of being treated as interchangeable with Kostya's other women. Ultimately, Varya decides to leave Kostya's apartment, returning to her friend Nina's with the help of her landlady Sophy Alexandrovna, who reveals unexpected strength and compassion, marking Varya's first step toward reclaiming her dignity and independence.

After Kostya threatens Varya over the phone, she meets him on a dark Arbat side street where he brandishes a revolver and vows to denounce Sophy Alexandrovna for her "anti-Soviet" remarks. Varya calls his bluff, shaming him into retreat. The next day she learns how Sophy Alexandrovna evicted him; relieved and newly self-possessed, Varya reclaims her independence, packs his belongings, and writes a warm note to Sophy’s exiled son, feeling that she has finally defended her dignity.

In this chapter, Sergei Kirov grapples with his forced idleness in Sochi, where his role in editing Stalin's history textbook is purely formal. While he recognizes Stalin's deliberate rewriting of history to glorify himself and justify past and future atrocities, Kirov refuses to participate in fabricating legends about Stalin's role in Baku, where he knows the truth from personal experience. As he reflects on the beach, Kirov confronts his growing disillusionment with Stalin's methods—the increasing terror, surveillance, and consolidation of personal power—while maintaining faith in the Party's achievements and the necessity of preserving its core Bolshevik cadres against Stalin's destructive impulses.

In this chapter, Stalin's dental work becomes a microcosm of power, control, and the demand for absolute truth. When dentist Lipman is pressured by aide Tovstukha to conceal that gold teeth must be imported from Berlin, Stalin explodes at the deception, delivering a chilling lecture on the dangers of even small lies within his inner circle. The incident exposes Stalin's paranoia and his need to dominate every detail, while his strained relationship with Kirov deteriorates further as Kirov's disengagement and upcoming mission to Kazakhstan signal deepening political distance.

In the chapter, Alferov summons Sasha to his home under the guise of tea and a friendly chat, revealing that he knows about Sasha's relationship with the teacher Zida and that their mutual friend Solyoveychik has fled his place of exile. Alferov pressures Sasha to become an informant, offering him a better job and protection for Zida in exchange for helping to catch or dissuade escapees, but Sasha refuses on moral grounds. The chapter culminates in Sasha's decision to aid the fugitive Solyoveychik with food and supplies despite the risks, marking his first active transgression against the law and a deepening acceptance of his fate in exile.

Mark Riazanov publishes an article in Bolshevik that legitimizes his unauthorized housing and infrastructure projects at the steel plant, earning praise from Kirov and Ordzhonikidze at the November 1934 Central Committee plenum. The plenum debates abolishing rationing, while Ordzhonikidze suffers a heart attack and later tries to detain Kirov in Moscow to shield him from Stalin's growing hostility. Kirov, however, returns to Leningrad on the night train, unaware that Stalin has already engineered a covert power struggle through the NKVD.

Sasha searches the snowy forest for the escaped prisoner Soloveychik but finds only silence and wildlife. The authorities punish the exiles by scattering them to new villages; among the newcomers is the elderly revolutionary Lidia Grigoryevna and her six-year-old ward Tarasik, whom Sasha helps settle. When he discovers Zida’s diary, he forces her to burn every page about him, then learns of Kirov’s assassination—an event that darkens the already grim mood and signals the onset of harsher times.