Summary

Chapter 1 begins on a train on the Trans-Siberian railway line in Russia. Onboard were more than a hundred young men who had been conscripted to the Russian army, including 20-year-old Aliocha, one of the novel’s two protagonists. Aliocha sat at the very back of the train by the window, watching his country disappear into the distance behind him.

Aliocha, like many other young men in his position, had hoped that he would somehow avoid being conscripted. His options for avoiding conscription included bribing officials, obtaining a bogus medical exemption, or finding a girlfriend and getting her pregnant because a pregnancy of six months or later would grant an exemption. Women protesting against conscription, known as the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, protested the situation in Pushkin Square in Moscow.

Aliocha focused on the idea that finding a girlfriend would save him from being forced...