Part I, Chapter 1, A Telephone Call at Dawn Summary and Analysis

Journey into the Whirlwind is an account by Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg of life under the brutal and deadly Stalin regime. A loyal Communist, Ginzburg is falsely accused of being a counterrevolutionary, and sentenced to imprisonment. She recounts her struggles in terrifying prisons and horrendous labor camps. Ginzburg's memoir is a story of human survival against the horrors of Communism.

In Part I, Chapter 1, Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg is awakened at four in the morning by a telephone call on December 1, 1934. A loyal Communist, Ginzburg actively serves the party as a teacher and her husband Pavel Aksyonova works for the Tartar Province Committee of the Communist Party. The telephone call directs her to report to the regional committee office.

She has been called to the office along with forty...