Part I, Chapter 14, Stick and Carrot Summary and Analysis

In Part I, Chapter 14, a week passes by, full of meetings with Livanov and Tsarevsky. But on Red Army Day, Ginzburg is taken into a different office, comfortably decorated, and with a large window that gave a view of the skating competition on Black Lake. The office is occupied by a short man in a military uniform named Major Yelshin. Yelshin tries a soft approach with Ginzburg, telling her that she can go back to her children if she admits her wrongs, names names, and asks for Party forgiveness.

She is given paper and a pen to write everything down, but instead she writes a letter to the secret police, criticizing them for their methods.

After a week of futile interrogations, the Communist secret police try a different approach to handling...