Part I, Chapter 27, Butyrki Nights Summary and Analysis

In Part I, Chapter 27, during inspection, the wardens do not count prisoners, but their tin cups. One warden continually miscounts, which causes Chinese prisoner Genia Koverkova to laugh. Ultimately, everyone ends up laughing. The entire cell block erupts in laughter.

Milda, an elderly Latvian woman, sleeps beside Ginzburg. Milda encourages Ginzburg to stop up her ears with cotton in order to sleep, for night interrogations will be carried out. Screams and horrifying sounds are endless after sunset.

The methods of torture utilized by the Gestapo and learned by the Communist secret police are used with exacting precision on the prisoners at Butyrki. All night long, prisoners are tortured to the point of screaming out in horror and pain. Those screams plague the other prisoners with fear and restlessness. This kind of horror becomes...