Part I, Chapter 30, Penal Servitude -What Bliss! Summary and Analysis

Part I, Chapter 30, Penal Servitude -What Bliss! Summary

Ginzburg eats a good meal for dinner, for she is happy she will not be executed and that she will be sent back to Butyrki Prison. On the way back to Butyrki, Ginzburg is again seized by the gravity of her situation, and begins to cry. She can't understand how human beings -especially fellow Communists -can do this to others.

Ginzburg is the only prisoner on the truck back, and her guard lets her have some fresh air. The soldier is friendly and tells her she probably won't spend more than a year or two in prison if she could invent some gadget useful to the state. The soldier also reveals that more than seventy people are being killed each day...