Part I, Chapter 31, The Pugachev Tower Summary and Analysis

In Part I, Chapter 31, Ginzburg is taken to Pugachev Tower to await transfer. Most of the women with her are given sentences of five to eight years. Only one other woman has a ten-year term: "Grandma" Nastya, sixty-five years old. She has also been indicted on terrorist charges. Ginzburg also reflects on the fact that she was lucky because the Communists had not yet started giving mandatory twenty-five year sentences. Ginzburg later learns that her own parents had been arrested and released after two months. More prisoners are herded into the tower to be transported. Among them is Anna Zhilinskaya who relates the story of her cell mate, Eugenia "Genia" Podolskaya. Genia had been tricked into signing papers accusing others of crimes, and was then shot herself. Genia made Anna promise...