Part I, Chapter 34, Major Weinstock's Twenty-Two Commandments Summary and Analysis

In Part I, Chapter 34, on the wall in her cell, Ginzburg discovers a list of twenty-two rules and regulations for prisoners. For example, prisoners may read two books every ten days (though the library is currently closed for stocktaking); they may exchange letters with immediate family; and prisoners may receive fifty rubles a month to spend in the prison store. Prisoners are forbidden to tap on walls, talk, sing, and so on. Ginzburg remembers how she always hoped and prayed the rules would not get worse.

She compares the two prison governors during her two-year stay. The old governor Weinstock, who is there when Ginzburg first arrives, is relatively decent. The new one, Vachnadze, whom Ginzburg nicknames "Vulturidze." Happily, Ginzburg discovers her cellmate will be her old friend, Julia...