Part I, Chapter 37, The Underground Punishment Cell Summary and Analysis

In Part I, Chapter 37, Ginzburg recounts how she is taken out of her cell underground to see the senior warder nicknamed "Nabob." Ginzburg is to be kept underground for five days for writing her name on the washroom wall, and in so doing, continuing counterrevolutionary activity. She tries to fight Nabob when Nabob tries to undress her to force her into different clothes, but Nabob and a female warden subdue Ginzburg.

There she nearly freezes, half-naked, refuses to eat, and recites and writes poetry in her mind to pass the time.

Despite the continuity of prison life, almost as if to refuse to let the prisoners settle in, the wardens conjure up false charges against inmates, and force them into punishment cells. In these cells, prisoners are isolated, kept...