Sofia Petrovna

Throughout Sofia’s ordeal there is an irreconcilable dissonance between her faith in her son and her faith in the Soviet system. She holds two conflicting beliefs—that Kolya is perfect, and therefore innocent, and that the state is perfect, therefore just: How, then, is Kolya innocent if his arrest is just? At first this inculcated faith in the state triumphs over Sofia’s faith in her son, and in Alik—she suspects one of them must’ve recklessly angered someone important. Only after Kolya is summarily sentenced to 10 years in a gulag does Sofia begin to, albeit circuitously, question the justness of his imprisonment.

Sofia has a deep faith in the Soviet system; even after Kolya’s arrest she continues to believe in its integrity. It’s not that she’s afraid to criticize the system; it’s that to do so is literally unthinkable. She encapsulates this unassailable faith when she says: “In our country innocent people aren’t held. Particularly not Soviet patriots like Kolya” (59). There is no room in her worldview for doubt; the state as she sees it is the embodiment of justice. Her faith is a product of ideological manipulation—propaganda. The threat of violence is all the more effective when combined with this ideological manipulation because it makes people like Sofia unwittingly support their own subjugation.