Sofia Petrovna

Sofia Petrovna takes a huge historical event, the Great Terror, and focuses on individuals, showing how they’re caught behind a “wall of terror.” Does everyone have the same response to this reign of terror? Compare and contrast two characters.

How does Sofia embody the ideal of the new Soviet woman? How does her commitment to living a productive, patriotic life impede her from questioning the justness of Kolya’s arrest?

Explore Chukovskaya’s description of Stalinist ideology as voiced by Kolya. Are his screeds satire, or are they meant to accurately depict what someone like him would have thought?

In the wake of the Russian Revolution and Collectivization many people were stripped of their property, including Sofia. Does her lingering resentment play a role in her questioning Stalinism?

What role does class resentment—especially between the proletariat and the former bourgeoisie—play in fueling the Great Terror? Analyze two instances in which class is used as a reason or an excuse for someone to be censured, fired, or arrested.

In Chukovskaya’s own description Sofia loses her mind—or does she? Analyze Sofia’s speech and behavior in the final chapters. Does she indeed have a psychotic break, or is it something else?

In the newspapers Sofia reads about the saboteurs undermining Stalin. What role do these stories play in managing her doubts about the justness of the arrests, particularly of Kolya’s?

Track Sofia’s changing opinion of the director of the publishing house, Zakharov. Why does she go from loving him and believing he’s innocent to condemning him for causing his wife so much suffering?

Throughout much of the story Sofia retains her faith in the system. Is this the product of naivete, a genuine belief in Stalinism, or something else?