first of all, one of the most bad ass titles everrr. the first story, "an incident at kerchetovka station" follows lieutenant zotov. the short novel is only 60 pages and not very eventful. we meet zotov in october performing his rather mundane task of overseeing certain trains through the station. it's obvious we're in russia during wartimes against germany. as a lieutenant he's not supposed to know too much about which trains go where and which echelons do what. late one night 4 soldiers are sent to him to be dealt with. they haven't eaten in 11 days but the rations office closed at 5 and cannot be opened. these soldiers are en route to the front lines with a large shipment of shovels packed in factory grease. why they are sealed in grease i have no idea but it makes for interesting imagery and sounds kinda kinky if you ask me. these men had the unfortunate luck of arriving at ration points at night, since the ration offices are open from 10-5 and regulation strictly denies rations to be given any other time these men have starved for 11 effing days. now they are refusing to go on with or without their cargo. these men are obviously kind of retarded for not asking even civilians for a handout. zotov allows them to stay the night til the office opens in the morning and their cargo is postponed. as a parting zotov reminds them how important their shovels are to men on the front line digging trenches not that they really care in the state theyre in. next a straggler who accidentally got separated from his echelon when at a station where he tried to sell some of his clothes for food comes in to zotov for help. since during wartime they never used train whistles in case the enemy heard them the straggler had no warning of his train leaving. zotov questions the straggler, tveritinov, asking him why he has no papers and how he got all the way to this station without any. apparently a man without papers is as good as dead because there's no proof that he isn't an enemy so according to russian logic he must be one. tveritinov hid on trains hoping to catch up with his group but now is so hungry and unsure of the direction he's headed that he had to get off and be at the mercy of whichever commanding officer on duty. at first zotov completely believes him and even feels sorry for the guy until the man reveals that he doesn't know where stalingrad is since zotov can't imagine a soviet citizen not knowing this he assumes he's a spy. he escorts the man to be arrested just in case. since this is soviet russia any suspicion is almost a sure indicator of guilt or at least punishment. when zotov inquires about the mans fate in december he is told, "we'll take of your tveritinov. we never make mistakes." shit, sonnnn, sucks to be tveritinov.
the second short novel, "matryona's house" is even shorter coming at a perfect 40 pages. the main character is ignatich a man who was recently released from a prison camp after 10 years labor for suspicion of subversion (apparently there's a lot of this going around at the time and solzhenitsyn is the go to guy for these stories). he longs to leave the desert outskirts where his gulag was situated and return to the woodlands of mother russia. he buys a ticket to vysokoe pole or high fields where he's assigned to torf produkt or peat products. fortunately he gets a job as a math teacher and goes around to the izba's (one room peasant huts) trying to find a place to stay. life is hard here and it's customary for people to take in lodgers to help with the work. he decides to stay at mattryona's because she lives alone. her place is unkempt and she is often sick but the old woman is kind. they live together for awhile getting to know each other. matryona is thought of as odd by the other villagers. her husband left to war and never returned, all of her six children died young, and more than anything she enjoys work. she helps many of her friends and relatives without compensation because she really doesn't mind. stuff happens and i'm too tired to write it out but she dies. after her death ignatich finds out more about her life particularly that everyone thinks she's kinda stupid for not taking money for her helping others. she never wanted much or kept many possessions and for that she was thought of as strange. solzhenitsyn ends the story with this: "we all live beside her, and never understood that she was that righteous one without whom, according to the proverb, no village can stand. nor any city. nor our whole land." that pretty much sums it up. even her name reminds me of the word martyr. her old fashioned ways are rare and the new russia doesn't even see the value of sacrifice until it is gone. the whole book is 100 pages, really easy to read and i liked it. although now that i told you the whole story it might be kind of boring. but it your a first timer i'd recommend "one day in the life of ivan denisovitch" to pop your solzhenitsyn cherry.