num_pages: 120
description: Sofia Petrovna is Lydia Chukovskaya's fictional account of the Great Purge. Sofia is a Soviet Everywoman, a doctor's widow who works as a typist in a Leningrad publishing house. When her beloved son is caught up in the maelstrom of the purge, she joins the long lines of women outside the prosecutor's office, hoping against hope for any good news. Confronted with a world that makes no moral sense, Sofia goes mad, a madness which manifests itself in delusions little different from the lies those around her tell every day to protect themselves. Sofia Petrovna offers a rare and vital record of Stalin's Great Purges.
language: English
title: Sofia Petrovna
titlecomplete: Sofia Petrovna (European Classics)
characters: Sofia Petrovna
genres: Historical, Literature, 20th Century, Classics, Novels, Russian Literature, Russia, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Read For School
ratings_count: 2216
places: Russia, Eastern Europe, St. Petersburg, Leningrad, USSR
awards: awardedAt: -63129600000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Translation
publisher: Northwestern University Press