Summary
Aksionov’s wife reminds Aksionov about her dream in which his hair turned grey. She says he shouldn’t have left that day. She passes her fingers through his hair and, addressing him as Vanya, asks him to tell her the truth: did he kill the merchant? Aksionov weeps into his hands and shouts that she suspects him too. A soldier arrives to tell Aksionov’s family they must leave. Aksionov says goodbye for the last time.
Alone, Aksionov tells himself that if even his wife suspects him, only God knows the truth, and so it is to God that he must appeal and from God alone that he can expect mercy. From there, Aksionov write no more petitions, giving up all hope and only praying to God. The court condemns him. He is flogged with a knotted rope; when the wounds heal, he is driven to a mine in Siberia to labor with other convicts.
Aksionov lives as a convict in Siberia for twenty-six years. His hair turns white as snow while his beard grows long, thin, and grey. He loses any mirthfulness, he stoops, he moves slowly, rarely speaks, never laughs, and often prays. He learns to make boots in prison, earning a little money, which he spends on The Lives of Saints. He reads the book when he has enough available light in the prison. On Sundays, he goes to the prison church to read lessons and sing in the choir.
Prison authorities like Aksionov because of his submissiveness. Fellow prisoners respect him, calling him Grandfather and The Saint. They go to him to petition prison authorities about issues, making him their spokesman. The prisoners also go to him to resolve arguments among themselves. Aksionov receives no news from home; he does not know if his family is alive.
A new group of convicts arrives one day at the prison. The old prisoners ask the new prisoners where they are from and what they were sentenced for. Aksionov listens to the newcomers with a dispirited air. A strong, tall sixty-year-old man with a close-cropped grey beard says he was arrested for taking a horse tied to a sledge. He explained that the horse belonged to a friend and that it was all right, but the police insisted he stole it. The man admits he once did something worthy of being sent to Siberia, but wasn’t found out; now he’s been sent there for nothing. He then says he’s lying—he’s been to Siberia before, but didn’t stay long.
After someone asks, the man says he’s from Vladimir. His name is Makar, but he is also called Semyonich. Aksionov asks Semyonich if he knows the Aksionov merchants, and whether they’re alive. Semyonich says of course he knows the Aksionov merchants: they’re rich, though their father is in Siberia—a sinner like themselves. He asks Aksionov how he got there. Aksionov doesn’t explain: he merely sighs and says he has been imprisoned twenty-six years for his sins.
Semyonich asks what sins, but Aksionov only says, “Well, well—I must have deserved it!” Aksionov’s companions explain the story of how Aksionov came to be in Siberia, and his unjust condemnation. Semyonich slaps his knee and exclaims that it’s wonderful, really wonderful. Calling Aksionov Grandad, Semyonich remarks on how old he has grown. The others ask why Semyonich is so surprised and where he had seen Aksionov before. Semyonich doesn’t answer directly. He only says that it’s wonderful for them to meet there.
Aksionov wonders if Semyonich killed the merchant. He suggests to Semyonich that he has heard of the murder and perhaps has seen Aksionov before. Semyonich says he likely has heard of it, because the world is full of rumors. But it was a long time ago, and he has forgotten what he heard. Aksionov suggests he heard who killed the merchant. Semyonich laughs, replying that the murderer must have been the person in whose bag the knife was found. He questions how anyone could have put a knife in Aksionov’s bag while it was under Aksionov’s head—the attempt surely would have woken up Aksionov.
Analysis
While visiting her husband in jail, Aksionov’s wife passes her hand through Aksionov’s hair and reminds him of her nightmare, suggesting his hair may have already begun to go grey with the stress of his ordeal. The theme of injustice returns with his wife’s question of whether he is guilty of that of which he is accused; seeing him treated as a convict shocked her at first, but once she assimilates the image of him in chains and a prison uniform, she associates him with criminality and so assumes his guilt.
Aksionov’s offended reaction to his wife’s suspicion introduces more fully the theme of faith, which entered the story momentarily when Aksionov made the sign of the cross over himself during his arrest. If even his wife thinks him guilty, and the petitions to the czar have been rejected, then Aksionov knows his only choice is to put his faith in God. God knows the truth, Aksionov believes, and so he can expect only God to grant him compassion. Aksionov accepts his fate, moving without resistance through the pain and injustice inflicted upon him.
Events pass quickly as Aksionov’s trial is dispatched and he is ceremonially whipped and sent to a prison camp in Siberia, a remote and harsh area in Northern Russia, near the Arctic circle. As his wife’s dream predicted, Aksionov’s hair goes white. Aksionov transforms, aging prematurely into an old man known for his dedication to God and fairness in resolving disputes among other prisoners. His withered, meek appearance and demeanor contrast with the strength and boldness of Semyonich, the man responsible for Aksionov’s decline.
Tolstoy touches again on the themes of acceptance and faith when Aksionov responds to Semyonich that he must have done something to deserve his fate. The response shows how Aksionov has given up fighting the injustice of other mortals and has put his faith in God’s justice, believing that he would not be made to suffer if he did not in some way deserve his punishment and lack of freedom. He does not know what he has done, but he has faith he has done something wrong.
Despite Aksionov’s humility, the fellow prisoners tell Semyonich of Aksionov’s ordeal. The newcomer’s peculiar reaction to hearing of Aksionov’s case raises Aksionov’s suspicion that the man knows Aksionov and is responsible for having framed him. In a coy exchange, Aksionov questions Semyonich about what he knows regarding the case, and Semyonich, while feigning that he is merely guessing, reveals that he knows a striking amount of information about how the murder weapon would have been planted among Aksionov’s possessions.
