SOURCE: "'Matryona's Home': The Making of a Russian Icon," in Solzhenitsyn: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Kathryn Feuer, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1976, pp. 60-70.

In the following essay, Jackson explores the theme of social upheaval and disorder as it is evinced in the life of the symbolic figure Matryona in "Matryona's Home. "

"O, Rus! My wife! Our long road lies painfully clear ahead!"

Blok, "On the Field of Kulikovo"

"It chewed 'em all up. Can't even pick up the pieces."

"That's a detail. The nine o'clock express nearly jumped the track, that would've been something."

Solzhenitsyn, "Matryona's Home"

The years pass, and what is not recalled grows ever dimmer in our memory.

Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago

Alexander Solzhenitsyn's tale, "Matryona's Home"¹ (1963), consisting of three little chapters, begins with a prologue that is brief, factual, yet tense with significant drama.

One hundred and eighty-four kilometers from Moscow, and a good...