"Arrest" describes the many ways in which arrests occur in the USSR and how the author falls into the "clandestine Archipelago." The Gulag is always close at hand, unnoticed until one is grabbed. For the first day, one hopes they will fix the mistake. Those left behind remember the insolent invasion with cowed civilians forced to witness. Relatives frantically pack supplies, the victim is hauled away, and the apartment is ransacked. After half a year or more, relatives learn the victim has no right to "correspond"—meaning he or she has been shot. (read more)