Chapters (53)
- Cover
- Title Page
- An Explanation of What This Book Is About
- Part One: Anna’s Sergei and Anya’s City: St. Petersburg, Saturday, January 8, 1905
- 1. On the Heels of Clementine, the Anarchist
- 2. Claudia and Sergei
- 3. Clementine Defends Herself
- 4. To the Concert
- 5. The Tsar’s Letter
- 6. In the Theater
- 7. What Giorgi, the Karenins’ Coachman, Did
- 8. Intermission at the Concert
- 9. Near the Port
- 10. More Specifics about Sergei
- 11. Kapitonich, Hall Porter at the Karenin Palace
- 12. Claudia and Sergei at Table
- 13. Aleksandra and Volodin Go to the Haven
- 14. Our Moment of Greatness
- 15. With Father Gapon
- 16. Clementine, in Pursuit of the Night
- 17. In the Karenin Palace Kitchen
- 18. We’ll Give Our Lives!
- 19. The Karenins Take Dinner
- Part Two: Bloody Sunday: Sunday, January 9, 1905
- 20. Anya Karenina without Aleksandra
- 21. The Karenins’ Reply to the Tsar
- 22. Piotr
- 23. The Three Women
- 24. Claudia’s Impatience
- 25. Unexpected Guests at the Karenin Palace
- 26. What on Earth Was the Tsar Thinking?
- 27. Back in the Karenin Palace Kitchen
- 28. The Reverend’s Beard
- Part Three: Karenina’s Portrait: Three months later
- 29. Karenina’s Portrait
- 30. About Clementine
- 31. The Critics Examine the Portrait
- 32. Vladimir
- 33. The Reason for the Proposed Purchase
- 34. The Portrait Departs
- 35. Between the Dream and the Battleship Potemkin
- 36. Claudia’s Regrets
- 37. In Claudia’s Hands
- Part Four: The Book of Anna: No date or place
- 38. An Opium-Infused Fairy Tale: The Book of Anna by Anna Karenina
- Part Five: Finale: St. Petersburg, June 1905
- 39. After Reading
- 40. The Plot
- 41. The Boxes
- 42. Anya Karenina
- 43. The Wind
- Funder Acknowledgments
- The Publisher’s Circle of Coffee House Press
13. Aleksandra and Volodin Go to the Haven
13. Aleksandra and Volodin Go to the Haven
Aleksandra and (her Ariadne) Volodin are walking down a narrow alley parallel to the wall of the warehouse, in front of which the strikers sit around their fire, facing a row of tumbledown shacks. The alley is unlit, but shafts of light escape from the dwellings at strange angles, which makes it even more difficult for Aleksandra to walk.
Passing through one of these shafts of light, Aleksandra realizes she has lost her scarf.
“Wait!”
“What?”
Aleksandra turns around and Volodin follows her. She hasn’t gone more than five steps when, in a completely dark patch, she bumps into someone. Frightened, she utters an “eek!”
“What’s wrong? Are you all right?” Volodin asks.
Out of the darkness, a woman’s voice, one he didn’t expect to hear, answers, “Volodin? It’s Volodin!”
“And who are you?”
“It’s me.”
Volodin realizes it’s Clementine.
“Clementine! What are you doing here?”
All three of them move into the patchy light.
“The same as you. This belongs to you, young lady, doesn’t it? It’s your shawl, you dropped it back there. Volodin, we came here together, in Giorgi’s carriage.”
The trio moves on in silence. The narrow alley leads to a storeroom at the back of the Putilov factory. They enter through a side door. Inside, dozens of workers are having a heated discussion.
“We can’t put the women and children at the front of the demonstration. It’s too risky….”
“What’s the risk?”
“The risk of death. You don’t think that’s risky?”
“They wouldn’t dare shoot them. They’ll shield the others.”
“Well, look who’s here! Volodin! With two women!”
“One is … I know you! Clementine! The anarchist! Didn’t you say … what did you call us? You said you didn’t want to have anything to do with us!”
“And I meant it. Not with you or with your Assembly of Russian Factory and Mill Workers of the City of St. Petersburg because you forget we women exist.”
“Politics aren’t for women.”
“Not that again! Politics aren’t, but work is, right?”
“Yes. Sewing, looking after children, things like that.”
“But aren’t we colleagues, equals?”
“We’re different, thank God.”
“So I’m supposed to just keep my mouth shut while inside me my heart’s on fire?”
“That’s enough, Clementine, enough of your stupid nonsense.”
“We all have the right to change our opinions, and I hope that one day you will. Your eyes will open, and you’ll see us as equals.”
“Quiet. We have three hundred female members. Just ask Vera Karelina.”