City of Thieves: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Kolya walks on a rail of the train tracks like it's a balance beam, and Lev trudges along behind. They pass a crew of women working to turn a post office into a defensive position, and Kolya indicates that one of the women has a great body, explaining to Lev that she has a dancer's posture. When Lev seems unconvinced, Kolya says that some night he'll take Lev backstage at the Mariinsky Theater and take advantage of his reputation—he mentions having slept with Galina Ulanova, a famous ballerina. Lev doesn't believe it, and Kolya decides he's being cruel and they should change the subject.

Kolya adopts his joke-telling accent and begins to tell a joke about three boys trying to steal chickens from a farmer. Lev refuses to play along, and Kolya asks if Lev is in love with Sonya, and Lev, annoyed, tells Kolya to finish his joke. Kolya reminds Lev about calculated neglect and finishes his joke. Lev doesn't laugh, and Kolya says that other people think it's funny.

Kolya asks if Lev knows why the town is called Mga. Lev suggests it's someone's initials, and Kolya says her name is Maria Gregorevna Apraksin, and one of the characters in The Courtyard Hound is based on her. Kolya explains her role in the story, and Lev asks what else Ushakovo wrote. Kolya says that he only wrote The Courtyard Hound, which was a failure according to critics. After the failure of that novel, Ushakovo began writing another one, but was growing more religious and, after becoming convinced that fiction is Satan's work, tossed his manuscript in the fire. Lev points out that that's what happened to Gogol, and Kolya insists that the particulars are very different.

Lev and Kolya see a group of dead bodies lying facedown in the snow, their boots and clothes stripped away, and their suitcases open next to them and emptied. Someone had also hacked off their buttocks. Lev says he didn't want to know how they'd died, but knows that they'd been dead a long time. Kolya tells no more jokes that morning.

Around noon, Lev and Kolya reach the edge of Leningrad's defenses. A sergeant approaches them and asks for their papers. Kolya hands the letter from the colonel to the sergeant and tries to make conversation, but the sergeant wants to know why Kolya isn't with his regiment. As the sergeant reads the letter, Kolya begins to sing, and the sergeant looks at him with respect and hands back the letter.

The sergeant apologizes for stopping Kolya and Lev, and says that he knows all about their mission organizing the partisans (guerrilla resistance fighters battling Germany behind enemy lines). Lev shares with the reader that the letter only says they're not to be detained, but that the newspapers are full of stories about organized partisans being trained by NKVD. Kolya matches the sergeant's tone, and the two discuss cutting off the German supply lines. The sergeant offers Lev and Kolya bread as they tell him they need to reach Mga before nightfall.