Doctor Zhivago Part 6: The Moscow Encampment Summary

Part 6, Chapter 1

• When he gets back to Moscow, Zhivago realizes that things aren't really operating all that well. It's hard to find food in the streets, and everywhere he looks, there seem to be people selling off old junk.
• No one answers his home's doorbell when he rings it, which causes Zhivago to panic. Eventually, though, Tonya answers the door. The two of them are stunned to be face-to-face after years spent apart.
• Tonya immediately apologizes about the foolish things she wrote to Zhivago (ahem, the stuff about him loving Lara). He says it's no biggie and follows her inside the house.
• The handyman named Markel rushes to help them with their things. He mentions that the house is probably looking a bit more rundown than when Zhivago left. He explains that it's because things have not gone well in Moscow since the Revolution started.

Part 6, Chapter 2

• Tonya asks Zhivago if he has returned with typhus or lice. If so, she doesn't want him around their son. He assures her, though, that he's fine.
• Next, Tonya informs Zhivago that she and her father have rented out part of the house to the local Agricultural College because they can't afford to heat the entire large house on their own.
• Tonya notices the duck that Zhivago has brought with him from the train. What a treat: she is overjoyed that they'll have something good to eat for his homecoming dinner that night.
• Tonya also informs Zhivago that his beloved uncle Nikolai has come back from Switzerland to live in Moscow.
• Tonya suggests that for a while, they'll be living in only two or three rooms of the house while they rent the rest out for money's sake. Again, it sounds like things are about to get really difficult in Moscow.
• Zhivago and Tonya decide to invite some people—including Misha Gordon—over to celebrate the fact that Zhivago has returned home.

Part 6, Chapter 3

• Now it's time for Zhivago to meet his son Sashenka, the little boy who was barely born when Zhivago first got sent to the WWI front. He has seen photos of his son while fighting, but that's it.
• When he finally sees his son in person for the first time, Zhivago realizes that the boy is the spitting image of Zhivago's mother.
• Tonya needs to explain to the little boy that Zhivago is his father.
• When Zhivago gets close, though, the little boy grabs at his mother and buries his face in her shirt. He's afraid of this strange man.
• Zhivago assures his wife that Sashenka just needs to get used to him. But he still leaves the room feeling downcast.

Part 6, Chapter 4

• During the next few days, Zhivago begins to realize just how alone he feels in the world. He doesn't feel connected to his family because he's been away from them for so long. At the same time, he also realizes that part of him wants to be alone.
• Zhivago is also disappointed in the way that all of his friends, in his eyes, have become less intelligent than they used to be. All of them just hold the popular opinions of the day, rather than thinking for themselves.
• In any case, Zhivago's friends come over to celebrate his arrival home. Misha Gordon shows up with pharmaceutical-grade alcohol, meaning that the stuff will probably get them really drunk.
• What's even more disappointing for Zhivago is that outside his home, the people of Moscow are starving.
• Zhivago is especially disappointed about how much his friend Misha has changed. The guy used to be witty, sarcastic, and ironic. But now he tries to play the cheery, flaky part, which annoys Zhivago.
• Gordon tells an amusing story about how a mutual friend of theirs, Dudorov, got mistakenly drafted into the army and proposed marriage to a young girl he barely knew. They were married for about a year before they separated. This, of course, all happened while Zhivago was away.
• Just the opposite of Gordon, Dudorov has turned from a happy-go-lucky fool into a really intense and serious scholar.
• The dinner finishes, and we flash forward to a visit Zhivago pays to his beloved uncle Nikolai. Zhivago is immediately surprised by how coolly Nikolai talks about Russian politics. It seems like everyone else gets super excited and riled up when they talk about this subject.
• Nikolai often gets into very heated arguments with Tonya's father, Alexander Gromeko, about politics and such. Nikolai is a firm supporter of the revolution and the rise of the working class. Alexander isn't so crazy about it.
• A woman named Shura Schlesinger often stops by the house in her worker's uninform to talk about how steadily the Revolution is sweeping across Russia.
• People come over to the Zhivagos' house to talk about politics and how the Revolution will cause a glorious amount of death.
• When everyone leaves, Zhivago turns to his wife Tonya and tells her that the only people in the world he loves are her and her father, Alexander. Wait, he didn't mention his son…

Part 6, Chapter 5

• Winter is coming, and the Zhivago family needs to stock up on food and firewood if they plan to survive it.
• While the world goes to hell in a handbasket, Zhivago feels like the only things keeping him sane are the routine of daily life and his responsibility to take care of his family and his patients.
• Zhivago goes back to work at the old hospital he used to work in. He quickly finds himself out of place among the people in the hospital, though. Many think that he's not committed enough to the Revolution... and, frankly, he isn't.
• For his lack of faith in the Socialist Revolution, he's forced to do all kinds of boring hospital clerical work.
• At work, Zhivago has a really uninteresting conversation with a colleague who won't stop trying to make small talk. Zhivago just wants to do his work and be left alone. But aloneness isn't something you get a lot of during revolutionary times.
• The guy talks for a while about how many thieves there are in the streets these days, and how they like to beat people up. Zhivago just keeps ignoring him and focusing on his work.

Part 6, Chapter 6

• One night, Zhivago comes across a man lying unconscious in the street. He takes the man to the hospital and looks after him.
• It turns out that this guy is a prominent politician. By helping him, Zhivago has made a powerful friend. The man turns out to save him from suspicion many times in the coming years.

Part 6, Chapter 7

• To make the harsh winter worse, Zhivago's new stove has a terrible smoking problem, and it's hard for him to heat the house without nearly killing everyone with smoke and fumes.
• Suddenly, Zhivago's Uncle Nikolai bursts into the house with news. Apparently, fighting has started in the streets of Moscow. Instead of hiding, though, he wants Zhivago to come with him to watch the fighting, since it's an important historical event.
• But Nikolai is so excited about what's happening that he blabs about it for hours instead of going back outside. By the time he's ready to go, he and Zhivago are prevented by the arrival of Misha Gordon.
• Gordon has more news. Apparently, a lot of gunfire has started up, and innocent bystanders are starting to get shot.
• No one can leave the house for a while. Unfortunately, Zhivago's son Sashenka catches a bad cold during this time.
• Zhivago realizes that he'll have to go out to find something for Sashenka to drink. But the fighting is still raging outside the house.
• Rumors from outside start to say that the workers are gaining the upper hand and winning the battles.
• Eventually, Uncle Nikolai and Misha Gordon both take an opportunity to sneak out and head back to their own homes. They've been at Zhivago's place for three days.

Part 6, Chapter 8

• When the fighting settles down, people start leaving their houses and looking for food. But there's little to be found anywhere.
• One day, Zhivago goes out to visit a medical colleague for no particular reason. He runs straight into a snowstorm while he's out.
• While walking, Zhivago runs into a newspaper boy and buys a paper. The headline reads that Russia has been officially taken over by the Soviets (who represent the working class). What he's witnessing is the very beginning of the Soviet Union, and the moment leaves him feeling frozen with astonishment. At this point, never in the history of the world has the working class taken control of a country.
• While he's reading, he notices that a person has stopped near him and is staring at him. Glancing up from his newspaper, he sees that it's a boy aged somewhere around eighteen. He assumes that the boy thought he was someone else.
• Eventually, the boy becomes embarrassed about his staring and turns away.
• Minutes later, Zhivago forgets about the colleague he was going to visit and returns home, thinking about what he's read in the newspaper.
• While walking home, he stumbles across a huge pile of boards and logs. He realizes that it's a pile of official government wood, intended for heating a building. The pile is being guarded by a man with a rifle.
• Spying an opportunity in the snowstorm, Zhivago snags a good piece of wood and takes it home, since his own family's firewood is starting to run out.
• When he gets home, he talks with his father-in-law Alexander about how incredible it is that the Soviets have taken control of the country. Both men express admiration for the victory, even though they might not agree with Soviet ideas.

Part 6, Chapter 9

• Following the Revolution, there are three rough winters in a row, which makes it very hard for the people of Moscow to go on living. The relief of summer is so short that people even have a tough time telling one winter from another.
• Elections start happening everywhere to determine who the new leaders of the country will be. Commissars with unlimited power start getting appointed as local rulers.
• Many of the well-off doctors working in Zhivago's hospital decide to leave because the Soviets force them to work for such low wages. Zhivago, either out of stubbornness or commitment, decides to stay, and many of the other doctors resent him for it.
• Back home, Zhivago mentions to his wife that cold and starvation are causing epidemic levels of illness at the hospital. He's going to be busy for the foreseeable future.
• Zhivago talks to his wife about the hypocrisy of other doctors who have left the hospital out of a sense of "civic duty" when it's only more money that they're after.

Part 6, Chapter 10

• As time drags on, the Zhivagos start to live in relative poverty. Tonya tries to bake bread to make money, but the ingredients start to cost even more than a loaf of bread does, so she has to stop.
• Tonya starts trading some of her furniture for firewood.
• Zhivago gets back in and receives a message saying that he needs to go visit a sick woman. The people calling for him are offering a handsome reward for paying the house call, so he decides to do it.

Part 6, Chapter 11

• When Zhivago gets to the patient's house, he walks in on a political meeting. He also notices that the house's front door is guarded by a man with a rifle. He wonders what he's getting himself into.
• The owner of the place is the sick woman's husband, and he is very distraught by her condition.
• After a short examination, Zhivago tells the man that his wife has a very bad case of typhus. He insists that they find a way to get the woman to the hospital so she can get medical attention.

Part 6, Chapter 12

• After the sick woman is ushered away in a cart, a bunch of people in the house start coming back to resume their political meeting. Very quickly, a woman jumps up on a crate and starts speaking to the crowd. They are trying to elect a new committee for governing the house itself. It seems now like every house in Moscow is trying to form its own mini-government.
• Oh yeah, and while this is happening, a government representative tells the people that their house is about to be seized by the Soviets and turned into a government building.
• This has come by the order of Tiverzin. You might remember him from earlier in this book as the railway worker who thought he single-handedly started the Revolution by blowing a steam whistle.
• It turns out that for the past ten years, Tiverzin has lived in exile and returned to Russia as a working-class hero.
• Zhivago needs permission from the head of the house to transport the sick lady to the hospital. The old woman who introduces herself as the head is actually Lieutenant Galiullin's mother. Zhivago tells her that he served with Galiullin in the war, which makes the woman go white.
• Galiullin's mother takes Zhivago aside and says that her son is no longer liked by the Soviets, so he'd best not mention him anymore.

Part 6, Chapter 13

• After the sick lady is sent to the hospital, a woman named Demina, who used to work for Lara Antipova's mother, shows Zhivago his way back home.
• When he gets home, Tonya asks Zhivago why he's so late, then tells him that their clock broke and magically started up again on its own. Zhivago, though, thinks this is a bad omen.

Part 6, Chapter 14

• As time passes, Zhivago eventually comes down with a case of typhus himself. He tries to ask his political friend (the guy he saved on the street) for help. But even the powerful politician is starving in the harsh Moscow winter. So he's of little help.
• One day, while travelling home with a cartload of firewood, Zhivago collapses from typhus. He can't remember how he got home but assumes he was carried on top of the cart.

Part 6, Chapter 15

• For two weeks, Zhivago is delirious with illness. He dreams about being able to sit down and write out his thoughts, but for some reason, he can't stop thinking about the young man who stared at him on the street a few months earlier.
• Zhivago thinks that the staring boy is actually the spirit of his own death, waiting for the right moment to take him away.
• Zhivago thinks about the poems he wants to write and the life experiences he wants to capture in words.

Part 6, Chapter 16

• Eventually, Zhivago starts to recover from his typhus. As he regains his strength, his wife Tonya brings him all kinds of nice treats and snacks—stuff that's nearly impossible to get these days.
• Zhivago asks her where she's getting all the great stuff, and she tells him that his half-brother Evgraf has been bringing it and visiting nearly every day.
• If you remember from earlier, Zhivago's philandering dad had another kid with a woman who wasn't Zhivago's mother. Well, Evgraf is that kid. And guess what? It's the same kid Zhivago caught staring at him that one night and the same kid Zhivago dreamed about while he was sick.
• Apparently, Evgraf nearly worships Zhivago. The kid has read Zhivago's book, the one that Misha Gordon published while Zhivago was off at war, and the kid has made an idol of his half-brother.
• Evgraf has also recommended that the Zhivagos leave Moscow if they want a chance at a good life. He is in good with the local authorities, and he says that there won't be great chances for survival in the coming years.
• Luckily, Tonya and her father have old family connections in the Ural Mountains. And soon enough, it's settled. The Zhivagos are going to leave Moscow to go live in the mountains.
• They are going to live on their old family estate called Varykino, which is right next to a town called Yuriatin.
• Now, where have we heard the name Yuriatin before? Oh, right: that just so happens to be where Zhivago's fantasy woman, Lara Antipova, moved after the war.
• And yes, this is going somewhere…