The hero of “An Apostolic Mission” goes through several circles of doubt and self-discovery. He tries to find the highest meaning, a justification for his life, and to understand the spiritual foundations of being. He is thirty-three years old — the age of Christ — a very significant, openly symbolic detail. The hero’s profession is also very important: he is a theoretical physicist, though he does not work in his specialty and instead is engaged in superficial popularization of science for a metropolitan magazine. Rylnikov acutely feels dissatisfied with himself, longs for spirituality, and his unrest is caused by an inner need to find a point of support. The thirst for wholeness drives the hero away from his loving family, away from the capital, into the hinterland, into a remote province — to God.