The Scaffold

The main character of the novel, Avdiy Kallistратov, a former seminarian, travels on assignment from a young editorial office to the Moin­kum Desert to gather material about anarchists who collect hemp. He is driven not only by the newspaper’s assignment, but by the idea of saving the fallen and making people out of them again. Naive Avdiy perceives the world only through “the light of goodness,” and, without even realizing it, sometimes becomes an instrument of evil. Without understanding the role imposed on him, he starts fighting this evil and then goes again to the scaffold.