ABSTRACT
Reprieve from the clay-pits of New Jerusalem came suddenly and unexpectedly, on 9 September 1945, when all the prisoners were told to collect their belongings from the store and to stand by for transfer: the camp was to be emptied to make way for a contingent of German prisoners of war. Shocked and frightened by his experiences on general duties at New Jerusalem, and with the words of the Krasnaya Presnya veteran still ringing in his ears, Solzhenitsyn was determined to avoid a repetition of his recent ordeal at all costs. Solzhenitsyn encountered him for the first time in the construction office when he approached the general for a light, thinking that the latter would offer him his cigarette to light from. Solzhenitsyn’s reign as production superintendent at Kaluga Gate was ignominiously brief.
