Victory Celebrations: A Comedy in Four Acts

85 pp. "It is January 1945 and the war is ending; Russian troops have overrun East Prussia. In the hall of an abandoned palatial mansion some officers prepare a feast to celebrate a birthday. Among the guests are Galina, a Russian girl just liberated by the advancing troops, and Grdnev, an interrogating officer from SMERSH, hungry for arrests. ...forms the first part of a trilogy including "Prisoners" and "The Love-Girl and the Innocent..." Although "Victory Celebrations" is a comedy in the wry tone of its dialogue, it dramatically reflects Solzhenitsyn's indignation at the enormities committed in Russian-occupied Europe by Stalin as well as by the Allies against Russian prisoners-of-war and displaced persons of all nationalities.