A summary of "The Green Tent" by Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Completed in 2010, the novel chronicles Soviet unofficial culture and the dissident movement, spanning the period from the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 to the death of Joseph Brodsky in 1996. The narrative explores the phenomenon of personal development and the limits of individual freedom under ideological control through the fates of three school friends and their circle.

In 2011, the book was awarded the Oleg Tabakov Prize.

School fraternity and literature lessons

The story begins in the spring of 1953, when news of Stalin’s death upended the country. Three outsiders come together at a Moscow school: the lanky wit Ilya Bryansky, the refined musician Sanya Steklov, and the red-haired orphan poet Mikha Melamid. The boys form their own union, "Trianon." Soon, Sanya injures the ligaments in his wrist with a folding knife in a fight with bullies, forcing him to abandon his career as a professional pianist. Sanya’s grandmother, Anna Alexandrovna, a descendant of a Decembrist, introduces the boys to authentic Russian noble culture and literature.

In the sixth grade, a new Russian literature teacher arrives at school — one-armed frontline soldier Viktor Yulyevich Shengeli, nicknamed "Ruka." He introduces the children to the world of classical poetry and organizes a club called "LYURS" (Lovers of Russian Literature). The teacher takes the students through the old streets of Moscow, teaching them to think and feel independently. During the crush at Stalin’s funeral, Ilya, carrying a camera, nearly dies in the crowd on Trubnaya Square and flees into the underground sewers.

After co-education was introduced, girls joined the club. Eighth-grader Katya Zueva fell in love with the teacher and gave him a typewritten copy of Boris Pasternak’s novel "Doctor Zhivago." After graduating, Katya married Viktor Yulyevich. The teaching staff created a scandal, and Shengeli left the school along with the class of 1957.

Samizdat and festival connections

In the summer of 1957, the World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow. Ilya and Mikha met Pierre Sand, a Belgian of Russian descent. The young couple strolled through the capital, discovered foreign literature, and received a briefcase containing books from Pierre’s relative, Posev Publishing House. Although the briefcase was accidentally lost on a bench and ended up in police custody, the bond with Pierre lasted for many years. Ilya turned photography into a profession, working in archival affairs, and began distributing uncensored publications.

Mikha entered the pedagogical institute, became fascinated with deaf education under Professor Rink, and went to work at a boarding school for deaf children near Moscow. Sanya initially studied at the Institute of Foreign Languages, but later, thanks to Professor Yuri Kolosov, returned to music and enrolled in the theoretical department of the conservatory.

Olga, family and underground activities

In parallel, the storyline of three friends develops: the general’s daughter Olga, the athlete Galya Polukhina, and the excellent student Tamara Brin. Olga, a philology student, signs a letter in defense of an arrested professor, for which she is expelled from the university. At the trial, she meets Ilya Bryansky. Olga leaves her first husband, abandons her Komsomol ideals, and begins a life with Ilya.

Ilya sets up a photo lab at the general’s dacha and starts printing samizdat. Olga retypes poems by Osip Mandelstam and Joseph Brodsky. Books are bound by retired sailor Artur Korolev, nicknamed King Arthur. His ex-wife Liza leaves for abroad to join her Finnish husband, smuggling microfilms of her prison camp manuscripts in her underwear.

Secret pressure and split

State security agencies are on Ilya’s trail after Olga’s typewriter and the manuscript of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book accidentally end up in police custody through Galya Polukhina’s relatives. The general’s apartment is searched. A high-ranking KGB officer, Chibikov, recruits Ilya: in exchange for Olga’s freedom and safety, he demands that she hand over duplicates of all dissident photographs to his personal archive. Ilya is forced to agree to this deal.

Tamara Brin becomes a successful endocrinologist. She has a secret affair with married dissident Marlen Kogan. When Marlen faces arrest, Tamara gives him old family sketches by Silver Age artists to bribe officials and secure Marlen’s passage to Israel. Galya Polukhina marries Gennady, a state security officer, spends years undergoing infertility treatment, and only in adulthood, with Tamara’s help, gives birth to a son.

The fate of Mikhail Melamid

Mikha marries the artist Alyona, the daughter of political prisoner Sergei Borisovich Chernopyatov. After reading banned stories by Yuli Daniel, Mikha quarrels with a colleague at the boarding school, a denunciation is filed against him, and his path to graduate school is blocked. Mikha becomes close to the dissident Edik Tolmachev and begins publishing the uncensored magazine "Gamayun," while also collecting evidence about the deportation of Crimean Tatars.

After Soviet troops entered Czechoslovakia in 1968, Mikha wrote an article about the demonstrators on Red Square. He was soon arrested. Mikha remained steadfast during interrogations and refused to testify against his friends. He was sentenced to three years in a labor camp. During this time, Alyona gave birth to their daughter, Mayechka, and Sanya took over the care of the family.

Returning from prison in 1972, Mikha learned that his father-in-law, Chernopyatov, had broken down during the investigation and made a televised confession. Mikha found work as a shipping clerk and attempted to lead a private life, but state security agencies demanded he sign a false denunciation or emigrate. Alyona categorically refused to leave and fell into a severe depression. Driven into a corner by threats from investigator Safyanov, Mikha signed the report under an offensive pseudonym, returned home, and threw himself out of a sixth-story window.

The end of a generation

Sanya is deeply distressed by the death of Mikha and his grandmother, Anna Alexandrovna. Pierre Sand arranges a sham marriage for him with the American feminist Debi O’Hara. Sanya leaves for the United States and becomes a teacher of theory at a prestigious music school in New York.

Ilya decides to emigrate in 1980. Olga cannot leave immediately because of her minor son, Kostya. Soon, Ilya marries abroad to obtain a residence permit. Olga perceives this as a betrayal and becomes gravely ill with cancer, but finds the strength to fight for her life. Ilya works at a radio station in Munich, develops cancer, and dies. Before her death, Olga has a prophetic dream of a green tent where all her loved ones, living and deceased, gather. She dies on the fortieth day after Ilya’s death.

In January 1996, Sanya Steklov met his second cousin, the pianist Lisa, in New York. They visited the poet Joseph Brodsky, listened to a recording of Beethoven’s last sonata, and engaged in a dialogue about the nature of sound, time, and the irreversible end of a great era. That same night, the poet died.