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The leading character in this disturbing and unbelievably grim drama is a functionary, an obedient civil servant, the representative of the state. Unfortunately for him, he is a functionary of the new Bolshevik regime, and the government agency he works for is the Cheki, the dreaded state secret police. His job requires that he take the lists he is given of "anti-Soviet" individuals who are to be arrested, and see to it that they are duly captured, held in captivity, questioned, stripped naked, killed, and buried. Day after day, the numbingly exact repetition of this senseless ritual eventually gets through even his thick skin, and he gradually goes mad.