The author was born in Ukraine in 1931. He wrote this novel years before being able to publish it in Germany, in 1974. In the USSR it was published during the Gorbachev era. He used the pseudonym Vladimov for years and is known by it; his real surname is Volossevich. His father died in the Second World War, and his mother was arrested and sent to a gulag in 1952. In the late 1970s, he left the Soviet Writers’ Union, with which he had had problems. In 1983 he emigrated to Germany, where he died in 2003.
The novel begins in a Siberian concentration camp in the late 1950s. After Stalin’s death, a certain opening begins; part of the gulags are closed. The content reflects part of the later period.
The author uses as narrator Ruslan, the dog who accompanied a guard during the years he worked in a gulag. The animal has been trained to guard and obey orders. One day, the camp is closed and both guards and dogs are no longer needed. Ruslan, whom the author uses as narrator, does not know how to adapt to his new situation after his mission disappears.
The story portrays life in that gulag and the difficulty of adapting to the change in a new way of life; it lacks the rigid framework that had always governed it. Several people turn to alcohol. The fate of the dog can be guessed, but not that of his handler.
A well-written book that, through this device, shows the way of life experienced by his mother and others. It does not humanize Ruslan; it is a metaphorical way of portraying how millions of people had to live.