Eventually Voschev joins a group of workers, all of whom are much stronger than him, a fact that Voschev attributes to his exhausting quest for truth. He learns that the group will be digging an enormous foundation pit in which they will later construct a housing complex for the country's proletarians. Voschev also works at a slower pace than everyone else except for one man, Kozlov, whom the others make fun of for masturbating so often. Safronov, the most politically active worker at the foundation pit, complains when managements tells them to stop working for the day.