To leave a personal account of his experiences for his children and also to maintain his faculties amid the desolate Sarozek, Abutalip takes to writing about his time as a prisoner of war, his escape, and fighting for the partisans; he also records the various legends told to him by Yedigei. Unfortunately for him, these activities are discovered during a routine inspection of the junction and reported to higher authorities. The denizens of Boranly-Burannyi and Abutalip are interrogated by the tyrannical Tansykbaev, and he is deemed counterrevolutionary. In due Soviet process, he is taken away and unheard of for a long time. Later, Kazangap travels to the nearby Kumbel' to visit his son. There he finds a letter meant to inform Zaripa of Abutalip's death, but thinks it best to merely tell her that she has a letter rather to inform her of its contents. Yedigei later accompanies Zaripa to Kumbel' in order to receive the letter; coincidentally, Joseph Stalin dies on the same day, but Zaripa was too overcome with grief to pay notice to the news.