The Industry of Souls

The Industry of Souls (1998), a novel by British author Martin Booth, follows Alexander “Shurik” Bayless, an elderly British man who has made his home in the remote Russian village of Myshkino, after forming a fraternal bond with a Myshkino man, Kirill, during his time in the gulag. Shortlisted for the 1998 Booker Prize, The Industry of Souls was hailed by critics as an “observant book likely to be long remembered” (Kirkus Reviews).

The novel opens in the present day. Alexander Bayless is celebrating his 80th birthday in the remote Russian village of Myshkino, where he is known as “Shurik” to Frosya and Trofim, the young couple with whom he lives. This morning, Shurik announces to Frosya and Trofim that he is expecting guests and that he will have to make an important decision about his future, one which might involve leaving them. Frosya is upset: she idolizes the old man, but Shurik asks her not to question him, as he needs peace and quiet to make up his mind.

After breakfast, Shurik sets out on his “rounds” of the village, greeting the neighbors who over the years have become his friends. Through these interactions and Shurik’s interior monologue, we learn the history that has brought the old man here: In 1952, during a business trip to Dresden, 40-year-old Alexander Bayliss is detained by the Soviet police, falsely accused of spying for the British, and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor in the coalmines of the Arctic Circle.



In the gulag prison camp Sosnogorsklag 32, Alexander is assigned to a seven-man work team headed by the good-hearted Kirill. His Russian comrades rename Alexander Shurik, and together Shurik, Kirill, and their team endure brutal conditions, dangerous work, and the pain of long separation from their families. However, Shurik’s narrative focuses on the wisdom he slowly gathers through these experiences: the value of companionship, and the relative insignificance of human life and endeavor. Shurik relates many parable-like stories from his time in the gulag, often involving animals: a fox in a cage, a wasp in a spider’s web. He also relates strange occurrences, such as the time the mining team uncovered the frozen remains of a wooly mammoth. Half-starved, they defrost some of the flesh and eat it.

The centerpiece of his gulag recollections is the occasion on which his team is reassigned from their usual mining duties to assist at an archaeological dig. As they excavate the remains of people who died thousands of years ago, Shurik and Kirill help each other to a profound understanding of their place in history. In this context, it seems to Shurik that friendship and human connection is the only thing worth surviving for.

One day, a terrible mining accident leaves Kirill fatally wounded. As he lies dying, Kirill asks Shurik to seek out his daughter Frosya, and Shurik promises that he will. On the day of his release, Shurik sets out for Myshkino and finds Frosya, already living with her husband Trofim. Shurik tells them that he has “come from Kirill” and they take him in. Although he never consciously decides to make Myshkino his home, as the weeks become months and then years, he does so. He teaches English to the children of the village and watches them grow. The fall of communism brings a little prosperity and freedom to the village.



Now, he is a beloved elder of the village, widely respected for his joyful and compassionate acceptance of his fate, and his refusal to feel bitter or to blame the Russian people for his suffering in the gulag.

In the afternoon, Shurik’s visitors arrive in a black limousine of the kind rarely seen in Myshkino. Two men emerge: an official from the British Embassy in Moscow, and Shurik’s cousin Michael Tibble, whom Shurik has never seen before. Tibble has been searching for Shurik for many years. He tells Shurik what became of his parents and other family members, and he invites the old man to return to England, to live with him and his family.

Shurik thanks Tibble, showing deep appreciation for the many sacrifices involved in Tibble’s search, but he explains that he cannot leave Myshkino. Nothing in England—none of his ties to his blood family—are stronger than the bond he forged with Kirill in the gulag. Not only has his time in Myshkino given him a sense of purpose in life, he feels he has brought Kirill’s spirit back to his daughter: Kirill lives on in Myshkino through him.



Frosya is overjoyed at his decision but troubled by the sense that he feels obliged to stay with her. Shurik explains that nothing could be further from the truth. He wants to stay in Myshkino. It has given his life meaning.