Doctor Zhivago

The men involved in the conspiracy to betray Liberius are caught and executed by “some twenty men from among the partisans most loyal to the revolution” (270). Men from both the Red and White Armies are convicted of treason and of selling illegally made alcohol. When one of the condemned men pulls a hidden gun, a fight briefly breaks out. He is quickly shut down, and the condemned men beg for mercy as they are shot. With winter on the horizon, Yuri is worried that his medical supplies are running low. The Red Army sends him very few supplies even though there are many sick and injured soldiers. These men are forced to walk a long way for treatment. Though illegally made alcohol is forbidden, it is now used to dissolve iodine solutions. Many men also drink it, which causes a resurgence of intoxication in the camp. The situation in the Red Army camp is chaotic and on the brink of collapse. When the men's families do arrive, the chaotic nature of the camp means that they cannot stay long. Pamphil feels better after the arrival of his family, but when they depart, he begins to experience his traumatic hallucinations all over again.

Liberius's men are surrounded on nearly every side by the White Army. The one point of exit, the men believe, is almost certainly an ambush. Added to this, a group of “refugee women” are wandering through the forest and building bridges and paths (274). They are laying down infrastructure which the White Army can use, greatly angering Liberius. One day, a man who has lost an arm and a leg crawls into the Red Army camp. The “bloody human stump” (281) carries his severed limbs on his back, along with a message describing how he was brutalized as revenge for the similarly brutal actions of the Red Army. Unless Liberius's men surrender, the message explains, they can expect a similar fate. The man is dying. He tries to describe what happened to him when he was tortured by Vitsyn's White Army, which includes Colonel Strese. However, he dies too quickly to explain everything. His public death causes Pamphil to panic. He runs away, like “an animal maddened by rabies,” searching for his family to save them from similar suffering (282). When he finds them, he kills them to save them from being tortured. Overwhelmed by the violence they’ve witnessed, the other soldiers do not know what to do. Pamphil is not charged with any crime, and the following day he simply disappears into the surrounding forest. With winter in full force, Liberius explains to Yuri that the White Army is retreating. Yuri changes the subject, asking for news about the men's families. Liberius offers only bland platitudes. The thought of Tonya plowing in the snow makes Yuri feel ill, especially when he pictures her trying to care for their children alone. He reaches a breaking point, and when night falls, he tries to sneak away from the camp on a pair of stolen skis. Through his time in the camp, he has learned the password to get past the guard, and he slips out of the camp with thoughts of Lara in his mind.

Yuri spends weeks walking, hitching rides, and doing whatever he can to get back to Yuriatin, where the White Army has “recently left the town, surrendering it to the Reds” (286). When he gets there, he finds that Lara is not at home. He knows that she leaves a key in a certain hiding place, where he also finds “a rather long note on a big piece of paper,” explaining that she and Katenka have gone to Varykino (288). She assumed that Varykino would be the first place that Yuri would go. Yuri believes that Lara would only go to Varykino if she believed that his family had already left. Though Yuri feels “an unbearable pain and sadness for his family,” he is so distracted by Lara's joyful proclamations that he forgets to turn over to the other side of the note, which explains that Tonya and the family (which now includes a second child, a daughter) have gone to Moscow (289). Instead, Yuri must learn this from Glafira Tuntseva, who offers him a shave and a haircut when everywhere else seems closed.

Only when Yuri gets back to Lara's dilapidated apartment does he realize that he is “falling ill” (298). For days, he sinks into nightmarish “delirium” (299). When his fever finally breaks, he finds Lara at his side. She is taking care of him now, but she insists that he should go to his family as soon as he can. If Pasha were to return, she explains, she would go to him. Yuri and Lara talk about their relationship and their respective marriages. Yuri suspects that Lara is involved in a relationship with Samdevyatov, as he recognizes the man's handiwork in many of the creature comforts which can be found in her apartment. Lara denies this, claiming that Samdevyatov is too manly for her particular tastes. By means of an explanation, she tells Yuri about the “self-confident aging parasite” (301), Komarovsky. Yuri recognizes the man from Lara's story, explaining how Komarovsky was “To blame for his [father's] suicide” (303).

For a short time, Yuri works at the Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Though the people in the department claim to appreciate new ideas and independent thought, Yuri can tell that they are not impressed by his thoughts on biological adaptations. He is concerned that he may be arrested, which also makes Lara worry about her own safety. Pasha's father Antipov and Tiverzin are both on the Bolsheviks’ tribunal council, and they are “quite capable of destroying [her],” given any opportunity (308). She is convinced that they hate both her and Pasha. Yuri talks to Lara about leaving for Varykino or Moscow, but they decide to stay. Lara does not want to leave the area where Pasha's fate is currently “being decided” (309). Glafira brings a message from Tonya to Yuri. Dated five months ago, the letter explains that she and the children are being “deported from Russia” (313). They will most likely be sent to Paris, where she hopes that Yuri may be able to join them in the future, though she knows that this is unlikely. She acknowledges that he does not love her as much as she loves him. Tonya does not blame Yuri for anything he might have done wrong and implores him to shape his life in a way that will be good for him. She has met Lara and she likes Lara, though she admits that Lara is “the complete opposite” of her (314). She ends by stating her belief that they will never see each other again. Overcome with emotion, Yuri clutches his chest and falls unconscious.