“Cave-like basement. The ceiling is heavy, stone vaults, smoked, with crumbling plaster. The light is from the viewer and, from top to bottom, from the square window on the right side. The right corner is occupied by Ash’s room, fenced off by thin partitions; near the door to this room is Bubnov’s bunk. In the left corner there is a large Russian stove; in the left, stone wall there is a door to the kitchen where Kvashnya, Baron, and Nastya live. Between the stove and the door against the wall there is a wide bed covered with a dirty chintz curtain...”