In the two quietly powerful short novels published here, "An Incident at Krechetovka Stationand "Matryona's House," further confirm Solzhenitsyn's place in the tradition of great Russian novelists. The first concerns a Red Army lieutenant confronted at his World War II rail junction command with a disturbing army straggler and a decision about what to do with him. The second is the tale of an old peasant woman, whose tenacious struggle against cold, hunger, and greedy relatives is depicted by a young man who, after her death, finally understands who she was.