After his meeting with Strelnikov, Yuri is escorted back to the train carriage by a guard who complains about the “class war” (199). Tonya has been talking to a passenger named Samdevyatov, whom she introduces to her husband. The newcomer apparently knows everything about people all across Russia, and he is now good friends with Tonya, having explained to her that large parts of Yuriatin are “burning” (201). The Zhivago family, he suggests, should take a different train to Torfyanaya. In a private conversation with Yuri, Samdevyatov reveals that Mikulitsyn—the caretaker of the estate belonging to Tonya's grandfather—is a supporter of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Mikulitsyn's son Liberius is a high-ranking member of the Bolshevik military, meaning that father and son are fighting on opposite sides of the civil war. As the two men discuss politics, the Bolshevik Samdevyatov explains why he believes that Marxism will teach people about reality and history. Yuri disagrees. He does not believe that Marxism can ever be truly objective, meaning that it cannot explain reality in the same way as science. Politics mean very little to Yuri, but he dislikes anyone who is “indifferent to truth” (202).

Against Samdevyatov's recommendation, the family disembarks at Torfyanaya.