One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn
Despite the
impression the title may impart, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is
an approachable novella that gives an interesting, realistic look into the
Soviet forced-labor camp system, known as the Gulag. The
Gulag system, which can be compared to the coinciding Nazi concentration camps,
kept inmates in harsh conditions and intended to use them as an inexpensive
workforce. A major difference between the two systems was the Nazis’ ambition
to exterminate entire categories of people – the mass death of the Soviet camps
was a side effect (1). While the killing
in the Nazi camps was more purposeful and active, the total death toll of each
system is comparable enough to consider the Gulag camps to be among the great
evils of the 20th century.
The deaths that occurred
in the Gulag system were due to execution, torture, exile, but perhaps most of
all due to criminal negligence in harsh conditions. The labor camps forced inmates to work
throughout the year, including the unforgiving Soviet winters, coerced by
extremely limited food rations and punished by imprisonment in diseased cells. Whatever hardship the average citizen
contended with in the Soviet Union, the suffering of the Gulag inmate was remarkably
worse.
These conditions
are what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn depicted in One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich, the semi-fictionalized account of his own personal experience with
the Gulag. One Day can be read as
a distillation of the eight years the author spent in various labor camps, working
outdoors in freezing temperatures from sunrise until sunset. There isn’t any room for romantic
philosophizing in this work, the prose nearly terse in its
straightforwardness. But Solzhenitsyn’s
writing isn’t terse, and the thoughts and actions of the main character situate
the reader firmly into the life of a camp inmate.
It is the realism of this piece that makes
it so compelling. One Day isn’t
simply a description of the common events in the Gulag, it provides an intimate
look into the little triumphs and evils that permeate the experience of every
person, which are made more poignant in the extreme conditions. The main character of the story, Ivan
Denisovich Shukhov, is powerful in his relatability. The secret grievances he harbors, the
difficulties he overcomes, the minor charities he contributes, and the constant
essence of self-preservation that motivates him provide for the reader a
subject worthy of contemplation: how could I have been any different if placed
in Shukhov’s boots?
Mostly, Shukhov seems like a good
guy. He works hard to secure a decent
food ration for himself and his fellow inmates.
He shares a cigarette with a deaf man who would have otherwise missed
out. But even these examples are tinged
with a sense of planned reciprocity.
True altruism is a rare thing in the Gulag. Nearly every moral action can be
contextualized by a calculation of its potential return. Shukhov would have us believe that this
calculated charity isn’t bad, it is practical and economical. It doesn’t harm anyone; rather, it establishes
relationships that the inmates rely on to make it through their arduous situation.
That’s not to say that Shukhov is without
fault. Although he doesn’t express much
guilt or regret, there are a few occasions where he exerts himself to the
detriment of others. For example,
Shukhov needs a tray to carry bowls of soup to his team, but the tray he wants
has already been promised to another prisoner on another team: “[An inmate]
carried a tray to the table and unloaded the bowls. Shukhov immediately grabbed it. At that moment the man it had been promised
to ran up and made to seize it. But he
was punier than Shukhov. Shukhov shoved
him off with the tray – what the hell are you pulling for? – and flung him
against a pillar. Then putting the tray
under his arm he trotted off.” The camps
are dog-eat-dog and, by Shukhov’s reckoning, if he didn’t assert himself for
food, he would starve and die. Seeing
the Gulag camp through his eyes, it is hard to argue.
It is a combination of the necessity to
help other people who may be likewise able to help Shukhov, while fighting not
to be pushed to the bottom of the dogpile, that establishes in One Day a
subtle condemnation of Soviet communism.
Despite the supposed efforts to put everyone on equal ground, to receive
equal benefit, the actuality is rife with corruption and favoritism. Prisoners assist guards in exchange for extra
food and privileged positions, often at the expense of their fellow
inmates. Even though commerce is
prohibited among the inmates (2), prisoners are able to quietly exchange their
services for benefits. Shukhov makes
slippers in exchange for money, which he uses to buy cigarettes. Prisoners who help maintain the uniforms have
better beds. In these circumstances,
where every aspect of camp life is to be regulated and equilibrated, communism
still doesn’t work. Every inmate is
supposed to be the same, but nearly everyone claws in competition for just a
little something extra. And those that
are able to get a little something extra are able to use that benefit to accrue
more. The trade and hierarchies among
the prisoners demonstrates the injustice and hypocrisy of forcibly imposing an
allegedly egalitarian system.
The subtlety of this condemnation was
perhaps necessary for the author to be able to get his novella published. Up until Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s publication
of One Day, no written work had reached the public discussing the situation
inside the Gulag camps; it was prohibited.
Nearly a decade after Joseph Stalin had died and Solzhenitsyn had been
released from the forced-labor camps, One Day was presented in a premier
Soviet magazine and read throughout the world, validating many people’s
experiences and suspicions (3). The
popularity of this unprecedented depiction of Gulag life both established
Solzhenitsyn as an international literary figure and helped Western countries
justify antagonism towards communism. By
allowing this story to establish Solzhenitsyn as a writer, the foundation was
set for his ultimate work, the piece that helped demolish the Soviet Union: The
Gulag Archipelago.
Put into context, Solzhenitsyn
wrote One Day as more than an exposé, more than penance for his own
misdeeds. He wrote this novella as a practice
of personal moral significance. Ultimately,
the value of this book culminates when the reader analyzes themself in regard
to the main character, Shukhov. It is
through the author’s compelling writing that we become absorbed by the story,
living a day in Shukhov’s life. We
readers have the advantage of taking a step back from the narrative to take a
more objective look and express the lessons to be learned by Shukhov’s
experiences. When we then practice that perspective-taking
on our individual experience of reading the book, we can learn a personal
lesson, made all the more powerful through its intimacy and relevancy. Through reflection on how we judge the
behavior of someone in the Gulag labor camps, we can more aptly assess the
ethical conduct of our own everyday life.
While not widely discussed today, One
Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich could be considered among the important 20th
century novels. It certainly deserves to
be ranked with more famous contemporary works (4). Its cultural-political significance alone
warrants its study, not to mention the skillfully personal realism with which
Solzhenitsyn writes.
- Anti-Semitism was not as explicitly condoned in the government of the Soviet Union as it was in Nazi Germany, though “pogroms” that occurred in Soviet states led to the deaths of thousands of Jews.
- In Soviet communism the resources were meted by the government – capitalism was the enemy.
- It is my opinion that Nikita Kruschev, the Soviet leader after Stalin, endorsed the publication of One Day to further legitimize himself as ruler by discrediting his predecessor.
- Such works as Elie Wiesel’s Night or Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning come to mind.
Resources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day_in_the_Life_of_Ivan_Denisovich
