One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich

Russia has a lowest ever temperature of –44ºC, and an average of 104 days a year above 0ºC and a yearly average of 261 days below 0 ºC. It is the second coldest continent in the world only behind Antarctica; it snows on average 111 days of the year. It is dark, gloomy, freezing and miserable in the winter, and in the summer, cold, dark, and gloomy. Camps for political prisoners seemed even colder, especially with no real heating and limited clothes to wear on these wintry days.

The work camp, which was the bases of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novel A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, was initiated by Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 until 1956. Stalin, which means “man of steel”, constructed one of the tightest and toughest communisms in history. He was a dominant figure in Russian history, even though he will always be remembered as heavily contributing to the downfall of communist Russia at the time.

This was no general camp, but a so-called “special” camp for long term prisoners. Shukhov was a political prisoner, in fact not one of these prisoners were common criminals. Stalin had established many camps like this, full of spies, prisoners of war, and those who rebelled against his system of government. The camps

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Although at the end of each day, there was dinner, a time where each prisoner had a few sparse minutes to himself, and was only concerned for himself. In the novel Shukhov attempted to have a day off by stating he was sick but was declared well, and sent back to work. The most depressing fact of the sick bay is not being declared sick but not being declared sick and sent back to work. Survival is a fight every human must take part in, although ones fight for survival might be a bit easier than another persons fight for survival. The author has paid special and close attention to the weather, the bitter cold, it is not made an extremity, but the facts. The work was labor intensive, with all of it done by hand. Conversely any time that was squandered was stolen time, time taken away from them, time which was theirs. Shukhov sat on a bench near the wall, right at the very end, so that he nearly tipped it up. ” …

Solzhenitsyn manages to combine the same despair and lack of hope into the sick bay by telling us it was plain, miserable and quiet. It is a guide to the inside of the lives of men kept captive as prisoners and how they had to live during Stalin’s reign. No clocks or watches ticked there-prisoners were not allowed to carry watches; the authorities knew the time for them. ”

Thus it also leads into another significant theme, the demolition of human unity, what happened to looking out for each other, well when it’s costing you time, effort, and punishment why should you look out for each other. The prisoners weren’t able to take time off, in fact the only chance they got of having a day off, free of all duties and assigned tasks, was if the temperature fell below –41ºC, however this never happened of course because do you think the guards would really put up a thermometer that gave an approximate reading of the temperature? The only other way the prisoners would be able to gain some free time was if they were sick and were lucky enough to be accepted sick by the hospital staff.

The primary theme in this Nobel Prize winning novel is the endurance of ones humanity and the fight for survival under cruel treatment and in an even crueler environment. It was published to awaken the world to the horrendous conditions Stalin put these prisoners in, and shows what kind of man he really was.

Approximate Word count = 1656
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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