One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel

At the height of his power in the 1930's and 1940's, Joseph Stalin sent millions of the citizens of the Soviet Union into forced labor camps. All it took was a chance word heard by the wrong person and you were sent to a camp. It is not an exaggeration to say that at the time, the entire economy was based on slave labor. This book is about Shukhov, one of the inmates in a camp located in the frozen north. The day described here is a typical day, as he and his fellow prisoners all engage in the daily struggle to survive.
Simple things such as managing your food allotment, keeping your clothes and footwear intact and just keeping warm are the primary focus of his life. Yet, there is still humanity in him, his pride in doing a good job, having friends and his thoughts for the future. Much of Shukhov's life can be summed up by his trip to the infirmary. After speaking to an attendant there and being judged fit for work, Shukhov thinks to himself, "How can a man that's warm understand a man that is cold."
This book was a major part of the effort by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's program of de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union. It was a sensation in the Soviet Union and also made the reputation of Solzhenitsyn in the west. A basic novel of survival, it also contains a much more powerful message, that of a state policy of economic success through slave labor. The Soviet Union under Stalin was a brutal regime and some of that is captured in this novel.

I find it interesting to sometimes ponder, just how extreme can humanity go? What conditions can we put ourselves in and through and still come out on the other side? Solzhenitsyn takes this question and puts it into literary form, if only for the period of one day. Thankfully, unlike the author, many of us will never have to endure something brutal as the Siberian gulag.
The book follows the psychological perspective of Ivan Denisovich, who is a "zek"(prisoner) who has been condemned to a 10 year stretch for merely having the misfortune of becoming a POW. You get to imagine the siberian cold(they are allowed to not work if it hits -40, which even when it does they just lie and force them to work anyway). You see the internal politics which are part of the means of survival, and just what a piece of hard bread and a bowl of cold, wet oats can mean to a man that is already in hell. It's also fascinating to see how he can still has pride and dignity in his work while trying to make sure each brick is set properly while under the intensity of forced labor. Make no mistake about it, this is a book with strong masculine tones, that i'm suprised doesn't enjoy more popularity under such a banner. The book itself is only around 130 pages or so, and can be read quickly by the determined reader, who would be cheating themselves not to read it.

If you have never read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, then perhaps you should. It is not a thriller. It will not keep you on the edge of your seat.

It will hold you captive however when you realize that for those caught in the Gulag system, every day, moment or second was one lived on the edge, and fraught with danger. The myriad of little details could only come from one who had lived under this system.

You can feel the hunger and desperation in the book, when one man goes missing at the work-site, his fellow prisoners wondering how it will all shake out, and will they all be punished.

The Captain's story is especially poignant. Once a man of power and prestige, now a Zek like the rest. When he is taken to the cells at the stories end, we like the Zeks do not know why or for what infraction. Although likeable he will soon be forgotten as the focus is on getting through the next day.

The book is mild, as it only shows one day, and is not even horrific. Rather it is tense and terse.

Cheers.

This book; moving, inspiring, touching, humbling, pathetic. What Stalin did to his fellow countrymen has surely cast him into the lower pits of hell. This book illuminates only a single day of the hell on earth he put his comrades through. The characters strive to make it through the day without dying. They strive to live through the monotony of the toneless days. The horrific lives these people endured is nothing short of a miracle. The pages of this book shall stay with you long after you place it on your shelf.

This novel by Solzhenitsyn is a classic to me. There are over 100 reviews here and its easy to see why the clear majority give it 4 or 5 stars. If I recall correctly, this is the book that launched his literary fame...
I won't discuss the plot since its been heavily reviewed. But I'd like to share my thoughts on why this book is important:

The Gulag was poorly known outside of the USSR until "One Day" was published. The book is sort of autobiographical; Alexandr used his own Gulag experiences to form the plot. Its not a book with a deliberate "hopelessness" theme, but it does revolve around the fatalistic, dealing-with-reality attitude of one Zek's (prisoner) life in the vast labor camps, and how he can only survive by giving up the future and living day to day. That's the major theme...(by the way, a similar theme is found in the book "All's Quiet on the Western Front" but with some differences and in a much different setting of course...)
Protagonist Ivan Denisovich never "gives up" on life - rather he resigns himself to his 10-yr sentence of labor and loss of identity as, presumably, millions of other peasants were forced to do. The ingratitude and indifference of the State to his past service and patriotism is as cold as the weather he describes...

Its a significant book in that it brings the lives of these mistreated and largely innocent masses down to a personal level. This is important for younger readers today who have no sense of what communism turned into (the Russia version, which was corrupted early on from the "workers paradise" utopia that the original communist/socialist philosophers were seeking). I recall visiting Germany in the early 1980s and seeing security guards at the airport - always in pairs, and always with automatic weapons; an image that disappeared with the breakup of the USSR (or at least, disappeared until 9/11 terrorism; I don't know if that level of security is back now)... My point is, we've forgotten some of the impact the Cold War had on both sides back then, an impact the younger generations can't identify with. "One Day in the Life of ID" helps to re-understand at least part of those days, especially from the side of the "enemy".

This book touches on everything from modern state slavery, human rights, impersonal politics, personal survival, the role of "Big Brother" and gov't in our lives - all through the eyes of one simple guy in a vast, "collective", crude, bureacratic "people's" system.

Its an easy read, great for non-academic people who don't have the time to read his other more involved books, and I think it ought to be required reading at some level in our secondary schools. Unfortunately, I suspect instead it may eventually slip into obscurity, which will be a loss.

Solzhenitsyn can be self-righteous (and tends to exagerate, IMO) in some of his later works - but this first one resonates. I highly recommend it, esp for someone with limited time to read political stuff from that era.

(ps - the Signet paperback copy I have has a nice artwork cover, a watercolor of an indistinct man standing behind barbed wire, but you can see his eyes and face).