Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5496 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-16
• Released on: 2005-03-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 188 pages

Amazon.com
Solzhenitsyn's first book, this economical, relentless novel is one of the most forceful artistic indictments of political oppression in the Stalin-era Soviet Union. The simply told story of a typical, grueling day of the titular character's life in a labor camp in Siberia, is a modern classic of Russian literature and quickly cemented Solzhenitsyn's international reputation upon publication in 1962. It is painfully apparent that Solzhenitsyn himself spent time in the gulags--he was imprisoned for nearly a decade as punishment for making derogatory statements about Stalin in a letter to a friend.

Review
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich yields, more than anything else, a beautiful sense of its author as a Chekhovian figure: simple, free of literary affectation, wholly serious."--The New Republic

Review
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich yields, more than anything else, a beautiful sense of its author as a Chekhovian figure: simple, free of literary affectation, wholly serious."--The New Republic

Customer Reviews

A Horrifying Portrayal of Soviet Communist Oppression.
_One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_, first published in the Soviet journal _Novy Mir_ in 1962, by the Nobel Prize winning Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a horrifying account of the life of a Russian prisoner in a Soviet labor-camp as he struggled to maintain his dignity despite facing degrading conditions. Solzhenitsyn (1918 - 2008) was a dissident Russian novelist whose works revealed the horrors of the Soviet gulag and who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. This novel focuses on the life of a single individual Ivan Denisovich Shukhov and his daily struggles amidst grinding cruelty and barbaric conditions in a Soviet labor-camp. Solzhenitsyn himself had first hand experience with the labor camps having been imprisoned himself at one time for his dissident writings. This novel is important not only because it reveals the bleak and harsh existence of the Russian zek (convict) often sentenced to labor on spurious grounds by the Soviet state but also because it demonstrates the unfairness of the Soviet system. Solzhenitsyn was an important figure, a dissident intellectual, who spoke out against such oppression while living in the Soviet regime. The life of the Russian zek, often condemned for an arbitrarily long period of time to work in unbearable conditions and in freezing cold while being provided with only a minimal diet, was a stark and harsh existence. Many could not survive such conditions and those who could had to manage to find meaning in an otherwise cruel reality. This novel shows that existence and reveals the bitterness and stark horror of the Soviet state in the process.

The novel focuses on one day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, serving a 3,653 day sentence in a labor camp after being accused of being a German spy having been captured by the Germans during the war as a prisoner of war. In a cruel irony of fate, Ivan Denisovich was no spy but merely caught by the Germans and thus is serving a sentence for a "crime" he did not commit. Other individuals at the camp are serving similar sentences for similar charges and with few exceptions none of them were actually spies. Thus, we see the cruelty and unfairness of the system. The day begins with Ivan Denisovich trying to obtain a dispensation from his work duties for being sick; however, since others have already been exempted for being sick he is forced to work regardless of his sickness. As Solzhenitsyn ironically notes, "Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing?" Ivan Denisovich then begins his day of work spent at a construction site under the harshest of conditions. Food rations at the camp are very scant and much of the story is devoted to describing the manner in which the zeks attempt to make the best out of their minimal rations and attempt to steal or hide away tiny morsels to maintain their strength. The prisoners also are desperate for cigarettes and will frequently take the butts of cigarettes when they can from their harsh masters. A central character in the novel is that of Alyosha who is a Baptist and believes that being in prison is a good thing allowing him to reflect on spiritual matters, a view which Ivan Denisovich does not share. Alyosha has managed to smuggle in a Bible among his things and has hidden it. Ivan Denisovich discusses spiritual matters with him and the nature of God. In another scene it is noted that prisoners are allowed to pick up parcels from their families. In a particularly bitter scene, Solzhenitsyn notes that Ivan Denisovich no longer receives parcels because he has told his wife to not rob the kids seeing as how his parcels go to waste. However, poor Ivan cannot help hoping everyday that one day he might receive something. Another fear among men in the camp is being "put in the hole" and confined to solitary confinement. Many do not survive this treatment and it continually lurks at the back of their minds should they not behave themselves. The prisoners together frequently discuss their sentences and while some maintain that they are nearing the end of their sentences the time does not seem to pass for Ivan Denisovich. Frequently when those who have neared the end of their sentences are simply told that they are to receive a further sentence and thus there is little to hope for in this respect. The book ends by concluding that Ivan Denisovich has had a good day. He has survived another day, he has managed to obtain some extra food and has managed to get some cigarettes, he has not been thrown into the hole and his work gang has done good, he had managed to hide a blade from the guards and not gotten caught, and he has managed to get over being sick. Thus, one of the 3,653 days of Ivan Denisovich's sentence concludes.

This novel is a classic of Russian literature and highly important for what it reveals about the harshness and cruelty of the Soviet state. The late Solzhenitsyn was one of the most important figures in Twentieth century literature and one of the most important Russian authors. This novel really remains one of the most important of Solzhenitsyn and helped elevate him to international recognition for pointing out the cruelties of the Soviet labor-camp. It speaks to the cruelty of man to man and the totalitarian nature of Soviet communism.

Required reading for any study of the Soviet Union
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.

An awesome expression of life.
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.