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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich | Introduction

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn secretly wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich during the Cold War, an era during which the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States, the world's superpowers, fought each other psychologically by stockpiling more and more destructive weapons in preparation for a real and possibly world-ending war. One of the few confidants Solzhenitsyn allowed to read his novel said, "There are now three atomic bombs in the world. The White House has one, the Kremlin the second— and you the third" (quoted in David Burg and George Feifer's Solzhenitsyn).

When the Twenty-second Congress met in 1961, Nikita Khrushchev defamed Stalin's tyrannical excesses, explaining that they were due to "the cult of personality," and promised they would never again be allowed. Afterwards Stalin's body was removed from Red Square and cremated. The political fire needed to detonate Solzhenitsyn's bomb had been set.

Solzhenitsyn brought his work to the liberal magazine Novy Mir. Its famous editor, Aleksandr Tvardovsky, showed it to Khrushchev, who approved its publication. Every copy of the magazine was sold, and each buyer had a long list of friends anxious to read it as well. A second and last printing followed and was immediately sold out. Western publishers acquired the manuscript, and, since the Soviets did not observe international copyright laws, were free to publish translations without the author's approval. The quality of these translations varied from good to mediocre. Still, the literary merits of the novel with its unities of time and place—one day in a forced-labor camp—and its common-man protagonist accepting his situation without self-pity were clear. However, because of its content, any literary evaluation would be eclipsed by its political importance in disclosing the dark past of Stalinism. Solzhenitsyn's subsequent works continued this exposure.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Summary

"Reveille was sounded, as always, at 5 A.M.…"

So begins another day for Ivan Denisovich in a forced labor camp in Siberia, in a pitch-dark room filled with two hundred men, stacked four bunks high. Usually he gets up and finds one of the numerous ways to earn more food, but this morning he's sick. Not sick enough to know he can't work, but sick enough to wonder if he can. He plans on going to the infirmary, but a mean guard, the thin Tartar, catches him in his bunk and sentences him to solitary confinement for three days. Fortunately for Ivan, he only has him mop the floor of the warders' office. Inside the warders check the thermometer. If it is lower than forty below zero, the men won't have to work outside. It registers sixteen degrees below, but the men know it isn't accurate and there's no talk of fixing it. Ivan does a poor job of mopping: "If you're working for human beings, then do a real job of it, but if you work for dopes, then you just go through the motions."

The beginning segment of the novel firmly establishes the prison setting, its unspoken laws, and the goal of the prisoners: to survive. Ivan recalls his former gang boss from another camp who told the men that even though jungle law reigns, certain behavior signals a non-survivor: "the guy who licks out bowls, puts his faith in the infirmary, or squeals to the screws." Another firmly established theme is Ivan's health. Because he starts the day not feeling well, he tracks his health for the rest of the day. His psychological health is closely tied to his physical health. For example, today is the day his gang finds out whether they are to be reassigned to build on an unsheltered area. Since fuel is such a valuable commodity, they won't be able to make a fire. This could spell death for many of the men who already live on the edge of life. Their gang boss is bribing the prison bosses to keep them off this assignment. Another undermining element is the bread ration. Ivan overhears that it's been cut today. Survival becomes a little more challenging.

After a breakfast of gruel and boiled fish bones, Ivan goes to the infirmary where Nikolay Semyonovich Vdovushkin, the supposed medic, is writing poetry. Vdovushkin takes Ivan's temperature. It's ninety-nine degrees, not high enough to be admitted, so Ivan is sent off to work. Besides, Vdovushkin's patron, the new doctor, Stepan Grig-oryevich, believes work is the best cure. But Ivan knows even a horse can die from overwork.

Ivan returns to the barracks and receives his bread ration, which is short. He eats half,... » Complete One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Summary