Dante's Divine Comedy and the Labor Camp System
The title reflects the novel's central themes, drawing inspiration from the epic spiritual poem The Divine Comedy by the medieval Italian poet Dante, written around 1320. In this work, the protagonist journeys through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Dante's Hell is depicted as a narrowing funnel of ten circles or levels. The first circle, home to virtuous pagans, lacks the fiery punishments found in the other nine circles, which are reserved for various sinners. Mavrino represents the first circle in the labor camp system's hell, where zeks enjoy relatively easier conditions by being compliant prisoners who cooperate with the State.
The Inner Circle of the Communist Party
The title also alludes to the inner circle of the Communist Party leadership, including General Secretary Josef Stalin and his top aides. This circle is not as distant from Hell as its power and privileges might imply. A single misstep by a lieutenant—such as a failed task or a sign of ingratitude—can result in a swift descent into the camp system. This circle is itself a form of imprisonment: for security, Stalin resides in a small bunker fortified with iron walls, as trapped inside as any potential assassins are outside.
The Family Circle
A third interpretation of the title refers to the first circle of an individual's life, the family circle. As long as a Soviet citizen remains out of prison, life within this circle is comfortable. However, if a family member is sent to a sharashka (or worse), the familial ties inflict suffering on both the imprisoned and those left free. Like the party's first circle, life in the family can be both materially and spiritually rewarding yet unstable.
Soviet Society and the Gulag
The overarching suggestion of the title is that all facets of Soviet society teeter precariously on the edge of the hellish camp system known as the notorious Gulag.
Upside-Down Society
The First Circle portrays an upside-down society. In this strange world, the prisoners, the supposed Fascist scum, are the true communists, and the leaders are the ones who are cheating and benefiting from the unequal system. The debate between Clara Makarygin and her father, who is a prosecutor, reveals this paradox most clearly: He defends the benefits he receives as “accumulated labor,” but he knows his answer is inadequate and he refuses to relinquish the benefits he receives from the system. The contrast between these two worlds is also shown in the way the prisoners help and care for one another; the few informers are exposed and ridiculed near the end of the novel, and they do not belong to the family of zeks. The leaders of the society do not act in this altruistic fashion; Yakanov obstructs the work at the laboratory so that his rival, Roitman, will not be victorious.
Hellish Society
Another theme grows out of the many references to Dante. The prison may be only the “first circle” of hell, but the whole society is surely a hell, a kind of parody of the promised withering-away of the state in Marxist theory. In the center of the deepest circle of this hell is Joseph Stalin and not the sharaska or even a Siberian labor camp.
Individuality and Growth
The gulag may be a hell, but it also is an opportunity to sort out what is important in life. Nerzhin sees his experience as a means of becoming an individual in the midst of a collective society. He first must develop a personal point of view and then “polish [his] soul so as to become a human being.” That assertion of individuality does not, however, end within oneself; it will lead Nerzhin to become “a tiny particle of [his] own people.” It is impossible for the leaders to become individuals; they have surrendered their individuality to the positions they hold, refusing the opportunity for suffering and growth. As one of the prisoners says, “Only a zek is certain to have an immortal soul.”
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