Status
Available
Local notes
891.7344
Collection
Genres
Publication
Signet Classics (1963), 160 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: One of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union, this is the story of labor camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov and his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of Communist oppression. Based on the author's own experience in the gulags, where he spent nearly a decade as punishment for making derogatory remarks against Stalin, the novel is an unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps..
Subjects
Awards
Waterstones Books of the Century (89 — 1997)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1962
Physical description
160 p.; 6.92 inches
Media reviews
This quiet tale has struck a powerful blow against the return of the horrors of the Stalin system. For Solzhenitsyn's words burn like acid.
User reviews
LibraryThing member JoK
Fellow reviewers have spoken at length about the accuracy and historical relevance of the portrayal of the Soviet Gulag system in _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_. They have detailed the harsh conditions, the complex mechanics of survival in the Gulag, the terror of Stalin's government, and
_One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ is uplifting. It is a story of the transcendent quality of the human will that allows one not only to survive, but to _live_ in the most adverse of situations. The protagonist, Shukhov, shows little fear, little pain. Instead he shows that a slave laborer can retain enough dignity to show pride in his workmanship, compassion for his fellows, and a drive to carry on.
Throughout the story Shukhov is creating. He sews, builds a wall, fashions illicit tools. And though these things help ensure his survival, his ongoing occupation in these activities and his investment of himself in them shows what a basic part of humans the creative impulse is. For Shukhov, creating does not save his life, it is his life.
In this world, there are people whose words are clear and inspiring, tempered with insight gained through adversity - the kind of adversity so severe that no person would choose to place themselves amongst it. Imprisonment, danger, fear of death. Solzhenitsyn is one of these; the wisdom he offers to us has already been bought and paid for. We others are fortunate enough to be lent what these people have to offer - those who have had no choice but to be there, and have lived to write about it. And if ever we find ourselves in a similar kind of adversity, we can remember what they have taught us, and know that adversity can be endured.
Some say that life is suffering. The story of the zek shows me in suffering, there can be life. The story reminded me of how comfortable my life is and how trivial my concerns can be. The author's style and the skill of the translation (I refer to the H.T. Willetts translation, ISBN 0374521956) make this book accessible to everyone. This is fortunate, because everyone can benefit from the message to be found in _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_.
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the 'harrowing' experiences of the zeks - the slang term for the Soviet Gulag prisoner. I concur with all of these observations, but I would like to provide the potential reader with a view from another angle._One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ is uplifting. It is a story of the transcendent quality of the human will that allows one not only to survive, but to _live_ in the most adverse of situations. The protagonist, Shukhov, shows little fear, little pain. Instead he shows that a slave laborer can retain enough dignity to show pride in his workmanship, compassion for his fellows, and a drive to carry on.
Throughout the story Shukhov is creating. He sews, builds a wall, fashions illicit tools. And though these things help ensure his survival, his ongoing occupation in these activities and his investment of himself in them shows what a basic part of humans the creative impulse is. For Shukhov, creating does not save his life, it is his life.
In this world, there are people whose words are clear and inspiring, tempered with insight gained through adversity - the kind of adversity so severe that no person would choose to place themselves amongst it. Imprisonment, danger, fear of death. Solzhenitsyn is one of these; the wisdom he offers to us has already been bought and paid for. We others are fortunate enough to be lent what these people have to offer - those who have had no choice but to be there, and have lived to write about it. And if ever we find ourselves in a similar kind of adversity, we can remember what they have taught us, and know that adversity can be endured.
Some say that life is suffering. The story of the zek shows me in suffering, there can be life. The story reminded me of how comfortable my life is and how trivial my concerns can be. The author's style and the skill of the translation (I refer to the H.T. Willetts translation, ISBN 0374521956) make this book accessible to everyone. This is fortunate, because everyone can benefit from the message to be found in _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_.
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LibraryThing member esigel
It must be 35 years since I first read this book, and it is no less powerful the second time. It recounts a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a prisoner in one of Stalin’s slave-labor camps in Siberia. It is an almost minute-by-minute account, from the time Shukhov first opens his eyes
The book reveals the tensions, backbiting but also the bedrock camaraderie that binds prisoners in the work group together, their affection for the foreman, a fellow zek who has tremendous influence on work assignments and food allocations, their shared hatred for guards or others who make their lives miserable. For Shukhov there is no dream of eventual liberty here, what concerns him every waking minute are food, survival and maintaining a shred of human dignity under conditions of unimaginable cruelty and privation. The political commentary is all the more devastating for its understatement. What did Zhukov do to merit his 10-year sentence? He and a fellow soldier escaped from German captivity during World War II, and when they made it back to Russian lines they were promptly arrested and judged to be spies: in the view of Stalin and his minions, what else could explain the fact that captured soldiers managed to return to their own army? No one can fully understand the barbarism and inhumanity of 20th century totalitarianism, and at the same time the unquenchable human struggle for freedom, without reading this masterpiece.
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in his upper bunk to when he finally lies down again late at night. In between are hours of labor in the brutal Siberian winter, where a temperature of -27 Fahrenheit is not cold enough to keep the prisoners in for the day. Much of Shulkov’s thoughts and schemes revolve around food: how to hide part of his morning bread ration to eat at night, how to get a portion of the extra bowls of gruel that he snares for his work group, how to befriend a fellow prisoner so he can share in a piece of sausage from a parcel the man has received from home. The book reveals the tensions, backbiting but also the bedrock camaraderie that binds prisoners in the work group together, their affection for the foreman, a fellow zek who has tremendous influence on work assignments and food allocations, their shared hatred for guards or others who make their lives miserable. For Shukhov there is no dream of eventual liberty here, what concerns him every waking minute are food, survival and maintaining a shred of human dignity under conditions of unimaginable cruelty and privation. The political commentary is all the more devastating for its understatement. What did Zhukov do to merit his 10-year sentence? He and a fellow soldier escaped from German captivity during World War II, and when they made it back to Russian lines they were promptly arrested and judged to be spies: in the view of Stalin and his minions, what else could explain the fact that captured soldiers managed to return to their own army? No one can fully understand the barbarism and inhumanity of 20th century totalitarianism, and at the same time the unquenchable human struggle for freedom, without reading this masterpiece.
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LibraryThing member skavlanj
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich should be required reading. When everything you read and hear and watch is stained with a hyper-politicized Us v. Them mentality, it's enlightening to see what true tyranny looks like. Starting with the author's bio ("In 1945 [Solzhenitsyn] was arrested and
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imprisoned in a labor camp for eight years because he had allegedly made a derogatory remark about Stalin."), the book highlights the mindless brutality of a true totalitarian state. Solzhenitsyn masterfully depicts Shukov's powerlessness as he struggles just to fill his stomach, stay warm, and avoid notice. He shows the petty corruption that permeates the prisoners lives, the payoffs to guards and mail clerks and cooks just to get a portion of what's rightfully theirs. He gives you reason to hate them the way the prisoners do. Simultaneously he shows the shared misery, revealing that in spite of warmer clothes and better food the guards suffer at the camp too. There is a bond between the prisoners and their tormentors that rings true as they help each other in small ways, such as the guards taking only a portion of the prisoners' purloined scraps of firewood so that both groups can have some warmth in their sleeping quarters. The power of this book lies in the irony of Shukov's feeling of content with this almost happy day as Solzhenitsyn grimly reminds us that his protagonist will serve ten years worth of these almost happy days. Show Less
LibraryThing member rburdock
Set in a post-war Stalinist labour camp, this novel, as the title suggests, centres on a single day in the life of ‘political prisoner’ Ivan Denisovich, from (before) sunrise to (well after) sunset. As one might imagine, Ivan has little to look forward to on this ‘typical’ day in the camp;
Comprising of a mere 143 pages, I finished reading this classic rather speedily, although perhaps not as ‘speedily’ as I would have, if I were reading a novel that originated in English. As a qualified historian I’m wholly familiar with clumsy translations, and sadly this translated novel is no different. So if you’re planning on reading this yourself, then be prepared to re-read a number of the sentences, in order to fully decipher their full meaning. Don’t let that put you off though (or from reading any translated Russian literature for that matter), as the minor hindrance caused by having to pause and re-read, is completed negated by the quality of this work.
Along with other works that he penned during the 1960’s, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn got himself into a lot of bother from the Soviet authorities for writing this novel, and after reading it, it’s clear to see why. Aided by more than a liberal dose of anti-Stalinist sentimentality, Mr. Solzhenitsyn pulls no punches in describing the conditions in Soviet labour camps. Given that he himself spent eight years in these camps, after the war, this is no surprise, but because Mr. Solzhenitsyn was able to infuse his own experiences into this novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is an absolute ‘must read’ - just don’t expect to leave your chair in anything like a cheery mood.
Favourite quote: “There is nothing as bitter as this moment when you go out to the morning muster - in the dark, in the cold, with a hungry belly, to face a whole day of work. You lose your tongue. You lose all desire to speak to anyone.”
Favourite scene: Breakfast in the mess-hall. The description of what the prisoners ate and how they ate it is gross to the max. Very memorable and hugely powerful!!
What this novel has taught me about writing: Life experience can enrich a novelist's work immeasurably. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spent 8 years interned in Russian labour camps (followed by 3 more in exile) and this is clearly evident in the detail of this novel, and the depth of emotion it contains. Perhaps this advocates, although not exclusively, a policy of choosing a subject to write about that you have personal experience and knowledge of.
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ultra sub-zero temperatures, horrendous food, forced labour, and incessantly picky guards all await him, and his fellow inmates. As harrowing as the day is though, this day actually turns out to be one of the ‘better’ ones, which although bringing a little cheer to Ivan, leaves the reader puzzling (and more than a little shocked), over what must constitute a ‘bad’ day in one of these places.Comprising of a mere 143 pages, I finished reading this classic rather speedily, although perhaps not as ‘speedily’ as I would have, if I were reading a novel that originated in English. As a qualified historian I’m wholly familiar with clumsy translations, and sadly this translated novel is no different. So if you’re planning on reading this yourself, then be prepared to re-read a number of the sentences, in order to fully decipher their full meaning. Don’t let that put you off though (or from reading any translated Russian literature for that matter), as the minor hindrance caused by having to pause and re-read, is completed negated by the quality of this work.
Along with other works that he penned during the 1960’s, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn got himself into a lot of bother from the Soviet authorities for writing this novel, and after reading it, it’s clear to see why. Aided by more than a liberal dose of anti-Stalinist sentimentality, Mr. Solzhenitsyn pulls no punches in describing the conditions in Soviet labour camps. Given that he himself spent eight years in these camps, after the war, this is no surprise, but because Mr. Solzhenitsyn was able to infuse his own experiences into this novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is an absolute ‘must read’ - just don’t expect to leave your chair in anything like a cheery mood.
Favourite quote: “There is nothing as bitter as this moment when you go out to the morning muster - in the dark, in the cold, with a hungry belly, to face a whole day of work. You lose your tongue. You lose all desire to speak to anyone.”
Favourite scene: Breakfast in the mess-hall. The description of what the prisoners ate and how they ate it is gross to the max. Very memorable and hugely powerful!!
What this novel has taught me about writing: Life experience can enrich a novelist's work immeasurably. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spent 8 years interned in Russian labour camps (followed by 3 more in exile) and this is clearly evident in the detail of this novel, and the depth of emotion it contains. Perhaps this advocates, although not exclusively, a policy of choosing a subject to write about that you have personal experience and knowledge of.
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LibraryThing member Clara53
I had to just sit quietly for awhile after finishing this book. The enormity of the message had to sink in: this unimaginable human endurance (both mental and physical) in the face of cruelty, humiliation, as well as most base and inhumane conditions in the gulag, astonished me. Slavery of a
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different kind - total subjugation by one's own compatriots... I was expecting bitterness, resignation. Instead I found an odd sort of triumph of the human spirit. An amazing read. Show Less
LibraryThing member jillrhudy
Deeply affecting and difficult to recover from. Comparable to the best Holocaust fiction or Angela's Ashes in its impact. Once I was drawn into this deceptively simple story of one man's day in a Siberian labor camp under Stalin's regime, I could not put the book down. I had it like a disease.
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Halfway through, I found myself moving in slow motion, paying attention to small things, eating thoughtfully, grateful for being warm and comfortable. After I read it, I had trouble settling into another book; all other fiction seemed fluffy and inconsequential. Show Less
LibraryThing member Robert_R._Mitchell
The words spoken and written about this novel far outnumber the millions of Soviets sentenced to the gulags it describes. It would seem, therefore, that the only possibility of saying something “new” is to describe our own personal reaction to the story. Even then, our words are not “new”
Finishing this work is always a solemn experience for me. I believe it should be read several times in a lifetime because while certain passages or images will linger until we die, the emotional impact of the book as a whole is most significant and life-changing immediately upon completion. Ideally, it should be read in as close to a single sitting as possible, much like the underground hand-typed copies of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago were read before being passed along to the next hungry reader.
Ivan Denisovich Shukhov’s joyful tally of the good things his day included always leaves me speechless and reverent as if I am visiting the death bed or grave of a great but humble hero who triumphed over unimaginable evil against impossible odds. The fact that Solzhenitsyn writes from experience means that every decision, every rationale, every strategy Ivan employs to survive is meticulously noted, explained and evaluated. Solzhenitsyn’s sparse and explicit prose perfectly conveys the barren Siberian landscape, the brutal weather and the bitter human interactions of the prison camp. While a hero in every sense of the word, Ivan is not perfect, idealistic or selfless. He is a survivor who manages to navigate a hellish, brutal world with his humanity, intellect, self-consciousness, sanity and empathy intact.
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in the sense of “groundbreaking,” but merely “new” in the sense of pedestrian uniqueness, much like a fingerprint. Finishing this work is always a solemn experience for me. I believe it should be read several times in a lifetime because while certain passages or images will linger until we die, the emotional impact of the book as a whole is most significant and life-changing immediately upon completion. Ideally, it should be read in as close to a single sitting as possible, much like the underground hand-typed copies of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago were read before being passed along to the next hungry reader.
Ivan Denisovich Shukhov’s joyful tally of the good things his day included always leaves me speechless and reverent as if I am visiting the death bed or grave of a great but humble hero who triumphed over unimaginable evil against impossible odds. The fact that Solzhenitsyn writes from experience means that every decision, every rationale, every strategy Ivan employs to survive is meticulously noted, explained and evaluated. Solzhenitsyn’s sparse and explicit prose perfectly conveys the barren Siberian landscape, the brutal weather and the bitter human interactions of the prison camp. While a hero in every sense of the word, Ivan is not perfect, idealistic or selfless. He is a survivor who manages to navigate a hellish, brutal world with his humanity, intellect, self-consciousness, sanity and empathy intact.
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LibraryThing member gbill
A great concept - a single day in the life of a prisoner in a Soviet gulag - and it's surprising that it was published at all under Khrushchev in 1962. Solzhenitsyn himself was in such a camp under Stalin from 1945 to 1953, and he writes with simplicity and honestly. While forced labor is a harsh
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and heavy theme, ultimately "One Day" is an uplifting tale of strength and perseverance. Show Less
LibraryThing member Matke
This could have been so depressing as to put off the reader. But Solzhenitsyn tells his tale in a matter-of-fact immediate fashion. I was appalled by the routine horrors of a Russian prison camp (and a “special” camp to boot), of course. But the conversational tone, and ivan’s determination
Recommended.
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to survive through guile and skill make this short book a fascinating read. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member Cecrow
A political prisoner with a ten-year prison camp sentence, Ivan's an remarkable fellow and a friend you'd like to have there: resourceful and quick-thinking, mindful of others and willing to share (within reason), a good assessor of risks and opportunities, proud of his skills and of a job well
He is very philosophical about his dilemma. He doesn't place too much hope on getting out when his time is served, where that kind of hope can kill a man. He takes each day at a time, finds blessings in the smallest pieces of luck. It's a reversal of the life I know. From dawn until dusk it's the things that go wrong which stand out to me as I judge how good my day was. Ivan lives in a world of wrongs, and so he measures by what goes unexpectedly right.
I'm astonished this got past Soviet regime censors in 1962. There's bold-faced anti-government dialogue and social commentary that I never guessed they'd allow after other authors like Bulgakov were reduced to skulking around in metaphor (possibly restored for this edition? I read there was some censoring.) Its publication is symbolic of the Soviet Russia that emerged from beneath the shadow of Stalin under Khrushchev and kept ebbing all the way to 1991.
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done even when it's being forced upon him. His enemy is not the camp guards, who are just as unhappy to be present as the prisoners they watch. The true enemy is the penetrating cold. If you haven't experienced minus thirty weather then it's hard to grasp what working in it all day would be like, let alone with so little opportunity to shelter from it. Canadian or not, I don't care for more than a few minutes of it. Standing only next in line to the cold is hunger. Ivan measures every gram with his eyes, counts every spoonful, every lick, every crumb, leaving nothing to waste. He is very philosophical about his dilemma. He doesn't place too much hope on getting out when his time is served, where that kind of hope can kill a man. He takes each day at a time, finds blessings in the smallest pieces of luck. It's a reversal of the life I know. From dawn until dusk it's the things that go wrong which stand out to me as I judge how good my day was. Ivan lives in a world of wrongs, and so he measures by what goes unexpectedly right.
I'm astonished this got past Soviet regime censors in 1962. There's bold-faced anti-government dialogue and social commentary that I never guessed they'd allow after other authors like Bulgakov were reduced to skulking around in metaphor (possibly restored for this edition? I read there was some censoring.) Its publication is symbolic of the Soviet Russia that emerged from beneath the shadow of Stalin under Khrushchev and kept ebbing all the way to 1991.
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LibraryThing member Arctic-Stranger
Forget that this is "literature" or a Great Russian Novel, and just try to get to know Ivan. Solzhenitsyn catches and ordinary day in the life of prison camp, and his portrayal is both intriguely different from the lives of most people, but also disturrbingly similar. Ivan has a "normal" day, full
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of petty intrigues concerning food and work, mild hopes, and the great of not entertaining Great Hopes. The writing is not as angry as his portrayal of the Gulag, and the scary part of the novel is the realization that the reader could easily be accomodated to this kind of life. Show Less
LibraryThing member gazzy
Draws out suffering like only a Russian can, just thinking about the passages about pieces of bread make me, well, hungry.
LibraryThing member Greatrakes
I read this again in 2008, thirty five years after reading it the first time, and was just as impressed. A day in the life of a prisoner in one of Stalin's Gulags. Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is in his eighth year of a ten year sentence for political crimes, and has a good day. He gets an extra bowl of
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thin rancid soup, earns extra bread and finds a small piece of hacksaw blade which he intends to work into a cobbling tool. His internal commentary on his day makes it all sound so ordinary, the brutality, half-starvation, and forced labour in minus thirtydegrees, is described as if it is commonplace, which it is to him. A short novel but a compelling read, and a pean to resilience and humanity. Show Less
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
What was life like for political prisoners in Stalin era Soviet labor camps? You could read a memoir and let a former prisoner tell you. Or you could read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and let Solzhenitsyn show you. Readers follow Ivan Denisovich Shukov through a typical day sometime in
I’d like to think that the Soviet labor camps are a thing of the past and that what’s depicted in this book would not be possible in the 21st century. I’d like to think that, but human nature hasn’t really changed in the seventy-some years since Stalin’s death.
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January from morning to evening roll call. Shukhov and his fellow prisoners exist in the bottom tier of Maslow’s hierarchy, and it’s painful to experience even vicariously.I’d like to think that the Soviet labor camps are a thing of the past and that what’s depicted in this book would not be possible in the 21st century. I’d like to think that, but human nature hasn’t really changed in the seventy-some years since Stalin’s death.
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LibraryThing member Hamburgerclan
I hate it when I fall behind in by book reviews. Sometimes I'm able to recall the book and my reactions to it. But it's more likely that I stare at the cover and my blank screen and wonder what I can write beyond "On my shelf." So anyway, almost two months ago I read this slim volume, the tale of
--J.
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an inmate in a Soviet labor camp. Many words have been written about this classic. Me, all I can think to say is that Mr. Solzhenitsyn does an amazing job of creating an entire word in his tale. He also fills it with a variety of characters--some very human characters in a dehumanizing situation. I also appreciated that he didn't go for drama, trying to recount some horrid tragedy to illustrate the injustice of that Soviet system, but rather let the quiet pain of day's events speak for itself.--J.
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LibraryThing member BookAddict
I have to disagree with the other reader who felt there were strong similarities between the Siberian camp and Hitler's Death camps.
Based on this book alone a person would get the impression that the Russian camp wasn't all that bad, it was tolerable, even livable. The main character in this
I have read many books about the Nazi camps and there wasn't one person in the history of those camps that ever considered wanting to stay in one of them. The Nazi camps starved everyone to the point of being walking corpses while the Russian camp fed the inmates, perhaps not the finest food to be desired, but food every day nevertheless. The Siberian camps didn't tear children from mothers or make them watch their children walk into gas chambers or suffer atrocious horrific experiments or endure any of the other endless selection and death rituals that Nazis performed.
The Siberian camp experience in this novel was, surprisingly, not as bad as I would have even imagined it to be and definately not even a tiny fraction as bad as any Nazi camp. I was surprised at how tolerable the Siberian camp was described.
Based on this book alone a person would get the impression that the Russian camp wasn't all that bad, it was tolerable, even livable. The main character in this
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novel, from what I can remember, was resigned to staying there and making a life of it instead of desiring to leave. While this may be a way of coping with a situation that is unpleasant, it certainly isn't the same as a Nazi death camp. I have read many books about the Nazi camps and there wasn't one person in the history of those camps that ever considered wanting to stay in one of them. The Nazi camps starved everyone to the point of being walking corpses while the Russian camp fed the inmates, perhaps not the finest food to be desired, but food every day nevertheless. The Siberian camps didn't tear children from mothers or make them watch their children walk into gas chambers or suffer atrocious horrific experiments or endure any of the other endless selection and death rituals that Nazis performed.
The Siberian camp experience in this novel was, surprisingly, not as bad as I would have even imagined it to be and definately not even a tiny fraction as bad as any Nazi camp. I was surprised at how tolerable the Siberian camp was described.
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LibraryThing member jonbrammer
This account of life in the gulag isn't as harrowing as I had expected: rather, it details the small tricks and loopholes the prisoners exploit to survive and maintain some level of humanity. Forced to lay bricks in the miserable Siberian winter, the narrator plays the system the best he can to
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obtain more gruel, favors from his gang boss, and scraps from other prisoners' care packages. These little dramas add a note of gritty realism - and the idea that this day is repeated indefinitely is where the true horror lies. Show Less
LibraryThing member varwenea
‘One Day’ (or fixed time) books have always been very interesting to me – from wake to sleep for an individual, a day usually chosen for no particular reason but to share a ‘typical’ day and yet is never typical. This day of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is no exception – a man serving a 10
The beauty of this story is that it wasn’t written to criticize, to document, or even be angry about this portion of history. It’s just another day. We learn about the different aspects that make up the gulag – the staff, guards, the different goals and character types of the prisoners and his squad, the camp life, the shortages of supplies, the harsh environment, and how to use your smarts to survive. Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is an entirely likeable character whose inner strength, perseverance, intelligence, morality shines through in his world. Repeated themes include:
Temperature: “How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand a man who’s cold?”
Time: “Shukhov looked up at the sky and gasped – the sun had climbed almost to the dinner hour. Wonder of wonders! How time flew when you were working! That was something he’d often noticed. The days rolled by in the camp – they were over before you could say ‘knife.’ But the years, they never rolled by; they never moved by a second.”
Food: “He dug in. First he only drank the broth, drank and drank. As it went down, filling his whole body with warmth, all his guts began to flutter inside him at their meeting with that stew. Goo-ood! There it comes, that brief moment for which a zek lives.”
The book has such a matter-of-fact styling that I almost forget how bad life really was/is. Heck, it was even a good day. I particularly liked the ending. Makes the reader cheer for him a little, be happy for him a little, and hope he in fact gets out after the 10 years. Cheers Ivan!
“Shukhov went to sleep fully content. He’d had many strokes of luck that day: they hadn’t put him in the cells; they hadn’t sent his squad to the settlement; he’d swiped a bowl of kasha at dinner; the squad leader had fixed the rates well; he’d built a wall and enjoyed doing it; he’d smuggled that bit of hacksaw blade through; he’d earned a favor from Tsezar that evening; he’d bought that tobacco. And he hadn’t fallen ill. He’d got over it.
A day without dark cloud. Almost a happy day.
There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail.
Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days.
The three extra days were for leap years.”
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year sentence in one of the Serbian labor/detention camps, commonly known as gulag. Published on Nov 20, 1962, then Premier Kjrushchev, whose political agenda benefited from surfacing the dark side of the Stalinist regime, personally approved its publication. The sensation of this story is that it’s entirely relatable to the many families who had been impacted by non-existing laws that resulted in non-existing crimes that resulted in very real penalties of 10 year, 25 year, or up to life sentences in the gulag. Sadly, Alexander Solzhenitsyn is an author writing from this own experiences in the gulag. The beauty of this story is that it wasn’t written to criticize, to document, or even be angry about this portion of history. It’s just another day. We learn about the different aspects that make up the gulag – the staff, guards, the different goals and character types of the prisoners and his squad, the camp life, the shortages of supplies, the harsh environment, and how to use your smarts to survive. Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is an entirely likeable character whose inner strength, perseverance, intelligence, morality shines through in his world. Repeated themes include:
Temperature: “How can you expect a man who’s warm to understand a man who’s cold?”
Time: “Shukhov looked up at the sky and gasped – the sun had climbed almost to the dinner hour. Wonder of wonders! How time flew when you were working! That was something he’d often noticed. The days rolled by in the camp – they were over before you could say ‘knife.’ But the years, they never rolled by; they never moved by a second.”
Food: “He dug in. First he only drank the broth, drank and drank. As it went down, filling his whole body with warmth, all his guts began to flutter inside him at their meeting with that stew. Goo-ood! There it comes, that brief moment for which a zek lives.”
The book has such a matter-of-fact styling that I almost forget how bad life really was/is. Heck, it was even a good day. I particularly liked the ending. Makes the reader cheer for him a little, be happy for him a little, and hope he in fact gets out after the 10 years. Cheers Ivan!
“Shukhov went to sleep fully content. He’d had many strokes of luck that day: they hadn’t put him in the cells; they hadn’t sent his squad to the settlement; he’d swiped a bowl of kasha at dinner; the squad leader had fixed the rates well; he’d built a wall and enjoyed doing it; he’d smuggled that bit of hacksaw blade through; he’d earned a favor from Tsezar that evening; he’d bought that tobacco. And he hadn’t fallen ill. He’d got over it.
A day without dark cloud. Almost a happy day.
There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail.
Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days.
The three extra days were for leap years.”
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LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
Ivan Denisovich Shukhov (#S 854) is a prisoner in a Stalinist work camp in Siberia with only two years left on his sentence. This is one day in his life, from reveille to lights-out. It has been called extraordinary and I couldn't agree more. Ivan is the very picture of bravery, hope and above all,
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survival. Solzhenitsyn relentlessly reminds the reader of the Siberian bitter winters by using variations of words like frost, ice, snow, chill, freeze and cold over 120 times. Added to that is the constant lack of warmth (mentioned another 25 times). While Solzhenitsyn is reminding readers of the cold, Shukov is stressing the importance of flying under the radar; avoiding detection and unwanted attention. Whether he is squirreling away food or tools he is careful not to rock the boat. He knows his fate can be altered in the blink of an eye or the time it takes for a guard to focus on him. Show Less
LibraryThing member Proustitutes
This book is bleak. Perhaps unbearingly bleak.
Solzhenitsyn details a day in the gulag in the early 50's. I found it easy to forget that these conditions were a reality a mere fifty or sixty years ago. Ivan Denisovich, the protaganist, manages to keep a clean conscience while being masterful in his
The monotony and length of his sentence is reflected in the physical act of reading this book: while the words chronicle solely a single day from bell to bell, the book itself has no chapters, page breaks, or markers to indicate progress. There is no stopping point to take stock; the only option is to continue going. Sound familiar? Because of this, I was exhausted once I finished the book... I wanted to lie down, watch TLC for a couple mindless hours, take a leisurely nap, and *maybe* do some light Nicholas Sparks reading. I couldn't help but feel in the back of my mind that perhaps this is what Solzhenitsyn intended. The monotony, the cold, and the utter grimness of existence were reflected in every word of the novel.
You don't win the Nobel Prize in Literature for nothing, and Solzhenitsyn penned a masterpiece--which, I'm sure, is all the more beautiful in Russian with its 'jail talk' and peasant colloqialisms.
Solzhenitsyn details a day in the gulag in the early 50's. I found it easy to forget that these conditions were a reality a mere fifty or sixty years ago. Ivan Denisovich, the protaganist, manages to keep a clean conscience while being masterful in his
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manipulation of others. He knows the truth: you need to be crafty in order to survive the long, ten-year sentence. The monotony and length of his sentence is reflected in the physical act of reading this book: while the words chronicle solely a single day from bell to bell, the book itself has no chapters, page breaks, or markers to indicate progress. There is no stopping point to take stock; the only option is to continue going. Sound familiar? Because of this, I was exhausted once I finished the book... I wanted to lie down, watch TLC for a couple mindless hours, take a leisurely nap, and *maybe* do some light Nicholas Sparks reading. I couldn't help but feel in the back of my mind that perhaps this is what Solzhenitsyn intended. The monotony, the cold, and the utter grimness of existence were reflected in every word of the novel.
You don't win the Nobel Prize in Literature for nothing, and Solzhenitsyn penned a masterpiece--which, I'm sure, is all the more beautiful in Russian with its 'jail talk' and peasant colloqialisms.
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LibraryThing member osmium_antidote
I am embarrassed to admit that I hadn't read this before - being an Eastern European Studies Major. I actually picked this up because my daughter was reading it for school. She thought I might like it since I really enjoy Isaac Babel, who wrote about the same time. Actually, I liked it more than
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Babel - go figure. It was a quick read, but effectively hammered home the idea of life in the Gulag. Even though it was a translation, I didn't feel like I was missing out on much. Show Less
LibraryThing member GoofyOcean110
Very quick, fairly brusque read of exactly what the title says - one day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch who is a prisoner of the collectivized work camps in mid 20th century Soviet Union. Pretty dismal stuff. The protagonist has been in the camp eight years and has two to go. The book starts at
Definitely worthy of classic Russian literature.
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morning at camp, the main activity occurs during the work day, and ends in the evening, with the successful swiping and earning small additional morsels of food. Lots of descriptions of how cold it was and how to deal with wretched living conditions.Definitely worthy of classic Russian literature.
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LibraryThing member Garrison0550
I first read this book years ago right after I finished school and got a job as a hod carrier (a mason's laborer). That was one hell of a tough job, but after reading this book my life sure looked a whole lot brighter. I still have the same copy but it's a bit more tattered these days from the
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times I've re-read it over the years. If you haven't read this book, no matter what genre you prefer, do yourself a favor and read it. Show Less
LibraryThing member Richj
The writing hammers at the experience of being in a Soviet work camp. This translation makes you feel as if it was written in English. Well worth reading. Or rereading if you read the previous translation.
LibraryThing member aliciamay
This brutal, shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia and shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string
There's nothing like the account of a man sentenced indefinitely to hard labor in Siberia to make one appreciate life. The day that was detailed in this book sounded horrific to me (working in -18 degrees, getting shorted on the 200 gram bread ration, standing in the cold for over an hour for a head count, the list goes on) and yet at the end Ivan describes it as an almost happy day. So that was the pseudo uplifting part of the book. What I found really depressing were how few examples of camaraderie there were. Everyone in the camp was in the same miserable situation, but yet many of the relationships between the inmates were adversarial instead of supportive. I found the same situation when reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers, which takes place in Mumbai slum. Rather than help one another up, people in abhorrent situations try to tear one another down. It is a stark picture of humanity.
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or a single match in a world where survival is all. Here safety, warmth and food are the first objectives. Reading it, you enter a world of incarceration, brutality, hard manual labor and freezing cold - and participate in the struggle of men to survive both the terrible rigors of nature and the inhumanity of the system that defines their conditions of life.There's nothing like the account of a man sentenced indefinitely to hard labor in Siberia to make one appreciate life. The day that was detailed in this book sounded horrific to me (working in -18 degrees, getting shorted on the 200 gram bread ration, standing in the cold for over an hour for a head count, the list goes on) and yet at the end Ivan describes it as an almost happy day. So that was the pseudo uplifting part of the book. What I found really depressing were how few examples of camaraderie there were. Everyone in the camp was in the same miserable situation, but yet many of the relationships between the inmates were adversarial instead of supportive. I found the same situation when reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers, which takes place in Mumbai slum. Rather than help one another up, people in abhorrent situations try to tear one another down. It is a stark picture of humanity.
Show Less
Pages
160