The Book that shook the USSR

After I had finished reading "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, I really began to understand what the oldest generation of Russians had lived through and how these ordeals now help them stay resilient no matter what happens.

The oldest generation had tried to suvive the Gulag-the Soviet labour camp prison system- and Joseph Stalin’s wave of terror.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described a day in the life of a prison camp inmate, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, but there were millions like him-innocent citizens who, like Solzhenitsyn himself, had been sent to the Gulag in Joseph Stalin’s wave of terror.

"One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" is the first work of literature to speak openly and honestly about the Gulag. The novel was published in 1962 in the Literary journal, Novy Mir.

Soviet leader Nikita Krushnev had sanctioned the publication of Solzhenitsyn’s novel nearly a decade after Stalin’s death. Then, he changed his mind. Khrushchev handpicked the novel and he allowed this book on the Gulag to be finally published because he wanted to expose Stalin’s cult of personality. Allowing a book on the Gulag, Khrushchev thought, would help debunk Stalin’s personality cult. Nikita Khrushchev launched a campaign to discredit Stalin. Indeed the legacy of the past was still obvious in every sphere of life.

Solzhenitsyn’s story of one peasant’s day in a labor camp enlightens us about lives of millions of people forced into a place or situation from which it is hard to escape !

Ivan Denisovich said "Can a man who’s warm understand one who’s freezing?" The constant accumulation of sensory details gives this work of fiction the impression of incontestable and indisputable truth. We, readers, feel as if we experience Ivan Denisovich Shukhov’s cold, hunger, fear, and exhaustion.

But when we read this passage « The smoke seemed to reach every part of his hungry body, he felt it in his feet as well as in his head…remembers with disbelief…great lumps of meat », we feel that these flashes of comfort that Ivan Denisovich snatches in the present were able to help him survive the horrible life in the Gulag.

Solzhenitsyn describes the better-than-average day in the camps by using a blend of peasant slang, prison jargon. The language of the novel gives us details so matter-of-factly that we really feel they must be true. The narrative style blends folksy colloquialisms with powerful slang and prison-camp jargon. The text is expressed in the idiom of the main protagonist, a man of a peasant origin, with no formal education.

The narrator voice, Ivan Denisovich, braid smoothly and continuously throughout the book, revealing a plot full of tension and suspense.

How resourceful is Ivan Denisovich while he navigates the camp, planning each step in advance, trying to survive the Gulag. The two letters he receives annually from his wife helps him survive the Gulag. These letters give us glimpses of the life that was taken from him and of his « possible » future.

Plotting, scavenging, dissenting, and praying, Ivan Denisovich and the other members of Gang 104 (Fetyukov, Buynovsky, Alyoshka) test out different survival strategies.

The publication of  "One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" made history because it helped Russians debunk Stalin’s personality cult.

Hardline communists removed forcefully from office Nikita Khrushchev, de-Stalinisation halted, and in 1974 Solzhenitsyn was arrested and expelled.

But they were not able to save the Soviet Union. And once the USSR had fallen apart, the full scale of Stalin’s crimes became clear.

20, 760 prisoners were executed by Stalin’s secret police. Murdered were Soviet workers and peasants, scientists and sportsmen, engineers and office clerks. They had been declared enemies of the people.

Stalin died less than 60 years ago but according to a recent survey, 48% of Russians believe that Stalin had a positive influence on their country. ONLY 22% consider it was negative !