One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, was initially reviewed on YouTube on August 2, 2021, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean. Now, this book entered my library as a result of Dr. Jordan Peterson.  While I don’t specifically remember which lecture it was, he recommended that if you don’t have time to read The Gulag Archipelago, you should read this book as an overview of what life was like in the Gulag system.

Now, it turns out, I DO have time to read The Gulag Archipelago, but I thought I’d start with the cliff note’s version, aka, this seminal work by a literary master. SO, this IS, nominally at least, a work of fiction, written by Solzhenitsyn after his own release from the Gulags in 1953, after an 8-year sentence. But the power of his words was such that when this book was published, it was immediately accepted as an accurate portrayal of life in the camps. It was recognized as the legacy of Stalinist Russia, and Solzhenitsyn was elevated to the ranks of literary master for his story telling mastery.

So, Ivan Denisovitch Shukov is basically an everyman, he could literally be anyone who was imprisoned in the Gulag system. We never actually get a clear idea of what he did, he is simply classified as a political prisoner, who’s sentence was earned for having dared to criticize the regime.  That’s it. He was jailed for 10 years for speaking harshly against the regime.  This is not unlike Solzhenitsyn himself, whose 8-year sentence was the result of criticizing Stalin in a letter to a “friend”. It’s enough to make you doubt your friends. I mean, last October/November, when some idiot on Twitter said they were tracking people who supported Trump for later retribution, I told my husband that it’s a very weird feeling knowing exactly who of MY “friends” would turn my name over to that list.

On the flip side, I also have some pretty solid friends who I know support me, which is more than Solzhenitsyn could say, since one of the people he trusted turned him in. Hm. Nope, I refuse to question those I claim as true friends.  That way lies madness.

So, back to Shukov. The book starts when he opens his eyes on a random day, with the alarm being sounded to wake up the barracks in which he and his fellow inmates live. They sleep in bunkbeds stacked 4 high, approximately 200 people to a barracks, at least in his barracks. He has a little bit of time before he actually has to get up, about 90 minutes before the day truly starts, and he’s not feeling particularly well, probably a low grade cold, so he lounges a bit. But when the camp trustees…so not a guard, an inmate, but one the guards sort of trust to be their inside man…sees Denisovich not moving, the trustee directs Denisovich to go mop the guard house. He has time to just lay about, he has time to mop the guard house.

He goes out, mops the guard house, and has barely enough time to choke down breakfast before he has to line up to go out for work. The food sounds completely horrifying. First off, there’s never enough of it. Breakfast is basically boiled grass, with half rotted fish bones for “protein.” And every bite of the six ounces of bread they give you. Lunch was actual oatmeal. Which was a treat to get. 1.5 ounces oatmeal per inmate. That’s less than a quarter cup of food. With some quick sleight of hand, Denisovich manages to cadge himself a double helping of the oatmeal. And supper! Which makes it a good day.

And despite the hard labor…brick laying…Denisovich’s compatriots count themselves lucky that they were not sent to the socialist way work camp. Instead, they were sent to build administration buildings. Mortar freezes fast in winter, so they have to work fast. The elevators don’t work so they have to cart all their supplies up manually. All on grass, 6 oz. of bread, 1.5 oz. of oatmeal.

Camp doesn’t have enough tools to go around for all the workers, but Denisovich has been hiding his tools around camp to ensure he has a good trowel. Which only lasts while he’s at this work location because the tools stay at the job site. They search the inmates before moving from worksite to camp and back again.

He describes the whole day and its sad because on one hand you read about him cadging this extra food and on one hand, you’re like “good for him.” But on the other hand, isn’t that stealing food from the other inmates? But what would you do? Would you do whatever it takes to survive? Or sacrifice yourself for others? Awfully hard to judge when you’ve never been in that position yourself.

You’re starving, you’re doing hard labor, you think you wouldn’t do anything to obtain extra food for yourself? Of course you would! The human drive to survive is genetically encoded into all of us. But despite this thievery and trickery and everything he has to do to survive, Denisovich is a man who takes pride in his work. He gets this rhythm going with the brick laying and despite being an inmate and this being forced labor, he uses pure economy of motion to build up five layers of bricks.

The entire book is a study in humanity and one’s willingness to survive. He cadges extra food, he’s made some friends in camp, despite the presence of snitches in camp who will rat on everyone to get time off their own sentences. Everything is done by graft and favors. He holds someone’s place in line to get mail despite the fact he’s not expecting any mail himself, expecting to get some food from the man who he is holding the place for. And it works.

Its all about outsmarting the camps, and the guards, and the other inmates, making sure that you do the stealing but don’t get caught and are not stolen from in turn. He does steal as needed, and he has people he dislikes, because he is human, after all. And he studies the new inmates as they arrive and knows who will make it and who won’t. Who will adapt, and who will give up.

This book was really sobering. This is the book they SHOULD teach in University, instead of that trash rag The Communist Manifesto. Instead of teaching the high ideals of a man who literally never worked a day in his life, that man being Karl Marx, they should teach what those policies and ideals resulted in. Which is forced labor and death.