One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

A classic Russian historical novel, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) tells the story of a labor-camp inmate trying to cope with the communist oppression. One of the most impressive books to come out of the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn is frequently compared to literary giants such as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. In 1970, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Although he was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974, he returned to Russia in 1994.

The novel is set in 1951 in a Stalinist labor camp. The protagonist is Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a prisoner in a camp called Camp HQ. He is obedient and worn down by the horrible conditions he endures, especially in the cold depths of winter.

One winter morning, Ivan wakes up feeling unwell. He wakes up on time, at 5 o’clock in the morning, but he is feverish and achy. He plans to lie in bed a little longer to regain his strength for the day ahead. Some guards are kinder than others, and they let the prisoners sleep in. The guard on duty this morning, however, is furious with Ivan.

As punishment for oversleeping and missing the wakeup call, Ivan must scrub all the floors in the officers’ headquarters. It is negative 17.5 degrees Celsius, and Ivan fears the cold will make him weaker. He cleans the floors as quickly as he can before heading to the mess hall for breakfast. After breakfast, he is going to the medical bay.

In the camp, Ivan has a few friends. They bond over their shared despair. On this morning, Ivan spots his friend, Fetyukov. Fetyukov got him soup so he would not miss out on breakfast. The soup is terrible—nothing more than black cabbage and old, stinking fish—but it’s better than no food at all. Prisoners get extra rations if they do good work, but Ivan is worried that he is too sick to do much. This might be his only hot meal of the day.

Once he has finished eating, Ivan goes to the medical bay. He wants his feverish aches and pains checked because he doesn’t feel fit to work. If he is signed off, he will be able to sleep for the day and recover. The medical staff, however, isn’t interested. They say he is not sick enough to miss work, and even if he is, the medical bay is closed in the morning. He must report back that night if he is sicker.

Ivan spends the day working at the power station. He talks with his fellow prisoners about life before their imprisonment. Ivan was accused of high treason and being a German spy. He was sentenced to ten years in this labor camp—the alternative was death. All that gets Ivan through the days is the thought of building a new life once he is free.

Meanwhile, Ivan gets on with his job. His mood improves when one of the officers, Pavlo, helps his team mortar the walls. It is unusual for the guards to offer help, and so Ivan is grateful for this small mercy. In exchange, he works harder.

Ivan’s hard work pays off and he is given extra food. At the end of his shift, Ivan is rewarded with 400 grams of bread to eat. He also gets an extra bowl of oatmeal. His fellow prisoners, however, are angry. Because Ivan spent so long finishing a job, they were held up in the cold waiting for him to finish. Ivan does not feel bad, because it will be someone else’s turn to hold up the workers tomorrow.

One of Ivan’s hut gang, Tsezar, also has extra food. He has a parcel of biscuits with sausage. Ivan collects the rations for him from the parcels office, but he doesn’t have any parcels of his own waiting. Although his wife used to send him food, Ivan told her to stop bothering. It costs too much money to buy him food, and she needs everything she has.

Besides, Ivan knows that rations don’t last long. The guards all expect a cut of them in exchange for letting them have luxuries at all. For example, Tsezar must lay out the contents of his parcel on the bed and guards come to inspect it. While Tsezar gives his cut to the guards, Ivan goes and buys tobacco from a prisoner in another hut. This is his typical nightly routine.

The night wears on, and it is soon time to sleep and prepare for another day in the power station. Ivan, however, can’t sleep. He sits up talking with Alyosha the Baptist. Alyosha is very religious; he encourages Ivan to spend his sentence working on his soul. Ivan isn’t sure he believes in God, but he tries to stay positive. This is only one day out of 3,653 days—finding joy in the smallest things, like tobacco, is the only way to survive.