Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008)

This book is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. It's a day in the life of a man in a Soviet labor camp/gulag. I wouldn't say I enjoyed reading it, but it was fine. I'm not sure I really got much out of it since I feel like no matter what you can never *really* understand what it was these people went through. Like he said a warm man can never really understand a cold one. It was good, but I just can't really bring myself to be enthusiastic about it? This just feels like a book you'd read in high school to learn empathy and yeah I'm empathetic but IDK maybe I'm being too harsh. It was pretty good all things considered and I can see why it's historically important as well.… (mais)

First published in 1962, this was the first book that openly talked about life in the Soviet gulag system. The story is very simple, it follows a single day in the life of a former Russian solider, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, now serving 10 years hard labour in Siberia after being falsely accused of treason because he was an escaped German POW.

The authorities claimed that "he’d returned from captivity to carry out a mission for German intelligence. What sort of mission neither Shukhov nor the interrogator could say…. Shukhov had it all figured out. If he didn’t sign he’d be shot. If he signed he’d still get a chance to live. So he signed."

The thing about this book that really struck me was that nothing really happens and is almost devoid of any emotions. Shukhov is counting the days down to his supposed release date with no idea as to whether or not it will actually happen yet shows almost no discontentment at all. He just goes through the motions of his day, the same day he has had thousands of times before. In fact, he feels almost serenely fortunate at the end of it because he'd managed to get hold of some extra food and smuggle a piece of scrap metal back into camp that he will be able to fashion into a tool with which earn extra rations in the future. However, he also realises that tomorrow the daily struggle to survive will resume.

“The belly is a demon. It doesn’t remember how well you treated it yesterday; it’ll cry out for more tomorrow.”

Solzhenitsyn writes from personal experience, he spent eight years in the gulag. The simplicity of this tale makes it a remarkable piece of powerful writing that shines a spotlight on an important piece of social history as well as being a history maker in itself. As such it deserves to be regarded as a classic.… (mais)

I read Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago not that long ago, so although One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a fictional novel I had a fair idea of what to expect. As with the Gulag Archipelago, what's startling in Solzhenitsyn's writing is that there's never any sense of self-pity, and black humour is always bubbling just below the surface.

This novel does what it says in the title. There's little reminiscing by the protagonist of life before the camp, nor wishing away the days to freedom (for as Ivan Denisovich knows, freedom may never come, with exile likely after he finishes his ten year sentence, if indeed another sentence isn't landed on him before that one finishes). The slim novel focuses on a regular day in this inmate's life in camp and is a glimpse into the reality of what millions of Russians endured - harsh work in extreme sub-zero temperatures in inadequate clothing with a belly half-empty from meagre food rations.

Given the extreme conditions that Solzhenitsyn writes of, his style intrigued me in this novel as it did in the NF Gulag Archipelago. Such is his protagonist's lack of self-absorption in the misery that's been inflicted on him, it's not a novel that left me with a profound sense of horror about the conditions the prisoners lived in. What sticks with me more is the grit and mental toughness of Solzhenitsyn (for this novel is undoubtedly based on his own experience as a prisoner). The novel even ends with a positive reflection by Ivan Denisovich, as he lies in his cold bunk with ice on the ceiling and his legs shoved into his coat sleeves, of all the things that had gone right that day, from not falling ill as he'd thought he would at the start of the day, to some extra rations for favours and his team not getting put to the worst of the work. It's remarkable, and perhaps that's the biggest insight of all - that those who survived were the people who were able to sustain the right mentality attitude and focus throughout these long sentences.

4 stars - an enjoyable read. Perhaps it would have been more shocking to me if I'd not read Gulag Archipelago relatively recently.… (mais)

Conclusion of the author's harrowing account of the history and operation of the prison camps of the USSR, something he experienced first hand. This book in particular focuses on rebellions in the camps and the use of exile by the Communist government. Some parts of this book are not as strong as others (the "white kitten" chapter in particular), but other parts are intriguing. At one point, the author discusses Ukraine vis-a-vis Russia in a fashion that's compelling reading in 2024. Certainly, the whole series is must reading for anyone who wants to understand 20th century Russian history.… (mais)