Features of the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”

In October 1961, Solzhenitsyn transferred to the New World through Lev Kopelev the manuscript of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” (the story was originally called “Shch - 854”). By that time, Solzhenitsyn was already the author of a number of completed works. Among them were stories - “A village is not worth without a righteous man (later called “Matryonin’s Dvor”) and “Shch-854”, plays (“Deer and Shalashovka”, “Feast of the Winners”), the novel “In the First Circle” (later revised ). Solzhenitsyn could have presented any of these works to the editors of Novy Mir, but he chose One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Solzhenitsyn did not dare to publish, or simply show, the novel “In the First Circle” - this would happen only after a long acquaintance with Tvardovsky. The choice between “Matryona’s Court” and “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was then obvious for Solzhenitsyn.

The most important topic for the writer was the topic of the camps, which no one ever talked about. After his final recovery from cancer, Solzhenitsyn decides that there is a higher meaning in his recovery, namely: having left the camp alive and having survived the illness, he must write about and for those who were imprisoned in the camps. This is how the idea of ​​the future book “The Gulag Archipelago” was born. The writer himself called this book an experience in artistic research. But “The Gulag Archipelago” could not suddenly appear in literature that had never known the camp theme.

Having decided to come out of hiding, Solzhenitsyn submitted to Novy Mir precisely a story about one day of one prisoner, because it was necessary to open the camp to readers, to reveal at least part of the truth that would later come to already prepared readers in the Gulag Archipelago. In addition, it is this story through the main character - the peasant Shukhov - that shows the tragedy of the people. In The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn compares the camp system to the metastases that permeate the body of the country. Therefore, the camp is a disease, it is a tragedy for the entire people. Also for this reason, Solzhenitsyn did not choose the novel “In the First Circle” - it is about himself, about the intelligentsia, about a more closed, atypical and “privileged” island of the camp world - the sharashka.

There were other, less significant reasons. Solzhenitsyn hoped that it was for this story that editor-in-chief A.T. Tvardovsky and N.S. Khrushchev will not remain indifferent, since both of them are close to the peasant, folk nature of the main character - Shukhov.

The main character of the story is Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a simple peasant who participated in the war and was captured by the Germans. He escapes from captivity, but his “friends” immediately arrest him and accuse him of espionage. Naturally, the “spy” Ivan Denisovich had to carry out some kind of task for the Germans, but “what kind of task - neither Shukhov himself, nor the investigator could come up with. So they left it simply - a task” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:33]. After the investigation, the unfairly accused Shukhov is sent to a camp with a sentence of 10 years.

Shukhov is the image of a real Russian peasant, about whom the author says: “He who knows two things with his hands can also do ten” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:45]. Shukhov is a craftsman who can also tailor; in the camp he mastered the profession of a mason; he can build a stove, cast a spoon from wire, sharpen a knife, and sew slippers.

Shukhov's belonging to the people and to Russian culture is emphasized by his name - Ivan. In the story he is called differently, but in conversations with the Latvian Kildigs, the latter invariably calls him Vanya. And Shukhov himself addresses Kildigs as “Vanya” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:28], although the Latvian’s name is Yan. This mutual appeal seems to emphasize the closeness of the two peoples, their identical roots. At the same time, it speaks of Shukhov’s belonging not just to the Russian people, but to its deep-rooted history. Shukhov feels affection for both the Latvian Kildigs and the two Estonians. Ivan Denisovich says about them: “And no matter how many Estonians Shukhov saw, he never came across bad people” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:26]. This warm relationship reveals a sense of brotherhood between close peoples. And this instinct reveals in Shukhov the bearer of this very folk culture. According to Pavel Florensky, “the most Russian name is Ivan,” “Of the short names, on the border with good simplicity, Ivan.”

Despite all the hardships of the camp, Ivan Denisovich managed to remain human and maintain his internal dignity. The author introduces the reader to Shukhov’s life principles, which allow him to survive, from the very first lines: “Shukhov firmly remembers the words of his first foreman Kuzemin: “Here, guys, the law is the taiga. But people live here too. This is who dies in the camp: who licks the bowls, who hopes in the medical unit, and who goes to knock on the godfather’s door” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:9]. In addition to the fact that Shukhov observes these unwritten laws, he also maintains his human appearance through his work. Sincere pleasure in the work he does transforms Shukhov from a prisoner into a free craftsman, whose craft ennobles him and allows him to preserve himself.

Shukhov has a great sense of the people around him and understands their characters. About the cavalryman Buinovsky, he says: “The cavalryman secured the stretcher like a good gelding. The cavalryman is already falling off his feet, but he’s still holding on. Shukhov had such a gelding before the collective farm, Shukhov was saving him, but in the wrong hands he was quickly cut off” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:47], “according to Shukhov, it was correct that they gave the captain the porridge. The time will come, and the captain will learn to live, but for now he doesn’t know how” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:38]. Ivan Denisovich sympathizes with the captain, at the same time feeling his inexperience in camp life, a certain defenselessness, which manifests itself in his readiness to carry out his assignments to the end, and his inability to save himself. Shukhov gives precise and sometimes rude characterizations: he calls Fetyukov, a former big boss, a jackal, and the foreman Der, a bastard. However, this does not indicate his bitterness, rather the opposite: in the camp, Shukhov managed to maintain kindness towards people. He pities not only the captain, but also Alyoshka the Baptist, although he does not understand the latter. He feels respect for the foreman, Kildigs, the half-deaf Senka Klevshin, even 16-year-old Gopchik Shukhov admires: “Gopchik the lad was forced to beat him down. Climbs, little devil, shouts from above" [Solzhenitsyn 1962:30], "He (Gopchik - E.R.) is an affectionate calf, fawning over all the men” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:30]. Shukhov is imbued with pity even for Fetyukov, whom he despises: “To figure it out, I feel so sorry for him. He won't live out his time. He doesn’t know how to position himself” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:67]. He also feels sorry for Caesar, who does not know the camp laws.

Along with kindness, another feature of Ivan Denisovich’s character is the ability to listen and accept someone else’s position. He does not seek to teach anyone about life or explain any truth. So, in a conversation with Alyosha the Baptist, Shukhov does not try to convince Alyosha, but simply shares his experience without the desire to impose it. Shukhov’s ability to listen and observe others, his instincts allow him, along with Ivan Denisovich himself, to show a whole gallery of human types, each of which exists in its own way in the camp world. Each of these people not only realizes themselves differently in the camp, but also experiences the tragedy of being separated from the outside world and being placed in the camp space in different ways.

The language of the story and Ivan Denisovich in particular is curious: it is a mixture of camp and living, colloquial Russian. In the preface to the story by A.T. Tvardovsky seeks to ward off attacks on the language in advance: “Perhaps the author’s use<…>those words and sayings of the environment where his hero spends his working day will cause objections of a particularly fastidious taste” [Tvardovsky 1962:9]. Indeed, in letters and some reviews, dissatisfaction was expressed with the presence of colloquial and slang words (albeit disguised - “butter and fuyaslitse” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:41]). However, this was the very living Russian language, which many had lost the habit of over the years of reading Soviet magazines and newspapers written in stereotyped and often meaningless phrases.

Speaking about the language of the story, you should pay attention to two lines of speech. The first is connected with the camp, the second - with the peasant Ivan Denisovich. There is also a completely different speech in the story, the speech of such prisoners as Caesar, X-123, the “eccentric with glasses” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:59], Pyotr Mikhailovich from the queue for the parcel. All of them belong to the Moscow intelligentsia, and their language is very different from the speech of the “camp” and “peasants”. But they are a small island in a sea of ​​camp language.

The camp language is distinguished by an abundance of rude words: jackal, bastard, etc. This also includes the phrases “butter and fuyaslitse” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:41], “if he rises, he fumbles” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:12], which do not repel the reader, but, on the contrary, bring him closer to the speech that is used often and by many. These words are taken more ironically than seriously. This makes the speech real, close and understandable to many readers.

The second category is Shukhov’s colloquial speech. Words like "Don't touch! [Solzhenitsyn 1962:31], “ theirs object zone is healthy - for now, you’ll go through the whole" [Solzhenitsyn 1962:28], "two hundred now press, tomorrow morning five hundred and fifty beat, take four hundred to work - life!"[Solzhenitsyn 1962:66], "the sun and edge the upper one has gone away” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:48], “the month, father, frowned crimson, it has already climbed out into the sky. AND to be damaged,, just started” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:49]. A characteristic feature of Shukhov’s language is also inversion: “The foreman’s pockmarked face is illuminated from the oven” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:40], “In Polomna, our parish, there is no richer man than the priest” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:72].

In addition, it is replete with Russian words that are not part of the literary language, but live in colloquial speech. Not everyone understands these words and requires reference to a dictionary. Thus, Shukhov often uses the word “kes”. Dahl’s dictionary explains: “Kes or kest is a union of Vlad. Moscow Ryaz. Thumb. it seems, it seems, it seems, not as if, as if. "Everyone in the sky wants to frown." The word “khalabuda, put together from planks” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:34], which Ivan Denisovich uses to describe the camp industrial kitchen, is interpreted as “hut, hut.” “Some have a clean mouth, and some have a dirty one” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:19] - says Ivan Denisovich. The word “gunya”, according to Vasmer’s dictionary, has two interpretations: “bald from illness,” and the word gunba is “a small rash in the mouth of babies.” In Dahl’s dictionary, “gunba” has multiple meanings, one of the interpretations is “abusive dirty, unkempt.” The introduction of such words makes Shukhov’s speech truly folk, returning to the origins of the Russian language.

The spatio-temporal organization of the text also has its own characteristics. The camp is like hell: most of the day is night, constant cold, limited amount of light. It's not just short daylight hours. All the sources of heat and light that are encountered throughout the narrative - a stove in a barracks, two small stoves at a thermal power plant under construction - never provide enough light and heat: “The coal heated up little by little, now it gives off a steady heat. You can only smell it near the stove, but throughout the whole hall it’s as cold as it was” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:32], “then he dived into the solution. There, after the sun, it seemed completely dark to him and no warmer than outside. Somehow damper” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:39].

Ivan Denisovich wakes up at night in a cold barracks: “the glass is frozen to two fingers.<…>outside the window everything was the same as in the middle of the night, when Shukhov got up to the bucket, there was darkness and darkness.” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:9] The first part of his day passes in the night - personal time, then divorce, search and going to work under escort. Only at the moment of going to work does it begin to get light, but the cold does not subside: “At sunrise, the worst frost happens! - announced the captain. “Because this is the last point of night cooling.” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:22] The only time during the whole day when Ivan Denisovich not only warms up, but becomes hot, is while working at a thermal power plant, laying a wall: “Shukhov and other masons stopped feeling the frost. From the fast, exciting work, the first heat passed through them - that heat that makes you wet under a peacoat, under a padded jacket, under your outer and undershirts. But they did not stop for a moment and drove the masonry further and further. And an hour later a second fever struck them - the one that dries up the sweat” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:44]. The cold and darkness disappear precisely at the moment when Shukhov gets involved in work and becomes a master. His complaints about his health disappear - now he will only remember about it in the evening. The time of day coincides with the state of the hero, space changes in the same dependence. If before the work it had hellish features, then at the moment of laying the wall it seems to cease to be hostile. Moreover, before this, the entire surrounding space was closed. Shukhov woke up in the barracks, covering his head (he didn’t even see, but only heard what was happening around), then he moved to the guard’s room, where he washed the floor, then to the medical unit, breakfast in the barracks. The hero leaves confined spaces only to work. The thermal power plant where Ivan Denisovich works has no walls. Namely: where Shukhov is laying the wall, the height of the bricks is only three rows. The room, which should be closed, is not completed when the master appears. Throughout the story, both at the beginning and at the end of the work, the wall is not completed - the space remains open. And this seems no coincidence: in all other premises, Shukhov is a prisoner deprived of his freedom. During the laying process, he turns from a forced prisoner into a master, creating out of the desire to create.

The laying of the wall is the peak of the work, and time, space, and the hero himself change and influence each other. The time of day becomes light, the cold gives way to heat, the space moves apart and from closed it becomes open, and Shukhov himself from unfree becomes internally free.

As the working day dwindles and fatigue accumulates, the landscape also changes: “Yes, the sun is setting. He comes in with a red face and seems to be gray-haired into the fog. The cold is gaining degrees” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:47]. The next episode - leaving work and returning to the camp area - already under a starry sky. Later, already during the inspection of the barracks, Shukhov calls the month “the wolf sun” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:70], which also endows the night with hostile features. At the moment of returning from work, Shukhov already enters into his usual role of a prisoner who goes under escort, saves a piece of linen for a knife, and stands in line for a parcel for Caesar. So not only are space and time in the natural ring of night-day-night, but the hero himself changes in accordance with this routine. The chronotope and the hero are in an interdependence, thanks to which they influence and change each other.

Not only natural time, but also historical time (within the framework of Shukhov’s life) has its own characteristics. While in the camp, he lost his three-part sense of time: past, present, future. In the life of Ivan Denisovich there is only the present, the past is already gone and seems to be a completely different life, and he does not think about the future (about life after the camp) because he does not imagine it: “In the camps and in the prisons, Ivan Denisovich has lost the habit of laying out what is tomorrow, what in a year and how to feed the family” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:24].

In addition, the camp itself turns out to be a place without time, since there is no clock anywhere: “prisoners are not given a clock, the authorities know the time for them” [Solzhenitsyn 1962:15]. Thus, human time in the camp ceases to exist; it is no longer divided into past and future.

A person, torn out from the general stream of human life and placed in a camp, changes and adapts. The camp either breaks a person, or shows his true nature, or gives freedom to those negative traits that lived before but did not receive development. The camp itself, as a space, is closed within itself; it does not allow outside life inside. In the same way, a person who gets inside is deprived of everything external and appears in his true character.

The story shows many human types, and this diversity also helps to show the tragedy of the people. Not only Shukhov himself, who carries within himself a peasant culture close to nature and the earth, belongs to the people, but also all the other prisoners. In the story there are “Moscow intelligentsia” (Caesar and the “eccentric with glasses”), there are former bosses (Fetyukov), brilliant military men (Buinovsky), there are believers - Alyoshka the Baptist. Solzhenitsyn even shows those people who seem to be “on the other side of the camp” - these are the guards and the convoy. But they are also influenced by camp life (Volkova, Tatarin). So many human destinies and characters fit into one story that it could not fail to find a response and understanding among the overwhelming majority of readers. Letters to Solzhenitsyn and the editor were written not only because they responded to the novelty and urgency of the topic, but also because this or that hero turned out to be close and recognizable.

The idea for the story came to the writer’s mind when he was serving time in the Ekibastuz concentration camp. Shukhov, the main character of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, is a collective image. He embodies the traits of the prisoners who were with the writer in the camp. This is the first work of the author to be published, which brought Solzhenitsyn worldwide fame. In his narrative, which has a realistic direction, the writer touches on the topic of relationships between people deprived of freedom, their understanding of honor and dignity in inhuman conditions of survival.

Characteristics of the characters “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”

Main characters

Minor characters

This was an incomplete description of the heroes of the story, the list of which in the work “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” itself is much longer. This table of characteristics can be used to answer questions in literature lessons.

useful links

Check out what else we have:

Work test

Ivan Denisovich is the main character of Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” His prototypes were followed by two actually existing people. One of them is a middle-aged warrior named Ivan Shukhov, who served in a battery, the commander of which was the author himself, who is also the second prototype, who once served time in prison under Article 58.

This is a 40-year-old man with a long beard and shaved head, who is in prison because he and his comrades escaped from German captivity and returned to their own. During interrogation, without any resistance, he signed papers stating that he himself had voluntarily surrendered and became a spy and that he had returned back for reconnaissance. Ivan Denisovich agreed to all this only because this signature gave a guarantee that he would live a little longer. Regarding clothing, it is the same as that of all camp inmates. He is wearing padded trousers, a padded jacket, a pea coat and felt boots.

Under his padded jacket he has a spare pocket where he puts a piece of bread to eat later. He seems to be living his last day, but at the same time with the hope of serving his sentence and being released, where his wife and two daughters are waiting for him.

Ivan Denisovich never thought about why there were so many innocent people in the camp who also allegedly “betrayed their homeland.” He is the kind of person who simply appreciates life. He never asks himself unnecessary questions, he simply accepts everything as it is. Therefore, his first priority was to meet needs such as food, water and sleep. Perhaps it was then that he took root there. This is an amazingly resilient person who was able to adapt to such horrific conditions. But even in such conditions, he does not lose his own dignity, does not “lose himself.”

For Shukhov, life is work. At work, he is a master who is excellent at his craft and only gets pleasure from it.

Solzhenitsyn portrays this hero as a person who has developed his own philosophy. It is based on camp experience and the difficult experience of Soviet life. In the person of this patient man, the author showed the entire Russian people, who are capable of enduring a lot of terrible suffering, bullying and still survive. And at the same time, do not lose morality and continue to live, treating people normally.

Essay on the topic Shukhov Ivan Denisovich

The main character of the work is Shukhov Ivan Denisovich, presented by the writer in the image of a victim of Stalinist repressions.

The hero is described in the story as a simple Russian soldier of peasant origin, distinguished by a toothless mouth, baldness on his shaved head and a bearded face.

For being in fascist captivity during the war, Shukhov was sent to a special hard labor camp for a ten-year term under the number Shch-854, eight years of which he has already served, leaving his family at home in the village consisting of his wife and two daughters.

The characteristic features of Shukhov are his self-esteem, which allowed Ivan Denisovich to maintain a human appearance and not become a jackal, despite the difficult period of his life. He realizes that he is unable to change the current unjust situation and the cruel order established in the camp, but since he is distinguished by his love of life, he comes to terms with his difficult situation, while refusing to grovel and kneel, although he does not hope to find the long-awaited freedom.

Ivan Denisovich seems to be a proud, not arrogant person, capable of showing kindness and generosity towards those convicts who have broken down from being in prison conditions, respecting and pitying them, while at the same time being able to show some cunning that does not cause harm to others.

Being an honest and conscientious person, Ivan Denisovich cannot afford to shirk work, as is customary in prison camps, feigning illness, therefore, even when seriously ill, he feels guilty and is forced to go to the medical unit.

During his stay in the camp, Shukhov proves himself to be a fairly hardworking, conscientious person, a jack of all trades, who does not shy away from any work, participating in the construction of a thermal power plant, sewing slippers and laying stone, becoming a good professional mason and stove maker. Ivan Denisovich tries in any possible way to earn extra money to obtain additional rations or cigarettes, receiving from his work not only additional income, but also real pleasure, treating the assigned prison work with care and thrift.

At the end of his ten-year sentence, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov was released from the camp, allowing him to return to his homeland and his family.

Describing the image of Shukhov in the story, the writer reveals the moral and spiritual problem of human relations.

Several interesting essays

• Essay Computer Science is my favorite school subject (reasoning)

  I can’t even say for sure what my favorite class is at school... But I still like computer science. She is less disliked. I really love playing computer games, that's true. Although mom says it's not very good!

• Essay based on the work One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Solzhenitsyn

  A. Solzhenitsyn entered the history of literature as an ardent opponent of totalitarianism. Most of his works are imbued with the spirit of freedom and the desire to preach about human freedom.

In A. S. Pushkin’s work “The Station Warden,” the main action takes place at station ***, where Samson Vyrin, the local stationmaster, told the young man on whose behalf the story is being told about the fate of his daughter Dunya.

• Essay Russian national character

  The character of a Russian person has developed over many centuries, influenced by various factors. Russian people have seen a lot in their lives that is absolutely alien to other peoples

• Characteristics and image of Erast in the story Poor Liza Karamzina essay

  One of the main characters of the work is Erast, presented in the image of a young, attractive and rich nobleman.

The author seems to have combined the image of Ivan Denisovich from two real people. One of them is Ivan Shukhov, an already middle-aged soldier of the artillery battery, which was commanded by Solzhenitsyn during the war. The other is Solzhenitsyn himself, who served time under the notorious Article 58 in 1950-1952. in the camp in Ekibastuz and also worked there as a mason. In 1959, Solzhenitsyn began writing the story “Shch-854” (the camp number of prisoner Shukhov). Then the story was called “One Day of One Prisoner.” The editors of the magazine “New World”, in which this story was first published (No. 11, 1962), at the suggestion of A. T. Tvardovsugo, gave it the name “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.”

The image of Ivan Denisovich is of particular importance for Russian literature of the 60s. along with the image of Zhivago before time and Anna Akhmatova’s poem “Requiem”. After the publication of the story in the era of the so-called. During the Khrushchev Thaw, when Stalin’s “cult of personality” was first condemned, I. D. became for the entire then USSR a generalized image of a Soviet prisoner - a prisoner of Soviet forced labor camps. Many former convicts under Article 58 recognized themselves and their fate in I.D.

Shukhov is a hero from the people, from the peasants, whose fate is being broken by the merciless state system. Finding himself in the camp's hellish machine, grinding and destroying physically and spiritually, Shukhov tries to survive, but at the same time remain human. Therefore, in the chaotic whirlwind of camp non-existence, he sets a limit for himself, below which he must not fall (not to eat in a hat, not to eat fish eyes swimming in gruel) - otherwise death, first spiritual, and then physical. In the camp, in this kingdom of continuous lies and deceit, those who die are those who betray themselves (lick bowls), betray their bodies (hang around in the infirmary), betray their own (snitch) - lies and betrayal destroy first of all those who obeys them.

Particular controversy was caused by the episode of “shock labor” - when the hero and his entire team suddenly, as if forgetting that they were slaves, with some kind of joyful enthusiasm began laying the wall. L. Kopelev even called the work “a typical production story in the spirit of socialist realism.” But this episode has primarily a symbolic meaning, correlated with Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (the transition from the lower circle of hell to purgatory). In this work for the sake of work, creativity for the sake of creativity, I. D. no longer builds the notorious thermal power plant, he builds himself, remembers himself free - he rises above the camp slave non-existence, experiences catharsis, purification, he even physically overcomes his illness.

Immediately after the release of “One Day” in Solzhenitsyn, many saw a new Leo Tolstoy, and in I.D. - Platon Karataev, although he is “not round, not humble, not calm, does not dissolve in the collective consciousness” (A. Arkhangelsky). In essence, when creating the image, I. D. Solzhenitsyn proceeded from Tolstoy’s thought that a peasant’s day could form the subject of a volume as voluminous as several centuries of history.

To a certain extent, Solzhenitsyn contrasts his I.D. with the “Soviet intelligentsia,” the “educated people,” who “pay taxes in support of obligatory ideological lies.” The disputes between Caesar and the captain about the film “Ivan the Terrible” by I.D. are incomprehensible; he turns away from them as far-fetched, “lordly” conversations, as from a boring ritual. The phenomenon of I.D. is associated with the return of Russian literature to populism (but not to narodnost), when in the people the writer no longer sees “truth”, not “truth”, but a comparatively lesser “touch of lies” compared to “education” .

Another feature of I.D.’s image is that he does not answer questions, but rather asks them. In this sense, I.D.’s argument with Alyoshka the Baptist about imprisonment as suffering in the name of Christ is significant. (This dispute directly correlates with the disputes between Alyosha and Ivan Karamazov - even the names of the characters are the same.) I. D. does not agree with this approach, but reconciles their “cookies”, which I. D. gives to Alyosha. The simple humanity of the act overshadows both Alyoshka’s frenziedly exalted “sacrifice” and I.D.’s reproaches to God “for imprisonment.”

The image of Ivan Denisovich, like Solzhenitsyn’s story itself, stands among such phenomena of Russian literature as “Prisoner of the Caucasus” by A. S. Pushkin, “Notes from the House of the Dead” and “Crime and Punishment” by F. M. Dostoevsky, “War and Peace” "(Pierre Bezukhoe in French captivity) and "Resurrection" by L. N. Tolstoy. This work became a kind of prelude for the book “The Gulag Archipelago”. After the publication of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn received a huge number of letters from readers, from which he later compiled the anthology “Reading Ivan Denisovich.”

The story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” is a story about how a man from the people relates himself to the forcibly imposed reality and its ideas. It shows in a condensed form that camp life, which will be described in detail in other, major works...

The work of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” has a special place in literature and public consciousness. The story, written in 1959 (and conceived in the camp in 1950), was originally titled “Shch-854 (One Day of One Prisoner)”...

Goal: to familiarize students with the life and work of a. I. Solzhenitsyn, the history of the creation of the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, its genre and compositional features, artistic and expressive means, the hero of the work; note the features...

Camp jargon is an integral part of the poetics of the story and reflects the realities of camp life no less than a bread ration sewn into a mattress or a circle of sausage frantically eaten by Shukhov before bed. At the generalization stage, students were given...

The story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” brought popularity to the writer. The work became the author's first published work. It was published by the New World magazine in 1962. The story described one ordinary day of a camp prisoner under the Stalinist regime.

History of creation

Initially the work was called “Shch-854. One day for one prisoner,” but censorship and a lot of obstacles from publishers and authorities influenced the name change. The main character in the story described was Ivan Denisovich Shukhov.

The image of the main character was created based on prototypes. The first was Solzhenitsyn’s friend, who fought with him at the front in the Great Patriotic War, but did not end up in the camp. The second is the writer himself, who knew the fate of camp prisoners. Solzhenitsyn was convicted under Article 58 and spent several years in a camp, working as a mason. The story takes place in the winter month of 1951 in hard labor in Siberia.

The image of Ivan Denisovich stands apart in Russian literature of the 20th century. When there was a change of power, and it became permissible to talk about the Stalinist regime out loud, this character became the personification of a prisoner in a Soviet forced labor camp. The images described in the story were familiar to those who suffered a similar sad experience. The story served as an omen for a major work, which turned out to be the novel “The Gulag Archipelago.”

"One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich"

The story describes the biography of Ivan Denisovich, his appearance and how the daily routine in the camp is drawn up. The man is 40 years old. He is a native of the village of Temgenevo. When he went to war in the summer of 1941, he left his wife and two daughters at home. As fate would have it, the hero ended up in a camp in Siberia and managed to serve eight years. The ninth year is coming to an end, after which he will again be able to lead a free life.

According to the official version, the man received a sentence for treason. It was believed that, having been in German captivity, Ivan Denisovich returned to his homeland on instructions from the Germans. I had to plead guilty to stay alive. Although in reality the situation was different. In the battle, the detachment found itself in a disastrous situation without food and shells. Having made their way to their own, the fighters were greeted as enemies. The soldiers did not believe the story of the fugitives and brought them to trial, which determined hard labor as punishment.

First, Ivan Denisovich ended up in a strict regime camp in Ust-Izhmen, and then he was transferred to Siberia, where restrictions were not so strictly observed. The hero lost half his teeth, grew a beard and shaved his head bald. He was assigned the number Shch-854, and his camp clothes make him a typical little man whose fate is decided by higher authorities and people in power.

During his eight years of imprisonment, the man learned the laws of survival in the camp. His friends and enemies from among the prisoners had equally sad fates. Relationship problems were a key disadvantage of being incarcerated. It was because of them that the authorities had great power over the prisoners.

Ivan Denisovich preferred to show calm, behave with dignity and maintain subordination. A savvy man, he quickly figured out how to ensure his survival and a worthy reputation. He managed to work and rest, planned his day and food correctly, and skillfully found a common language with those with whom he needed it. The characteristics of his skills speak of wisdom inherent in the genetic level. Serfs demonstrated similar qualities. His skills and experience helped him become the best foreman in the team, earning respect and status.

Ivan Denisovich was a full-fledged manager of his destiny. He knew what to do in order to live comfortably, did not disdain work, but did not overwork himself, could outwit the warden and easily avoided sharp corners in dealing with prisoners and with his superiors. Ivan Shukhov's happy day was the day when he was not put in a punishment cell and his brigade was not assigned to Sotsgorodok, when the work was done on time and the rations were stretched out for the day, when he hid a hacksaw and it was not found, and Tsezar Markovich gave him some extra money for tobacco.

Critics compared the image of Shukhov with a hero - a hero from the common people, broken by an insane state system, found himself between the millstones of the camp machine, breaking people, humiliating their spirit and human self-awareness.

Shukhov set himself a bar below which it was unacceptable to fall. Therefore, he takes off his hat when he sits down at the table and neglects the fish eyes in the gruel. This is how he preserves his spirit and does not betray his honor. This elevates a man above the prisoners licking bowls, vegetating in the infirmary and knocking on the boss. Therefore, Shukhov remains a free spirit.

The attitude towards work in the work is described in a special way. The laying of the wall causes an unprecedented stir, and the men, forgetting that they are camp prisoners, put all their efforts into its rapid construction. Industrial novels filled with a similar message supported the spirit of socialist realism, but in Solzhenitsyn’s story it is rather an allegory for The Divine Comedy.

A person will not lose himself if he has a goal, so the construction of a thermal power plant becomes symbolic. Camp existence is interrupted by satisfaction from the work done. The purification brought by the pleasure of fruitful work even allows you to forget about illness.

The specificity of the image of Ivan Denisovich speaks of the return of literature to the idea of ​​populism. The story raises the topic of suffering in the name of the Lord in a conversation with Alyosha. The convict Matryona also supports this theme. God and imprisonment do not fit into the usual system of measuring faith, but the dispute sounds like a paraphrase of the Karamazovs’ discussion.

Productions and film adaptations

The first public visualization of Solzhenitsyn's story took place in 1963. The British channel NBC released a teleplay starring Jason Rabards Jr. Finnish director Caspar Reed shot the film “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” in 1970, inviting artist Tom Courtenay to collaborate.

The story is in little demand for film adaptation, but in the 2000s it found a second life on the theater stage. A deep analysis of the work carried out by the directors proved that the story has great dramatic potential, describes the country's past, which should not be forgotten, and emphasizes the importance of eternal values.

In 2003, Andriy Zholdak staged a play based on the story at the Kharkov Drama Theater. Solzhenitsyn did not like the production.

Actor Alexander Filippenko created a one-man show in collaboration with theater artist David Borovsky in 2006. In 2009, at the Perm Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Georgy Isaakyan staged an opera based on the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” to music by Tchaikovsky. In 2013, the Arkhangelsk Drama Theater presented a production by Alexander Gorban.