Russian History in One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
Russian History in One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, is a popular novel of social protest in Russian history. It was a novel that depicted the life in a Russian prison camp in Siberia around the time of World War II. The detail of Solzhenitsyn’s descriptions gives the reader a brilliant picture of camp life. This was a novel that defied Stalin’s rule in Russia.
As the title states, we follow a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, who is in his eighth term of his ten-year sentence. He was arrested while serving the Russian army, and was wrongly accused of betraying his country in order to be a German spy. He confesses the crime for he knows the latter would be death. He is the member of the 104th squad. The other members of squad are examined throughout the book. Solzhenitsyn places these diverse characters to contribute to the story and overall feeling in the prison camp.
One character that contributes to the story is Tiurin, who is the squad leader. He was a twenty-two-year old solider in the Red Army. His regimental commander told Tiurin’s father was a kulak, which was a rich peasant. At that point, his commander automatically wrote up an order to discharge him from the army. He was basically arrested since he was a son of a kulak. This shows that during Stalin’s regime, he focussed on classes a major role, since the father was in the upper class, they were stereotyped as corrupt and evil, thus labeling his son the same. Tiurin said his commander had later been shot. The nineteen-year veteran of the Russian prisons, Tiurin is a respected leader of his squad, who can manipulate the prison system. In the story, Tiurin represents the leader and veteran of the prisons. Since he has been there for nineteen years, he can be described as a fatherly figure, which sets an example for the rest of his squad.
The opposite of Tiurin is Fetiukov. He is a former office worker, and is considered the lowest rank of the 104th squad. No one in the squad respects him, since he has no respect and dignity for his...