Ivan Denisovich

Finding and appreciating pleasure to simple happiness in life is hard to find in this fast pacing digital society in which we live in. Especially in time’s most troubling moments. Some people work particularly hard in order to take mind off of things, others spend time with friends, while some of us find comfort in our favorite books. Never before I had read something like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. This book set in Soviet labor camp in the 1950s, in an unspecified region of Siberia, describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. Never before, the Stalinist repression been openly distributed which makes this book even more shocking and refreshing.

The book starts off with a worker waking up to a pounding hammer on a rail outside. Readers slowly register the setting as a prison camp. The prisoners are forced to work in uncountable conditions. Days are long, tasks are arduous, and prisoners are treated with injustice of cruel Soviet bureaucracy. Ivan Denisovich (the main character) was captured during World War II has been sentenced to ten years of prison after being accused of spying for the Germans. He is innocent, but is still being punished by the Soviet government. 

The author’s style of description is what shocked me the most. Vivid, explicitly written conditions exceed beyond our imagination. The working conditions at the camp are unbelievable, as temperatures rarely exceed over -20 degrees Celsius, the prisoners barely have enough clothes to keep them alive in extreme environments and are given only small amounts of inedible lukewarm “portage” mixed with water, potato chunks, and fish bones. Their personal belongings are taken away from them and is replaced with random numbers. To say that the life in the camp is difficult is overly underestimated. 

Due to the camp’s reckless environment, many of the men have lowered themselves, gave up their dignity and pride for survival. To keep themselves from going absolutely insane. Each prisoners have lost their hope, spending everyday like zombies, unnoticed. However, despite all the torment and turbulence these men face everyday, many of them find peace, joy and happiness in the given environment. I find it remarkable that those men, treated less than animals can go to bed at the end of the day and feel fortunate that they are still there, breathing in presence. 

The conclusion of the book shows Ivan Denisovich lying in bed rethinking about the day that he’s been through, thankful for all the small things that he has been blessed with which helped him smile in such extreme environment. This book helped me understand that even the simplest pleasure can bring happiness and joy no matter what or where the circumstances are, but it all depends on the perspective and attitude of the person. It reminded me that being appreciative and thankful for the simplest things can make my darkest days or even my brightest days, just a little bit better.