One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a prisoner ("zek") in the Soviet Gulag system, imprisoned on charges being a spy after being captured by the Germans and escaping, and sentenced to 10 years. At the time of the story, during winter, sometime during The Korean War, Shukhov is serving out his sentence in a special camp in Siberia. His number is Щ-854 and he is part of squad 104. This book details one day in his life, as he struggles to live through another day.

This book, written in 1962 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and based on his own experiences in the camps, was the first widely distributed account of Stalinist repression, and helped raise awareness globally of the conditions in the system.

You can read it in its entirety here.


 * Asshole Victim: Those who squeal on their fellow zeks.
 * Bad Boss: Discussed by Shukhov when reflecting on the work gang leaders, noting that since the entire gang requires the leader to be competent enough to get his men favorable rations and work orders, one who can't is this by default.
 * Beige Prose: Shukhov's narration tends towards clipped, simple sentences, regardless of his condition or the world around him--makes sense, given that he's apparently from a collective farm and a conscript, with no immediately evident higher education. (It also makes sense in a meta way, since Solzhenitsyn absolutely HATED the sort of educated loyalist political prisoner who would get uppity about his conditions and make speeches to that effect [while saying everybody else was guilty].)
 * Butt Monkey / The Scrappy (to his fellow inmates): the scavenger Fetyukov.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's one day in the life of the zek Shukov, nothing more, nothing less.
 * A Father to His Men: Tyurin.
 * Guile Hero: Shukhov. In fact, if you want to survive in the Gulag, this is practically a survival prerequisite.
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: Shukhov.
 * Like a Son to Me: Gopchik is this to Shukhov.
 * Handicapped Badass: Senka. Being deaf in one ear didn't make him any less able to kick some ass, which Der nearly finds out first hand.
 * Institutional Apparel: "They weigh nothing, the numbers ..."
 * Kangaroo Court: Many people got imprisoned because the Soviet legal system is this Up to Eleven.
 * Magikarp Power: Shukhov notes Gopchik is young but is learning how to survive very quickly, and lampshades this trope when musing about well off he will be.
 * The Captain: Bunovsky still acts like one, even though he's still a prisoner.
 * The Messiah: Alyosha is a pretty clear Homage to Dostoevsky's Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov.
 * The Quisling: Der, The Limper, the unnamed cooks who are in tight with the guards. This does not apply to all the prisoners, however, just the ones who use their positions for the explicit purpose of screwing over their fellow zeks for their own gain.
 * The Pollyana: Kildigs, who is always upbeat and cheerful despite being a prisoner.
 * Penal Colony
 * True Art: Tzesar and another inmate discuss this in regards to Sergei Eisenstein. Shukov doesn't care.
 * Vendor Trash: Subverted. Shukhov takes a broken piece of a saw blade, despite it's apparent worthlessness, under the knowledge that if properly honed into a knife, it would be worth it's weight in gold.