Why this book: Selected by my literature reading group. This was my 3rd time reading this book, and each time I’ve found it more insightful.  I find it very enlightening to read literature coming out of prisons, POW camps, by people who find themselves in very difficult environments, and reading their accounts of how they not only survive, find meaning in their suffering, and in some cases, even thrive.

My Impressions:   One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a fascinating study of human nature.     Similar to other books I’ve read about  surviving the brutality of prison, like Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, Stockale’s In Love and War, Clavell’s  King Rat,  Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North (which I reviewed here) One Day is a testament to the strength of the human spirit as it tries to hold on to a shred of dignity as it struggles to survive.  We see how Ivan Denisovich Shukhov and others in the gulag hold on to and assert their last remaining sense of human dignity in their resistance to a constant regimen of scarcity and brutality imposed by other human beings. In spite of the brutality, the suffering, the harshness of the environment, this is a very upbeat book.

This book is indeed about one day – from early wake up to finally falling asleep at the end of a long day, in Stalin’s post World War 2 Soviet gulag in Siberia.   But this one day can be seen in many ways as a metaphor for the life of all of us – only in a much more austere, and punishing setting. It is all men – women are only present as memories, or in some cases, as spouses or relatives who support these men with packages sent from home.   We get to know men who are cruel, selfish and self serving, and others who are honorable,  spiritual, noble and courageous.  Our protagonist,  Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a practical survivor who also seeks to retain some sense of personal honor. In his description of  what he needed to do to survive as a PoW in North Vietnam, Adm Jim Stockale’s borrowed Solzhenitsyn’s description of Shukhov, and described how he became a “slow-moving, cagey prisoner.”   Shukhov, like Stockade, had learned to accept and make the best of what he could not change, while being alert and resourceful enough to take advantage of what few opportunities might come his way.

Almost daily,  Shukhov faced the moral challenge of how far he would go to survive – whether and to what degree he would participate in the corruption, stealing and  manipulation of others – not just the guards and trustees, but sometimes also of his fellow prisoners. For some in the camp, life was a simple and uncompromising fight for personal survival – every man for himself, no room for  compassion or generosity that might put one’s few advantages and chances for survival at risk.  Some collaborated with the guards and prison administrators against their fellow prisoners for advantages that would serve their needs.  Many other prisoners however, collaborated with and supported each other in defiance of the impersonal and brutal conditions.

Ivan Denisovich was cleverer than most in finding and working the seams of the system, cozying up to those who could help him with things he needed and wanted, and protecting himself from those who would threaten or use him to their ends.  In contrast to Shukhov, we see the former Soviet Navy captain, relatively new to the gulag, who sought to apply his civilized code of personal honor,  sense of dignity and responsibility in a very different, uncivilized context.  He suffered for his naïveté at the hands of the brutal guards and trustees. We are left wondering if, or how long, he would survive.

Here are a few bullets that occurred to me in reading this short, powerful book.

• One Day is a study in the concept of loyalty.  Shukhov and his work crew are extremely loyal to the prisoner who heads their crew. Though their crew boss could be harsh, he is clever enough to get advantages for the crew and will take risks to protect them. And they reciprocate by taking care of him.  Loyalty within the crew is to a small circle of trusted mates. As we do in our own lives, Shukhov had concentric circles of loyalty – with only a very few in his inner circle of “friends” to whom he felt a greater degree of compassion and obligation than to those in the outer circles.
• We see the  satisfaction that can come of working together, even in seemingly meaningless tasks. There is a memorable scene in which the work crew is hitting-on-all-cylinders building a wall which has no importance to them other than as a project they were assigned.  They  decide to do it well.  I was reminded of the Bridge Over the River Kwai. Shukhov and his fellow prisoners forget the cold and brutality as they lost themselves in the satisfaction of working together for a common goal – to build the wall well.  Time, place, cold, and suffering all disappeared – for a few hours.
• Food was always key.  There was never enough.  When they were very cold and very hungry, nothing else seemed to matter – men became beasts – cowed and primal – willing to do almost anything for food and warmth.  Those who cooked and served the meager rations always got more than their share, and gave what was left to the others. They took care of themselves first – like many who have power and advantage the world over.
• In this very primal world, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is very evident.  Only a couple of times do we see indicators of men who, in spite of the brutality of the conditions, had the discipline and sense of honor to hold fast to values above meeting their most basic needs. We briefly get to know a man who “…you could see his mind was set on one thing – never to give in <to the downward spiral of brutality.>  He didn’t put his eight ounces <of bread> down in all the filth on the table like everyone else but laid it on a clean little piece of rag that’d been washed over and over again.”
• One day at a time. Shukhov realized that to think about the future was detrimental to survival.  One event at a time; one day at a time, enjoy what ephemeral victories and satisfactions might come one’s way, but don’t dwell on them. Don’t think about the future or how much time they have left in the gulag.   I was reminded of what SEAL trainees are told about how to survive and succeed in Hell Week.

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov’s “one day” had begun with him feeling ill, but not being permitted entry into the infirmary.  But at the end of that day, Shukhov lay in his bunk celebrating his small victories of the day. “Nothing has spoiled the day and it had been almost happy.”  And though he didn’t think about it, he had 3,653 days left in his sentence, which he also knew could be – he almost expected to be –  extended arbitrarily with no justification.

Though this was my third time reading One Day,  I got so much more out of it this time.  It would be very interesting to discuss Shukhov’s  “one day in the life” as a metaphor for much of what each of us face and experience in our own much less demanding, much more comfortable and civilized lives.  My reading group didn’t give this book the attention it deserved because it was a tag-on to another much longer, more involved wonderful book, All the King’s Men.