Possible Repercussions of Publishing One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Simply tinkering with the economy or even offering greater material incentives will not be adequate. It requires liberalization of the overall political and intellectual climate to restore some legitimacy to the regime in the eyes of its population, and to make people believe that they have some stake in the system, no matter how illusory this is in reality. Only then will they be prepared to make the sacrifices the regime will require. Although innovative, General Secretary Khrushchev has realized that such a policy is fraught with dangers and has definite limits. There will have to be change, but not too great as to threaten the ruling group’s hold on power. The system has to be reformed, but without weakening the rudimentary class relations from which the elite derives its privileges. Publishing “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” will result in the discrediting of pro-Stalinists and the pseudo-culture of socialist realism. People will be inspired to think and speak independently, and this freedom from indictment of anti-Soviet speeches will foster loyalty for the leadership. This, in turn, will lead to improvement in productivity and ultimately, economic revival: the most effective means of solidifying control.
Shukhov, the protagonist of the novel, is an impoverished and uneducated man: an anomaly in Russian literature. He is not an aristocrat, an intellectual, or an ardent victim like most of the heroes of nineteenth-century Russian novels. Shukhov is a simple peasant, possibly even illiterate. When he sees the poem Kolya is copying out, for instance, he does not recognize the odd way of writing each line directly beneath the previous one. He is impressed by men such as Caesar who have lived in Moscow, which to Shukhov...

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...ot rely on the coercive power of the market, in particular unemployment. Nor can it offer workers the positive inducements to labor that genuine socialist democracy would provide. Both necessitate a total transformation of the property and power relations of the Soviet system and would, in their different ways, deprive the elite of any basis for its continued rule: the one by restoring capitalism, the other by allowing a politicized and self-conscious society collectively to determine policies, priorities, and the ways these would be achieved. The only conceivable course of action is a social and political thaw to restore the people’s faith in the government, and consequently secure their sacrifices. Publishing this novel will be strategic to Russia’s liberalization, and General Secretary Khrushchev’s ensuing glorious and indubitable conquest of power in the Party.