Throughout the 20th century, many countries were ruled by totalitarian leaders who were ready to commit many horrible deeds in order to achieve their goals. Josef Stalin, the leader of Soviet Union between 1924 and 1953, is the perfect example of a despotic ruler, who was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. He believed that communism would transform the Soviet Union into a perfect nation, with an ideal society where everyone would be treated equally. However, in order to achieve this perfection, all external and, more importantly, internal enemies had to be destroyed. Instead of a perfect nation, Stalin created a system, which was based on fear and denunciation, where killing of the so-called "enemies of the nation" became a sport, where Stalin's representatives competed against each other on the basis of the number of "enemies" killed. Throughout almost three decades, millions of innocent people were either killed or put into labour camps. The author of the book himself, was sentenced to eight years in a concentration camp for his anti-Soviet views, which he expressed in writing, and through the characters of his novel, Solzhenitsyn portrays his personal beliefs. Most of the characters in "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" are innocent people, who have never done anything reprehensible. Among them is Gopchik, a sixteen-year-old boy who was sentenced to 10 years in concentration camp for giving milk to Ukrainian nationalist rebels, and Aleshka the Baptist who received twenty-five years for his religious beliefs. The protagonist of the novel, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, is a simple man without any heroic qualities. He is a former carpenter who was sent off to the battlefield during the World War II. After being captured by the Germans, Ivan and five of his fellow soldiers were able to escape and return to the Soviet military base. However, three of them were killed instantly, mistaken for German soldiers while the fourth soldier died from wounds a couple of days later. Although Ivan Denisovich was not shot, he was arrested and accused of being a German spy. Even though he was innocent, he had to confess during the interrogation, because he understood that he would be shot immediately if he did not. As a result, he was sentenced to ten years in a Siberian concentration camp for betraying Soviet Union. The Soviet labour camps represented a small-scale totalitarian nation, where wardens were the despotic rulers who frequently abused the prisoners.
After the assassination of Alexander the Great in 1881 by Russian socialist revolutionaries, Alexander III ascended to the throne and began to develop a reactionary policy that would be used to suppress the power of anti-tsarist rivals (Kort 23). In the late 1800s, Tsar Alexander III was faced with growing insurrection from the populist peasants, who were demanding more freedoms and land under the Tsarist regime. However, he was unwilling to give up his traditional centralized authority for a more democratic system of ruling. Instead, he sought political guidance from his advisor, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, an Orthodox religious conservative and loyal member of the Russian autocracy. Pobedonostsev was quick to hound revolutionaries by means
I would not blame Vladek for destroying Anja's diaries. The effect of their absence on the narrative of Maus is negative which is influenced that the significance of Vladek's actions cannot be ignored.
Shukhov is a likeable and yet somewhat naïve fellow who is just like everybody else. In fact, what really makes this book remarkable is not Shukhov himself. What makes it special is that, even though at first glance the story may seem to be about Shukhov, it is actually a tale of events and common occurrences that could happen to anyone. The book is not just a detail of one day in the life of Ivan, it is a relatable story of what could happen to anyone shoved into a Russian prison camp. Ivan’s life in the book is shown to be nothing more than a picture of the thousands of lives that were lost or destroyed in the Stalinist camps. Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is not one character, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is the picture of “anyman.” Using the depiction of the beliefs, hopes, and need to survive that would arise in a common prisoner Solzhenitsyn creates a story of the victory of humane principles over corruption.
This novel and film commentary analysis or interpretation will be first summarised and then critiqued. The summary will be divided into twenty- four episodes. While summarising it is well to remember that the film was made out of the book.
Solzhenitsyn’s dynamic prison novella is the product of his time spent in a Stalinist labor camp, where he spent all his days cold and hungry. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is the vessel that Solzhenitsyn used to explore the various relationships between prisoners, or Zeks, and the omnipotent hunger that runs rampant throughout these labor camps. Solzhenitsyn’s prime mode to develop these relationships is through the development of characters and the plot.
Son of a poverty-stricken shoemaker, raised in a backward province, Joseph Stalin had only a minimum of education. However, he had a burning faith in the destiny of social revolution and an iron determination to play a prominent role in it. His rise to power was bloody and bold, yet under his leadership, in an unexplainable twenty-nine years, Russia because a highly industrialized nation. Stalin was a despotic ruler who more than any other individual molded the features that characterized the Soviet regime and shaped the direction of Europe after World War II ended in 1945. From a young revolutionist to an absolute master of Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin cast his shadow over the entire globe through his provocative affair in Domestic and Foreign policy.
The novel focuses on one man, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, as he tries to survive another day in the Soviet Union with dignity and compassion. The action takes place at a prison camp in Russia in the northeastern region called Ekibastuz. The location is pounded by snow, ice and winds of appalling and shocking force during winter and lasted for many weeks. The camp is very isolated as it consists double rows of barbed wire fencing around the entire area, making sure it is fully concealed and private, so that no prisoners can escape. The conditions of the camp are very harsh. It is a union where camp prisoners have to earn their food by working hard in their inadequate clothing during the extremely cold weather. Living conditions are almost unbearable; heavy mattresses do not include sheets, as an alternative it is stuffed with sawdust, prisoners only eat two hundred grams of bread per meal and guards would force prisoners to remove their clothing for body searches at temperatures of forty below zero. The building walls are covered in dull and monotonous white paint and it was untidy and unpleasant. “It’s constant chaos, constant crowds and constant confusion” shows that ceilings are most likely coated with frost and men at the tables are packed as tight and it was always crowded. Rats would diddle around the food store, because of the incredibly unhygienic and filthy environment the camp is and it was so insanitary that some men would die from horrible diseases. “Men trying to barge their way through with full trays” suggests that the living conditions are very harsh indeed and mealtimes would be chaotic, as every famished men would be rushing to receive food. However, not only did the place cause the prisoners to suffer and lose their...
Following the Russian revolution, Joseph Stalin’s desire to attain power disrupted the lives of Russians. Stalin betrayed his colleagues, robbed his people of the essentials needed to thrive, and created a police force who captured and killed any who disobeyed. The pain and suffering of the people Stalin eradicated will never be restored, for he committed the foulest crime of all, sacrificing human emotions.
In the late 1930’s while the United States was going through The Great Depression the Soviet Union was going through its own turbulent times. This would be known as the Moscow Show Trials, which took place under the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The book Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler takes place during this time period. The main character Nicholas Rubashov has been imprisoned even though he always has been loyal to the goals of the party (Koestler). This showed a shift that was happening in the country and an attempt by Stalin to eliminate any possible opposition even if they were heroes in the revolution. In the text two different concepts come to light vivisection morality where the party comes before the individual and anti-vivisection morality where the individual is sacred. Rubashov in the beginning does not embrace individualism however throughout the novel he begins to adopt individualism that he refers to as grammatical fiction. Vivisection morality is never a justifiable political system. Suppressing the rights of human beings is not only inhumane but also counter productive in creating an effective and wealthy society.
The novel tells a story about one day in a gulag (a forced labor camp in the Soviet Union) for a group of prisoners that includes a man named Ivan Denisovich. Even in the oppressive, sometimes brutal environment of the gulag, a sense of camaraderie developed between Ivan and his fellow prisoners and they take care of each other, working together and sharing food, dreams, and hope. Their former identities, that of the life before the gulag was mostly taken by the state, but they developed identities and a hierarchy for themselves within the camp: “Outwardly, the gang all looked the same, all wearing identical black jackets with identical number patches, but underneath there were big differences. You'd never get Buynovsky to sit watching a bowl, and there were jobs that Shukhov left to those beneath him” [6]. In addition, Ivan maintained his morals, even after so many years: “But, frankly, he didn’t want to turn [into a] carpet painter… he’d never either given or taken a bribe, nor had he learned to do so in camp.
Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. Under Stalin’s leadership, the Ukraine suffered from a famine so great that it was considered by many to be an act of genocide by Stalin’s government. During the time of the famine, Stalin also ordered purges within the Soviet Union of any person to be an enemy of the state. It is estimated the total number of deaths during Stalin’s reign ranged from 10 million to 60 million. However, Stalin was not always an evil person. He was born the son of a poor shoe maker. As a young man he was trained to be priest and after becoming dictator acquired many titles over the years that included “Father of Nations”, “Brilliant Genius of Humanity”, and “Gardener of Human Happiness.” Throughout Stalin’s tenure, the Soviet Union became a world power and even acquired a brief technological lead in space exploration. By the age of 34, he had become a professional revolutionary and a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Party. It was here where Stalin was influenced by people and politics that changed him into the type of dictator that he became.
Stalin’s trauma he faced as a child and his odd interest in socialism prompted him into becoming one of the most brutal leaders in history. He tore apart families and starved millions until they were only skins and bones. He disregarded the importance of the lives of the lower class farmers because his eyes were set upon the goal of industrialization. Stalin’s belief in that death solves all problems can accurately describe the measures he would take to in order to complete his selfish desire of being seen as a powerful man in history; while he is seen as a powerful man, Stalin is also viewed as one of the most despicable human beings of all
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn and The Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquezboth contains the elementsof time within their storyline which had been provided to be quite important throughout the story.One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was published in November 1962 by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn,set in the year 1951, thenovel tells a story of a person named Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, who would later be known to have beensentenced to live inside a Soviet laborcamp for 3653 days.The story follows one of the 3653 days that Ivan had to spend in the camp. The novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold was published in the year 1981by Gabriel García Márquez. The novella was set during the 1950s within a
“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is statistic”. This quote from Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Union of Soviet Republics (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 captures the values and morals of Russia under his rule. Stalin utilised the concept of terror and repression carefully to ensure that the people did as they were told. Death was a common fate, with an estimated 20, 000, 000 people dying from purges or man-made famine. The lives of Russian citizens were greatly impacted, as culture and education were altered to support Stalin’s views. While the processes were inhumane, Stalin successfully utilised the concept of terror and repression, stopping all opposition and activities perceived as threats to the regime.
We are all condemned to death; it is inescapable. Even if a person doesn’t believe in the concept of destiny, it is undeniable that every person is fated to die at some point. Most people, however, are not aware of when exactly the inevitable will approach. Often in works of fiction, the reader, or sometimes even the character, is aware of their fate. There are many different understandings of destiny, which is one of the reasons why it has played such a large role in so many different literary works throughout the world and history. Fate is one of the principal literary devices used in Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, Shakespeare’s tragic play, Antony and Cleopatra, and Tolstoy’s pedagogical novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych.