Ivan Denisovich "in a nutshell"

Solzhenitsyn biographer Joseph Pearce has posted a piece on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as part of his Great Literature in a Nutshell series.

“As the title suggests, the whole action of the novel takes place on one solitary day in the life of the protagonist. In this way, Solzhenitsyn takes the reader into the claustrophobically monotonous life of the prisoners, who follow the same routine day in, day out, with no seeming end in sight. We experience not merely the claustrophobic monotony but the chilling physical intensity of the experience.”

— Joseph Pearce

The Gulag in Writings of Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov

A new book thoughtfully illuminates the respective treatments of the Gulag in the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Varlam Shalamov, even if the editors and contributors generally approach camp literature and testimony from a literary, moral, and philosophical perspective closer to Shalamov than Solzhenitsyn. Two essays stand out: Michael N. Nicholson's lucid and informative account of the genesis of both the Kolyma Tales and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; and Luba Jurgenson's suggestive account of why Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov ended up not collaborating on The Gulag Archipelago.

Ivan Denisovich opens in movie theatres today

A major new feature film from director Gleb Panfilov, based on Solzhenitsyn’s iconic One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, opens today in theaters across Moscow and St. Petersburg. Trailer:

One of the Better Days

In the current issue of TLS, Alexander Starritt re-reads Ivan Denisovich. Full text here.

“That’s the genius of Denisovich and the horror of it, too: that circumstance can gradually make a man’s desires so small, can so degrade him, that in the end he’s grateful for the crumbs from Fate’s table. It’s like what they say about frogs in hot water: that if you drop one into a bubbling pot, he’ll jump out; but if you put him in while the water’s cold and heat it gradually, he’ll stay there till he’s cooked.

My mum recently died after a decade-long illness. But re-reading Denisovich during the pandemic, I see this frog-in-a-pot phenomenon at work with the virus too. Imagine someone told you back in January about the deaths, house arrests and economic immiseration. And yet, now that we’ve gradually got here, what we talk about is how to bend the rules for dinner with our friends and whether lockdown made us fatter or thinner.

Back in April, The Sun, which is an emanation of popular sentiment (albeit a highly idiosyncratic one), published a front page that read: “LOCKDOWN BLOW: PUBS SHUT TILL XMAS”. And off to the side in a jaunty little circle designed to look like a spiky blob of virus: “596 dead, see page 4”. That’s pure Ivan Denisovich.”

Ivan Denisovich and COVID-19

Over at the Cavendish Historical Society, Margo Caulfield has a fresh take on One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, suggesting it can be seen as a precursor to the emerging field of positive psychology and the modern understanding of “mindfulness”.

“As it turns out, a very successful and highly practiced form of psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), has its roots in Stoic philosophy. Since one of the most famous Stoics was Epictetus, who was born into slavery, it’s not surprising that Solzhenitsyn would have drawn some similar conclusions. We may not have control over our circumstances, but we can control how we interpret them and how we respond to them.

In the midst of our “stay-at-home” order, “One Day in the Life” is definitely worth a read. It’s short, can be read in one sitting, and can help reframe this time of Covid-19 by reminding us that we do have control over how we respond as well as that there are positive things happening all around us that we can be grateful for.”

— Margo Caulfield

IVAN DENISOVICH COVER RE-ISSUE TODAY

Our friends at Vintage/Penguin have today re-issued, in paperback, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, in its only complete, uncensored, and authorized translation by H.T. Willetts. Available in the UK here, or the FSG USA version available here.

A Slew of Moscow Events to Mark Solzhenitsyn Centennial

There is a slew of upcoming events in Moscow to mark the peak of the Solzhenitsyn Centennial. Highlights include the première of a new production of the Alexander Tchaikovsky opera “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, conducted by Ignat Solzhenitsyn at the Bolshoi Theatre; the international conference “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Looking Back from the 21st Century”; and a special theatrical production starring Evgeni Mironov at the legendary Moscow Art Theatre. See here for a more comprehensive list.