One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
I strongly agree that Ivan Denisovich’s painful experiences in prison were a result of Stalinism just as much as Nikita Khrushchev claims Stalin as a despotic ruler, who used extreme methods and mass repression to control the public. Stalin overthrew Communism and came up with Stalinism. In Khrushchev’s speech, he explains well enough to prove that Stalin was a capricious and despotic character and that he did things exactly contrary to his concepts.
I agree with Khrushchev when he says that Stalin committed lots of crimes during his regime in Russia. In order to gain power, he created his own army and brought violence in the community and in the country. He absolutely did not tolerate any opposition. Therefore, he would detain, imprison, or kill anyone who went against his philosophy or against his actions or concepts.
For example in the story of One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich the author Aleksandr Solczenitsyn describes the life of prisoners in Soviet labor camp also known as gulag. In the story, Ivan Denisovich , who is the protagonist has been sentenced to a camp in the Soviet Gulag. He had been accused of becoming a spy after being captured by the Germans. He was a prisoner of war during the World War II. Even though Ivan Denisovich is innocent, he is punished by the government. Despite the fact that he is not a spy he is treated like one of them and he is forced to spend his eight years as prison in Stalin’s concentration camps for no reasons.
Stalin was the type of leader who would not work though patience, logic, persuasion, or explanation but rather by imposing his concepts and through submissive acts to his opinion. According to Khrushchev, the worst of Stalin’s act happened in 1934. Stalin also originated the concept enemy of the people. His leadership was so much feared by the other political leaders of the rest of the parties that they would blame themselves with guilt and surrender once blamed by Stalin. They would fear if Stalin might kill them or kill their family members. This led to the consequence that entirely innocent persons, who in the past had worked for the well being of every one became the victims of crimes and the punishments were of extreme type.
Solczenitsyn explains in detail about the kind of labor that was imposed to the prisoners. They would be forced to work every day and very little food would be provided to the prisoners. Even if the prisoners got ill, proper treatment would not be done. For example, when Ivan Denisovich was ill and went to get some medicine he was sent back to work. The weather was very chilly but they could not stop working until they were ordered to. They would be allowed to stop working only if the temperature went below -42 F. The food quality was very bad and the prisoners were dehumanized by calling them with numbers rather than by their names.
Stalin used extreme methods to torture the civilians and the political leaders to keep under his control. Even during the victory of peoples’ revolutions he would use brutal methods to stop the crowd and to repress the revolution. Instead of working for the public welfare he would selfishly choose the path of repression, use physical torture and commit crimes against the Party and Soviet government. It became clear later on that many communist leaders, Soviet and economist activists who had been the victims of blames by Stalin were actually innocent.
In Stalin’s concentration camps for thousands of prisoners like Ivan Denvanosovich, evey day was a challenge against work, hunger, sickness, and death. Food would be distributed depending on the amount of work done and if you could not work properly in the cold then you would be punished in the cell. Everyone cheats and steals food, tools anything that is useful to survive. It is the way of survival. If you fight back with the captain, you would be thrown into guard house for ten days. After being punished if the prisoner survives, he would get sick because of cold and lack of food and he wouldn’t survive for long.
Even though Communism was not the reason why Ivan Denisovich had to go through tough times in Gulag, some theories of communist manifesto was definitely applied in the Soviet prison camps. Marx’s theory of social Darwinism could easily be observed in the prisoners. Those prisoners who were the fittest could survive longer. Ivan Denisovich was sick in the beginning of the story and he did not eat properly. On one hand his friends advised him that he should eat properly or else he might not be able to survive. On the other hand those who dared to eat almost anything in the prison camps were the strongest and therefore the fittest.
According to Churchill, Communism is a threat to Britain and the United States, and responsible coming up with another great war. Churchill only argues that the Soviet Sphere which includes the famous cities such as Warsaw, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia that are under influence of Soviet Union will soon be under the Russian influence if there is no unity in Europe. However, unlike Khrushchev he does not blame Stalin for any crime or for the suffering of civilians, but says that if the United States of America does not take part in the pacification of Europe within the structure of United Nations and in accordance with British Charter, then United States and Britain will have a threat and challenge over protecting their Christian religion. Churchill is more worried about the influence of Communism around the world where as Khrushchev is more concerned about Stalinism and its dictatorial leadership.
He warns the English speaking community that if they do not take actions now then there is a chance of another Great War taking place soon and says that the time is running out. Churchill is determined that the Russians will take advantage over any kind of weakness of any country especially military weakness to cause a war. Therefore, he urges the American community and the English speaking countries to come together to prevent the future wars by coming to a mutual understanding with Russia under the general authority of the United Nations. With this mutual understanding Churchill wants to bring peace in the world and not just then but for future generations as well.
In my opinion, Khrushchev’s analysis is more correct than Churchill’s analysis for the reason why political prisoners in Russia such as Ivan Denisovich had to suffocate without any good reasons. Khrushchev makes it clear in his secret speech that Stalinism was the reason why the political prisoners were being punished even though they had not committed any crimes. Stalin was a cruel leader who thought that everyone should follow him and that he was the only right person with the right person. During his life time he committed hundreds of crimes and took the lives of innocent people.
In conclusion, I agree with Khrushchev that the reason behind Denisovich’s suffering in the Soviet prison camps was Stalin’s despotic character. I also agree more with Khrushchev’s analysis of communism as correct than with Churchill’s analysis of communism.
Works Cited
Churchill, Winston. "Modern History Sourcebook: Winston Churchill: The Iron Curtain." Speech. Iron Curtain Speech. Westminster College, Fulton. 5 Mar. 1946. FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html>.
Denisovich, Ivan. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. NY: Northwestern UP, 1996. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.
Krushchev, Nikita. "Secret Speech." Speech. Modern History Sourcebook, 1956. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/krushchev-secret.html>.
