41 pages • 1 hour read
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynOne Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 85-122Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 85-97 Summary
Shukhov retrieves his trowel and joins his squad in the machine shop, where he learns that Tiurin successfully manipulated the work report. Tiurin is talking about his past; he was kicked out of the Soviet Army when it was revealed that his father was a “kulak,” one of the land-owning peasants who were viewed as a threat to communism. He was stripped of his winter uniform and discharged with no train pass or rations in November; he later learned that the regimental commander who had discharged him was shot in 1938. While listening to Tiurin, Shukhov asks Eino, one of the Estonians, for a pinch of tobacco and rolls a cigarette. Fetuikov stares expectantly at Shukhov, but Shukhov gives the last of his cigarette to Senka. Tiurin continues his story, saying he had sold enough to buy two loaves of bread. At the train station, he offered to fill a woman’s kettle but the train started moving, so they chased it and hopped on. The conductor assumed he was a soldier and didn’t push Tiurin off. The woman and her friends—”Leningrad students”—hid Tiurin in their compartment. He returned to his home and took his little brother to Frunze, where he found him a place with road workers. He tells the men he never saw his brother again, and he announces they will start mixing mortar.
Shukhov starts chipping ice off the partially finished second-story wall, and Kilgas reluctantly joins. Tiurin says he will help lay brick, and he gives Pavlo instructions on how to mix the mortar. As he clears the ice, Shukhov, a skilled mason, focuses on his work and plans how he will correct the errors made by the previous mason. Mortar arrives, and the masons must work quickly so that the mortar doesn’t freeze before they lay their bricks. The work warms them, and Shukhov takes charge, calling for more mortar and hurrying the carriers along. Buinovsky works with Fetuikov carrying mortar, but Buinovsky grows frustrates with Fetuikov’s slow pace and demands a different partner, so Alyosha joins him while Fetuikov is sent to haul bricks.
Pages 97-107 Summary
More bricks arrive, and a mechanic comes to fix the lift; however, the lift can’t be repaired, so the men continue to haul the bricks up the icy stairs. Der, a prisoner and a foreman, notices the roofing felt and threatens to tell on Tiurin. Tiurin and the others gang up on Der, who backs down but criticizes Shukhov for not using enough mortar. As Der leaves, Tiurin says that the squad needs to be paid for carrying the bricks by hand rather than by wheelbarrow, but Der says the bookkeepers won’t approve paying them a higher rate.
Tiurin calls for the squad to mix another box of mortar, even though, as Gopchik points out, other squads are turning in their tools for the day. The end-of-day signal rings, but since they have a fresh box or mortar, they need to keep working. Pavlo pitches in, and the five masons work as quickly as they can. The other squads, having turned in their tools, start gathering by the gate, and Tiurin orders Gopchik to collect the tools and return them. Shukhov tells Kilgas and Senka to hand over their trowels while he finishes laying the bricks since he doesn’t need to return his trowel. Then, Shukhov tells Tiurin to leave without him and Senka, and they work together to use up the last of the mortar. Senka urges Shukhov to hurry, but Shukhov runs to the machine shop to hide his trowel; Senka waits instead of leaving him behind. The other prisoners yell and swear at the latecomers when they reach the gate. Senka yells back and raises his fists, which quiets the crowd. One calls out, “Your deaf guy’s a fake. We just tested him” (107), and the crowd laughs.
Pages 107-122 Summary
The prisoners form groups of five so they can be counted, and Shukhov jokingly asks Buinovsky where the moon goes during the new moon. Shukhov then explains that his town has a myth that God breaks up the moon to replace the shooting stars falling from the sky, then creates a new moon. Their conversation is interrupted when a guard tells them to move forward to be counted. The first two counts are short by one; the escorts think the missing person is in the 104th, but Tiurin verifies that his entire squad is accounted for. The prisoners are broken into squads, and Shukhov notices that fewer people are carrying firewood than usual. It is customary for prisoners to gather small bits of wood to help feed the fires in the barracks, even though the escorts force many of them to drop their bundles. Tzesar comes out and talks and smokes with Buinovsky.
The missing prisoner, a Moldavian from the 32nd, is found. He had fallen asleep in a warm spot. He fearfully approaches the crowd, and other prisoners hit him. The guards call for them to line up for another count, and the prisoners yell at the escorts, who threaten to keep them out in the snow all night. Fetuikov doesn’t get in line in time, so the count is off and must be done yet again. They get the correct count, and the escort calls for the prisoners to run across to the next gate, but the prisoners refuse to speed up: ”You kept us back; now it’s our turn” (116). As they approach the prison, they see another group of prisoners returning from the machine works and hurry to beat them to the gates. The guards always take a long time to search those prisoners, who are rumored to have smuggled in several knives.
Shukhov offers to run to the parcels office to hold Tzesar’s place in line, then he prepares to be searched by unbuttoning his coat and undoing his rope belt. He checks his pockets and finds the hacksaw blade, which he forgot to hide. He considers dropping it but decides to take his chances and tucks it inside one of his mittens. He has the opportunity to choose which guard to approach, and he selects an older guard who is tired of the job. The guard pats Shukhov down and starts to check his mittens, but he is in a hurry and neglects to check the mitten concealing the hacksaw blade.
Pages 85-122 Analysis
The Human Cost of Stalinism appears primarily through Tiurin’s backstory; he was a decorated soldier in the Soviet Army but was cast out when someone discovered that his father was a kulak. Kulaks were a social class of relatively prosperous peasants living in the Soviet Union. Stalin viewed them as a threat because they did not support collectivism and did not want to turn over their farms to the government. The government eliminate kulaks not only to take possession of the agricultural lands, but also to eliminate village leadership, as wealthy peasants held a socially powerful position in small communities. Eliminating kulaks thus encouraged other social groups to conform to Communism under threat of exile or violence. Tiurin’s backstory is intended to directly criticize the elimination of the kulaks.
Survival and Solidarity Under Extreme Conditions is embodied in how the prisoners treat each other. When Shukhov and Senka are late to the count, Shukhov is intimidated, but he joins in with the crowd when they attack the Moldavian: ”In the crowd everybody, including Shukhov, flew into a rage. Were they going through all this for that shit, that slimy little snake, that stinking worm” (111). This scene calls attention to the prisoners’ in-group/out-group mentality, in which solidarity comes at the expense of scapegoating an “outsider.” The in-group, experiencing solidarity, has a better chance at survival at the expense of the out-group individual. This dynamic is seen again during the march back to the prison. The prisoners, resentful after the extended count, first view the escorting guards as the out-group, and refuse to move quickly until they see another cluster of prisoners. They then view the guards as members of their group and turn against the other prisoners, racing them to be first in line for the search. The novel’s attention to these shifting alliances reveals that the prisoners will adapt their social behavior to conform to the majority, thus ensuring their role in the in-group and their own survival.
Shukhov’s work ethic as he is laying bricks develops The Power of the Human Spirit. At first, the work simply gives him a sense of purpose; he is constructing a wall and working cohesively with his squad members, which makes him feel good. Yet as the tension increases and Shukhov’s work becomes more important, his self-esteem and his sense of self-importance rises until he feels he has temporarily risen to the same social status as Tiurin: “Shukhov usually addressed Tiurin, more respectfully, as Andrei Prokofievich, but now, after working like that, he felt equal to the squad leader. He didn’t put it to himself, ‘Look, I’m your equal,’ he just knew it” (105). Shukhov sacrifices himself for his squad by telling the others, including Tiurin, to leave him behind, and his actions make him feel like a leader. This scene suggests that a true leader willingly sacrifices for their team.
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