“One Day of Ivan Denisovich” is an emotionally difficult work that is difficult to master to the end even in reduction, because the main events from the book simply horrify the reader. But this cruel plot, unfortunately, is a shameful page in our national history. A very brief retelling of the story will help to quickly recall it and apply the facts from the book as arguments for the essay.
(649 words) Intermittent ringing from hammer blows on rails, the light of three weakly burning lanterns breaks through a curtain of snow - this is how the next day begins in a forced labor camp, more simply - the Gulag. Shukhov, the protagonist of the story, is shivering in the morning. Because of an unexpected ailment, he does not have time to get up from the bunk at the signal of the overseer, and for this he receives three days kondeya with a conclusion. It’s good that with the conclusion: they’ll give something hotter, and there’s no time to think in work. On the way to the punishment cell, warden Tatarin sends Shukhov to clean the warden instead of punishment, and this is considered a great success.
The prisoner runs to the dining room to catch at least something before work. Fetyukov, Shukhov’s teammate, guarded him a simple breakfast: balanda on vegetables and the remains of fish and mahar (porridge from corn), which you can’t eat, even if you ask for a supplement.
While there was not much time left, Ivan Denisovich, rushing into a thirty-degree frost, was sent to the medical unit, because chills and aches still did not pass. The young paramedic, who was not a doctor at all, but an arrested student of a literary institute, measured the temperature of the prisoner.
“You see ... thirty-seven and two. It would be thirty-eight, so it is clear to everyone. I can’t free you, ”Shukhov silently leaves the medical unit.
The hero returns to his hut, where he received a ration with bread missed in the morning. Dividing it into 2 parts in order to have time to eat a little later, Shukhov hides them in a quilted jacket and under a mattress. Prisoners go about their business: Baptist Aleshka rereads the Gospel out loud, probably not even for himself, but for his cellmates. Ivan Denisovich prepares for work and takes out thin footcloths, worn gloves, a rag with ropes in order to somehow wrap the body. And on time, because the team leader is already driving everyone to work.
Before leaving the area, prisoners are searched. Lieutenant Volkova, whom even the bosses are afraid of, ordered to unfasten everything, even his lower shirts, and this is something in an icy wind. A convict shirt was taken from the prisoner Caesar, and a miserable mock-up at Buinovsky. He was indignant from the last forces:
You have no right to undress people in the cold! You do not know the ninth article of the criminal code!
They know, they know very well, just nothing can be done about it. For this trick Buinovsky received 10 days in BUR, but Volkov ordered to execute it in the evening, after work: let him first work in the cold, and then in a punishment cell.
On the way, Shukhov recalls the last letter of his wife. She writes that in the village now the men went to paint. According to the stencils, they transfer pictures to old sheets, and then they sell them to urban sheets. Maybe when Ivan Denisovich returns, and he goes to the dyes? He almost completed his term, other prisoners had many times more. He was hidden in places not so remote for treason. He escaped from German captivity with a comrade, barely alive they reached their own, said that they were fleeing captivity, but here they were mistaken for German spies. With such a story, as the investigators believed, only spies return and who at first surrendered, then they received the task and returned to their enemy instructions to fulfill. The investigator and Shukhov did not come up with any instructions, and in order not to be beaten to death, he signed a confession and went to serve his sentence.
The 104th brigade worked today at the unfinished CHP. Shukhov and Kildigs were known as the best craftsmen, and he worked well together. Young Gopchik, who was planted because he “used to drink milk for Bendera’s in the woods,” helpfully helped Ivan Denisovich, who thought that this Ukrainian couple looked so much like his late son.
Shukhov hid trowels for himself in the previous days, and it is easier and more pleasant for him to work with him. The 104th Shukhov brigade is like one family, work is in full swing, where they will help each other, where they will exchange tools. That evening already, but Ivan Denisovich did not notice - it worked. At the evening shmon, he came to his senses that he was carrying a knife that had been stored for work in the zone, and for this, they would give a punishment cell for up to 10 days. But he was lucky during the inspection, and the blade in the gauntlet was not noticed. Already in the zone, Shukhov managed to cover Caesar with the foreman, for which one more portion was served to our hero at dinner. He also worked as Caesar and bought tobacco.
Ivan Denisovich fell asleep satisfied. Another day passed out of the prescribed three thousand six hundred and fifty-three, almost happy.
Do not work with assholes
