History Literature / OneDayInTheLifeOfIvanDenisovich

* TrueArt: [[invoked]] Tzesar and another inmate discuss this in regards to Creator/SergeiEisenstein, specifically whether or not he's style over substance or if the artistic merits of ''Film/IvanTheTerrible'' elevate it despite being apologia for [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin a horrible tyrant]]. Shukov doesn't have an opinion but can't get them to stop when he needs to talk to Tzesar.

* TrueArt: [[invoked]] Tzesar and another inmate discuss this in regards to Creator/SergeiEisenstein, specifically whether or not he's StyleOverSubstance or if the artistic merits of ''Film/IvanTheTerrible'' elevate it despite being apologia for [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin a horrible tyrant]]. Shukov doesn't have an opinion but can't get them to stop when he needs to talk to Tzesar.

* TrueArt: [[invoked]] Tzesar and another inmate discuss this in regards to Creator/SergeiEisenstein, specifically whether or not the artistic merits of ''Film/IvanTheTerrible'' elevate it despite being apologia for [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin a horrible tyrant]]. Shukov doesn't have an opinion but can't get them to listen to him.

* TrueArt: [[invoked]] Tzesar and another inmate discuss this in regards to Creator/SergeiEisenstein. Shukov doesn't care.

%%* KangarooCourt: Many people got imprisoned because the Soviet legal system is this UpToEleven.

* VendorTrash: {{Subverted}}. Shukhov takes a broken piece of a saw blade, despite its apparent worthlessness, under the knowledge that if properly honed into a knife, it would be worth its weight in gold.

* AssholeVictim: Those who squeal on their fellow zeks.

* ButtMonkey / TheScrappy (to his fellow inmates): the scavenger Fetyukov.
* TheCaptain: Bunovsky still acts like one, even though he's a prisoner.

* AFatherToHisMen: Tyurin.
* GuileHero: Shukhov. In fact, if you want to survive in the Gulag, this is practically a survival prerequisite.

* InstitutionalApparel: "They weigh nothing, the numbers ..."
* KangarooCourt: Many people got imprisoned because the Soviet legal system is this UpToEleven.
* KleptomaniacHero: Shukhov. However, he only takes things that don't clearly belong to anyone in particular.
* LikeASonToMe: Gopchik is this to Shukhov.

* PenalColony

* TrueArt[[invoked]]: Tzesar and another inmate discuss this in regards to Creator/SergeiEisenstein. Shukov doesn't care.

->''The end of an unclouded day. Almost a happy one. Just one of the 3,653 days of his sentence, from bell to bell. The extra three were for leap years.''
-->--Closing lines of the book

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a prisoner ("zek") in the Soviet Gulag system, imprisoned on charges of being a spy after being captured by the Germans and escaping, and sentenced to 10 years. At the time of the story, during winter, sometime during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, Shukhov is serving out his sentence in a special camp in Siberia. His number is Щ-854[[note]]the letter Щ is called "shcha", although the actual Russian pronounciation is closest to the Japanese "っしゃ" ("ssha")[[/note]] and he is part of squad 104. This book details [[DayInTheLife one day in his life]], as he struggles to live through another day.

-->''The end of an unclouded day. Almost a happy one. Just one of the 3,653 days of his sentence, from bell to bell. The extra three were for leap years.''

* OneSteveLimit: Subverted? Averted? Whatever: Shukhov and Kildigs call each other "Vanya", as Kildigs' name is Jānis (or Jan or Johanns, depending on translation); both Jānis and Ivan are respectively the Latvian and Russian equivalents of "John" and under [[RussianNamingConvention Russian naming conventions]] shorten to "Vanya."

* BeigeProse: Shukhov's narration tends towards clipped, simple sentences, regardless of his condition or the world around him--makes sense, given that he's apparently from a collective farm and a conscript, with no immediately evident higher education. (It also makes sense in a meta way, since Solzhenitsyn absolutely HATED the sort of educated loyalist political prisoner who would get uppity about his conditions and make speeches to that effect [while saying everybody else was guilty].)

-->You don't have to be very bright to carry a handbarrow. So the squad leader gave such work to people who'd been in positions of authority

* VendorTrash: Subverted. Shukhov takes a broken piece of a saw blade, despite its apparent worthlessness, under the knowledge that if properly honed into a knife, it would be worth its weight in gold.

* VendorTrash: Subverted. Shukhov takes a broken piece of a saw blade, despite its apparent worthlessness, under the knowledge that if properly honed into a knife, it would be worth it's weight in gold.

* TheMessiah: Alyosha is a pretty clear {{Homage}} to Dostoevsky's Alyosha in ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov''.

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a prisoner ("zek") in the Soviet Gulag system, imprisoned on charges of being a spy after being captured by the Germans and escaping, and sentenced to 10 years. At the time of the story, during winter, sometime during TheKoreanWar, Shukhov is serving out his sentence in a special camp in Siberia. His number is Щ-854[[note]]the letter Щ is called "shcha", although the actual Russian pronounciation is closest to the Japanese "っしゃ" ("ssha")[[/note]] and he is part of squad 104. This book details [[DayInTheLife one day in his life]], as he struggles to live through another day.

* OneSteveLimit: Subverted? Averted? Whatever: Shukhov and Kildigs call each other "Vanya", as Kildigs' name is Jānis (or Jan or Johanns, depending on translation); both Jānis and Ivan are equivalent to "John" and under [[RussianNamingConvention Russian naming conventions]] shorten to "Vanya."

* LikeASonToMe: Gopchik is this to Shukhov.* MagikarpPower: Shukhov notes Gopchik is young but is learning how to survive very quickly, and lampshades this trope when musing about well off he will be.

* KleptomaniacHero: Shukhov. However, he only takes things that don't clearly belong to anyone in particular.
* LikeASonToMe: Gopchik is this to Shukhov.

* MagikarpPower: Shukhov notes Gopchik is young but is learning how to survive very quickly, and lampshades this trope when musing about well off he will be.
* TheCaptain: Bunovsky still acts like one, even though he's a prisoner.

* TheQuisling: Der, The Limper, the unnamed cooks who are in tight with the guards. This does not apply to all the prisoners, however, just the ones who use their positions for the explicit purpose of screwing over their fellow zeks for their own gain.

* VendorTrash: Subverted. Shukhov takes a broken piece of a saw blade, despite it's apparent worthlessness, under the knowledge that if properly honed into a knife, it would be worth it's weight in gold.

* KleptomaniacHero: Shukhov.

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov is a prisoner ("zek") in the Soviet Gulag system, imprisoned on charges of being a spy after being captured by the Germans and escaping, and sentenced to 10 years. At the time of the story, during winter, sometime during TheKoreanWar, Shukhov is serving out his sentence in a special camp in Siberia. His number is Щ-854[[hottip:*:the letter Щ is called "shcha", although the actual Russian pronounciation is closest to the Japanese "っしゃ" ("ssha")]] and he is part of squad 104. This book details [[DayInTheLife one day in his life]], as he struggles to live through another day.

* TheMessiah: Alyosha is a pretty clear {{Homage}} to Dostoevsky's Alyosha in TheBrothersKaramazov.

* ThePollyana: Kildigs, who is always upbeat and cheerful despite being a prisoner.