Line #27 Literature/TheFirstCircle


1	[[quoteright:328:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_first_circle.jpg]]
2
3	''The First Circle'' is a 1968 novel by Creator/AleksandrSolzhenitsyn.
4
5	Story of life in a sharashka in the late [[TheForties 1940s]]. A sharashka is [[TitleDrop the first circle]] of the Gulag hell. A prison for highly trained or educated prisoners who are more valuable working for the state in an intellectual capacity then as common labor. In exchange for their efforts the Zeks (prisoners) are given privileges and rewards. Do a good enough job and potentially they can earn their freedom and pardons directly from UsefulNotes/JosefStalin. Do a bad enough job, and go deeper into the system. They are not free, yet have a respite from the rest of the prison system. Can be considered the sequel to ''Literature/TheGulagArchipelago'' as in Creator/AleksandrSolzhenitsyn's life he left TheGulag to the sharashka due to lies he put on his informational card putting his profession as Nuclear Physicist.
6
7	Multiple characters, each with a different backstory, crime against the state and role in the camp. Crimes vary from being German to marking a ballot against Stalin, to [[WriteWhoYouKnow questioning political decisions in a letter]].
8
9	The sharashka's focus is on telecommunications technology, with the goal to produce a phone for Stalin himself that is both high quality and secure. The telecommunications experience means when an important phone call giving evidence of espionage is recorded the sharashka is tuned in to analyze the call. Much angst ensures as the morality of helping the state that imprisoned them imprison more is debated. The subject of the phone call differs between the original and lighter addition. In the first, which Solzhenitsyn believed could not be ever published in the Soviet Union, the phone call is a warning to the West of Soviet atomic weapon espionage. In the lighter version the call is related to medical supplies sought in the west.
10
11	!!The book provides examples of:
12
13	%% * TheApocalypseBringsOutTheBestInPeople
14	%% * CommieLand: No surprises here.
15	* CuriousQualmsOfConscience: Deciding whether you did the right thing while freezing to death.
16	* DoorStopper: Is more than 700 pages.
17	* DoubleAgent: Ruska Doronin is approached with an offer to be an informer, and decides to take advantage of it for the benefit of his fellow prisoners by telling everyone he's an informer and using his knowledge to find out who the other informers are.
18	* DramatisPersonae: Some versions have one at the start of the book.
19	* EnsembleCast: There is no one main character, and often each chapter will focus on profiling a different character.
20	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The book takes place over a few days (December 24-29), with almost all of it taking place up to the 27th.
21	* FromBadToWorse: Almost all the zeks are aware that, no matter how bad their conditions are, they are still better there than in TheGulag. Of course, if they don’t prove themselves worthy, they risk going to a gulag anytime.
22	%% * GildedCage
23	* TheGulag: Technically it is a sharashka, which was way better than the Gulags themselves, something that almost all the characters acknowledge.
24	* HappinessInSlavery: Rubin defends Stalin and the Soviet regime passionately to the other, more disillusioned prisoners, and [[StupidGood is convinced he'll be exonerated]] and his incarceration will turn out to be an error eventually.
25	* HellholePrison: Well, it's a hellhole from our POV. According to them, it's not that bad, especially compared to the ''real'' gulag.
26	* HonorBeforeReason: Some zeks choose not to collaborate with the government, knowing very well that means being sent to a gulag (a real one).
27	* InMediasRes: The book opens with Volodin desperately trying to get a message to the Americans about Soviet atomic weapon plans.
28	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title is a reference to ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'', specifically how the First Circle of Dante's Hell is actually Limbo--where the inhabitants are comfortable and free to philosophize, but also cannot leave and are perpetually separated from God.
29	* LuxuryPrisonSuite: The sharashkas have much better conditions than the other gulags, so that the prisoners will be in good enough shape to do research the Soviet Union needs.
30	* ManInTheIronMask: Mamurin, a former military officer and Party member kept in isolation from the others for reasons which are never really made clear. His identity is known to the reader but not to all the other prisoners.
31	* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Rubin is quite critical of the Soviet Union and often makes satirical digs at it, but believes in its cause enough that he feels he is honor-bound to support it anyway and chooses to help the authorities with the voice recognition system.
32	* OhCrap: Volodin, twice; first, when the phone call he’s making gets intercepted and then, [[spoiler:when he finds out he has fallen into a trap.]]
33	* PeacefulInDeath: In a scene, a character freezes to death in a cell, and when they took him out, he was smiling. (The reader knows that he had come to the conclusion that he had done the right thing).
34	* ProperlyParanoid: After Innokentii Volodin’s call gets intercepted, he’s fearful that any day the SecretPolice will come for him. [[spoiler:Of course, he proves himself right in the end.]]
35	* ShoutOut: [[Literature/TheDivineComedy The title of the book]]. Some of the chapters’ titles, too.
36	* TwistedChristmas: takes place over an ExtremelyShortTimespan on Christmas and the days around it, but most of the characters can't see their family or enjoy themselves because they are in a prison (plus given the Soviet Union's dislike of Christianity, they wouldn't want anyone celebrating anyway).
37	%% * SinisterSurveillance

Context Literature / TheFirstCircle