# General > Book & Author Requests >  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

## Synnove

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

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## Jay

Still copyrighted if I'm not mistaken.

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## Koa

I think so as well. I think it was written in the 50s.

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## Jay

I think it was in the 60s but oh well  :Biggrin: , still the same problem

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## Koa

I'm pretty sure it's set in like 1951 or 52 or 53 or so... Can't remember if it was written much later or still in the 50s... I'll tell you in 3-4 days when my Russian Lit. exam preparation gets to that one  :Wink:

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## Jay

I shall check then  :Tongue: 

*googles*

Edit

can be set in 1956 and published 1962?
btw, have you read it?  :Tongue:

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## Koa

Yes I read it less than 2 months ago  :Blush:  but I really hate how my mind istantly erases everything I read! You know, I was going to do this effort of skipping some pages in my notes and have a look cos now I'm curious... Oh wait the book should be here on my desk if I only move some layers of books and stuff...

Uhm it even says 1962-73 by Aleksandr Solzhenycin...Did it take so long? That makes it really really copyrighted... Maybe it was published many years after it was finished... If I'm not wrong it was Solzhenycin's work which was first published in Italy by Feltrinelli... (a guy who died trying to place a bomb on a light post...)

Set in 1951 (found browsing through it).

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## Jay

It was banned from Russia, I think first it was published in France. Imagine the then Russia publishing something bad about it... let alone gulags
I *think* it was allowed for publishing in Russia in the 80s or later yet... not sure, but '73 sounds too early.

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## Koa

Quickly looked through my notes, apparently published really in 1962, maybe written in 1959 though... Solzh. was in Gulag until 1957 though.

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## Koa

> It was banned from Russia, I think first it was published in France. Imagine the then Russian publishing something bad about it...
> I *think* it was allowed for publishing in Russia in the 80s or later yet... not sure, but '73 sounds too early.


Of course it wasn't published in Russia first... (what I was saying was, maybe it took from 62 to 73 to write it but it seemed unlikely...Oh I get this too now, in my book there are other short stories, so the dates refer to all of them!)
I just can't remember at the moment what was published by Feltrinelli...I'm starting to be pretty sure it was Dr. Zhivago instead...*checks* yep, it was Zhivago.

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## Jay

I read One Day... a few years ago (compolsory for lit in high school... in 2001? lol). Did you enjoy it?

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## Logos

Sometimes the differing dates represent the original/first publishing date and ensuing editions' publish dates and also the date can represent what year that particular edition was translated. 

Though it usually looks like this: 

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962, tr. 1963)

The Nobel Prize winning man himself  explains some of these issues in this autobiography.  :Smile:

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## Logos

Maybe that `73' Koa is the year that particular version you have was published? 
or translated? are you reading it in Russian?

I'm a big fan of russian lit, though I've heard so much critique about how much is lost in translations. (no I don't know russian!)  :Smile: 





> Uhm it even says 1962-73 by Aleksandr Solzhenycin...Did it take so long? That makes it really really copyrighted... Maybe it was published many years after it was finished... If I'm not wrong it was Solzhenycin's work which was first published in Italy by Feltrinelli... (a guy who died trying to place a bomb on a light post...)
> 
> Set in 1951 (found browsing through it).

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## Jay

I think he (Solzenicyn) either wasn't allowed to go to the Nobel prize... thing or he didn't want to or was dead already... oy, memory's too blurry, lol, but I think it was his son who went instead of him and accepted it in his name.

Thanks for the link, Logos  :Smile:

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## Koa

I think he wasn't allowed...maybe...

Logos, yes it's a translation but I'm more inclined to think that the '73 refers to the others stories in the same edition (Matrjona's House and At the Station, assuming they're translated that way)-

Jay yes, I liked the book, but I've always read with lots of interest the so-called lager-literature, though I usually read about Nazi camps...

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## Jay

First time hearing (well, seeing) the term lager-literature.

I liked the book once I got into it. Don't think I read any other lager book though... if you don't count film adaptations that is (though the only coming to mind now is Schindler's List)

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## Koa

Well the lager-thing was my adaptation of a term I couldnt translate... But I think (and hope) it gets to the point, unless you read lager as beer...  :Rolleyes: 

I've always been a fan of literature about concentration camps and such... it gave me quite a few sleepless nights as well  :Eek:

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## Jay

Well, not sure about other languages but lager is one of Czech words as well  :Wink: , though not too frequented anymore, nowadays it's slangish for jail.

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## mono

> It was banned from Russia, I think first it was published in France. Imagine the then Russia publishing something bad about it... let alone gulags
> I *think* it was allowed for publishing in Russia in the 80s or later yet... not sure, but '73 sounds too early.


Yes, Josef Stalin banned _One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich_ from Russia for some time, until Nikita Krushchev (spelling?) pardoned Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, inviting him back to Russia, and allowing the novel for publication, though Solzhenitsyn already published it elsewhere.
Wonderful choice, anyway - another novel I read very quickly for good reason. Happy reading!  :Smile:

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## Koa

I just read all of my notes on Ivan Denisovich and found out it was actually published in the Soviet Union, contrary to what we all thought... That's because it was the period of openness (called the Thaw if I translate literally, tho the name of the periodisations in English might be different) due to the politics of Chrushev, who made public the crime of Stalin in the Soviet Congress of 1956 (mono, Stalin died in 1953 so he couldn't ban anything in the '60s...) and ended the regime of terror. During this time life and literature became somehow less heavily constricted than in the previous era so that Solzhenycin could publish Ivan Denisovich. However, he started to be persecuted in 1965 and was banned from the Soviet Union, also because from the late 60s and in the 70s with Brezhnev came again a period of strictness (the so-called Stagnation). So the other works of Solzh. were published abroad. He was reammitted in Russia in the 80s but he went back there in 1994 and he's still there working on historical works I think.
(Hope I haven't mixed up any details, this was also to prove how effective my studying of this morning was  :Wink: )

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## Koa

I just finished to read two short essays on that era and I'll add that Ivan Denisovich was published in 1962 on the magazine Novyi Mir, which in those years published a lot of stuff that was against the rules of the Socialist Realism or even criticised it quite openly and helped its readers to form a more free opinion. This ended in 1970 when the director was removed and the magazine was back at a dull service to the power.

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## Koa

> I think he (Solzenicyn) either wasn't allowed to go to the Nobel prize... thing or he didn't want to or was dead already... oy, memory's too blurry, lol, but I think it was his son who went instead of him and accepted it in his name.


I am still reading essays on the 50s-60s-70s but it only says that Solzh got the Nobel Prize, without adding anything so maybe he got it without any problems? What I found out is that Pasternak wasnt allowed to get the prize and had basically to give up on it.

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## Koa

Well it has turned into a monologue but yes apparently Solzh had so much pressure from the party that he had to give up on the prize.

Btw my exam was good  :Biggrin:

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