Putin, Pipes, and Alexsandr Solzhenitysn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

• Author: Dana M. Hollywood
• Position: Judge Advocate, U.S. Army
• Pages: 316-327

316 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 211

PUTIN, PIPES, AND ALEXSANDR SOLZHENITSYN’S ONE

DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH1

REVIEWED BY MAJOR DANA M. HOLLYWOOD*

Putin is life; Putin is the light; love Putin and your life

will have meaning; Putin will give you happiness; Putin

will open your eyes.2

I. Introduction

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Aleksandr

Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. The novel

recounts a single day in the life of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich

Shukhov, in a Soviet labor camp during the 1950s. According to the final

page of the novel, Shukhov would serve ten years for allegedly

committing treason during World War II.3

While judge advocates may question the utility of reading a half-

century-old historical novel exposing the evils of Soviet Communism

two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this review argues

that the work has relevance for three reasons. First, as a work of art, the

novel is beautifully written. Solzhenitsyn’s spare prose, punctuated by

vivid descriptions of the harsh conditions and tedium the prisoners

endured, brings a forcefulness and truthfulness to this slim work of

fiction.

Second, Ivan Denisovich was an immensely influential work in

exposing the lie that was the Soviet Union. In this regard, the novel

played a quiet, yet significant, role in the ultimate demise of that

ignominious regime. Indeed, Richard Pipes, a Russian scholar and a

* Judge Advocate, U.S. Army. Presently assigned as Special Victim Prosecutor, Fort

Polk, Louisiana. Written while assigned as a Student, 60th Judge Advocate Officer

Graduate Course, The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, U.S. Army,

Charlottesville, Virginia. The author would like to thank Major Greg Marchand for his

thoughtful comments on earlier drafts.

1 ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN, ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH (H.T. Willetts

trans., F.S.G. Classics 3d ed. 2005) (1978).

2 Michael Schwirtz, Russia Allows Protest, but Tries to Discourage Attendance, N.Y.

TIMES, Dec. 10, 2011, at A8 (quoting a robocall placed by the Kremlin to organizations

critical to the regime in anticipation of the March 2012 presidential elections).

3 SOLZHENITSYN, supra note 1, at 182.