Sárospataki Füzetek 1. (1997)
1997 / 2. szám - Dr. Frank Sawyer: The roots of totalitarianism (A totalitarizmus gyökerei)
DR. FRANK SAWYER The great changes taking place in Eastern Europe today make a rereading of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s first short-novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, of continued relevance. How much of the past mindset is still present under another name and perhaps merely wearing softer gloves? What aspects went into the psychological composition of the totalitarian vision and revisions which affected Eastern Europe for so long? Solzhenitsyn was able to publish One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in 1962 in Novy Mir {Mew World). This was during the short time of the Krushchev "thaw". But that "thaw" itself was a mere glimpse of freedom, exposing some of the horrors of Stalin’s tyranny as a means to consolidate the new regime under Krushchev. The shortness of this political "thaw", its use as a means rather than an end, was from a psychological view not much more than ongoing ’rationalization’ and ’compensation’: the situation at the time of publication of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day could be made to look attractive in comparison with the hideousnous of the Stalin era. By conceding some crimes of the past, Krushchev could hide other crimes.1 The de- Stalinization concealed more than it revealed and did not last long, but the novel (in a somewhat censored form) had become public and its themes could never be hidden again. Labour camps as merely more of the same The main person in' the novel, Ivan Denisovich, has been sentenced to ten years to a prison camp in Siberia. He is guilty of ’treason’. According to Article 58 of the Criminal Code under the Communist government, ’treason’ included such actions as criticizing the government or making statements which could be interpreted as propaganda against the party policies. Solzhenitsyn himself had been sentenced to 8 years of forced labour and exile by one of Stalin’s courts of three military judges (’troikas’). The novel deals with one day in the work camp, from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. The prisoners are awakened by the sound of a hammer hitting a steel rail. But Ivan, who at the camp is not identified by his name, but as prisoner S-854, stays in bed since 1 cf.Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Hartcourt Brace, 1966; 1975), p.xxix. 80
