“Power and Man” composition


The problem of man and power, the problem of the crime of power against the individual becomes actual in Soviet Russia as early as the 20th century. XX century. – in the years when the state clearly and brightly acquires the features of a totalitarian state. The problem of the Russian national character in the context of the tragic epoch became a cross-cutting theme of Russian literature of the 20th century. It is explored by Andrei Platonov, Mikhail Sholokhov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Vladimir Dudintsev, Anatoly Rybakov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

In 1962, the Novy Mir magazine published Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn’s novel One Day of Ivan Denisovich, which literally shocked the Soviet reading public. After the publication of the story, two hundred and twenty-seven prisoners sent letters to AI Solzhenitsyn, in which they testified about the crimes of the Stalin regime against the individual. In the story, the problem of man and power in the totalitarian Soviet state of the

Stalin personality cult period is sharply posed. The disclosure of the “camp” theme in the story is peculiar. The story is based on autobiographical material, the events in it are shown by the eyes of a person “from there”. According to T. Twardovsky, the then-editor-in-chief of the “New World”, the novel is a “document of art.”

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, the hero of the tale, from thousands of those people who were repressed innocently. Ivan Denisovich fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, defending the “great happiness of freedom”, was surrounded, in fascist captivity, he escaped from the camp. Once among his own, he talks frankly about everything and, accused of espionage, is again in the camp, now a Soviet one. The logic of accusation, conviction and imprisonment was simple: he was taken prisoner – hence the traitor, returned – means to spy.

The story of Ivan Denisovich, sentenced to 10 years in camps, experiencing the humiliations and burdens of unbearably heavy physical labor, is the usual story of a man of that time marred

by crimes against a person. Ivan Denisovich – a peasant, he learned to survive in the conditions in which he was. He adapts to life in the camp, but in the soul he contrasts himself with “them”, the authorities, showing moral strength and stability in the quagmire of camp life. Ivan Denisovich does not protest, does not believe in the future, he has no hope of returning from the camp. Shukhov does not think about tomorrow – “habitual” to think.

Solzhenitsyn narrates that the purpose of power, which has developed a system of punishments and humiliations, is to break down a person, to make him forget his human dignity. The “great happiness of freedom” that the Soviet man defended in the Great Patriotic War was “marred by crimes against the individual.” The authorities needed mindless, wordless, obediently obeying slaves with primitive low-level instincts, and not thinking people. Those who retained human dignity, moral laws, power seeks to push beyond the limit of human existence, in which man is lawless. Cruel conditions, exhausting hard work, rigid regulation of all aspects of life – all this quickly knocked people out of their habitual self-awareness. Unbroken are broken, as, for example, the naval officer Buinovsky, for which the principles and justice of Soviet power are sacred. They break, as the former chief Fetyukov

The power is hostile to man – this is confirmed by AI Solzhenitsyn in his novel One Day of Ivan Denisovich. “The great happiness of freedom should not be overshadowed by crimes against the individual, otherwise we will kill freedom with our own hands…” (M. Gorky).

This essay is complete and convincingly reveals the topic. Correctly interpreted is the content of the story, which is successfully used to show the problem of man and power in the works of our contemporary – an outstanding writer of the 20th century. AI Solzhenitsyn. In wise books, such as the novel One Day of Ivan Denisovich, the image of our country, its tragic history of the 20th century, stands on different levels. marred by crimes against a person who has won and defended the great happiness of freedom. Solzhenitsyn opened his veil of the past with his books and made me think about the future.


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“Power and Man” composition