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Author’s Background[[image:solzhenitsyn.jpg align="right" link="http://%28http//:nighthawk%20news.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/outside-the-modern-library-the-25-best-foreign-language%20-novels/%29"]]
Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian realist writer, writer of ”One day in the Life of Ivan Densovitch,’’ and many other books was born December 11, 1918 in Kislovodsk, Soviet Union. Growing up with only his mom (his dad died in the Russian Army before Alex was born.) was influenced by his mom wanting to become a writer but soon followed in his fathers footsteps as he was drafted into the Russian Army in 1941. Five years after he had been drafted, he soon found himself in a Russian labor camp, called Gulags, because of a letter he tried sending to his friend was found by the Army. It had content that spoke out against the communist party, and there leader Joseph Stalin. In 1953, after Alex was released, and the years of the harsh experiences inspired him to write about his time served in the labor camps([|aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?vid=24&hid=7&sid=f7d47a79-2746-48fe-9dab-2717ee55b81f%40sessionmgr7&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=MOL9810000725)]Although many of his books were condemned, his popularity and the success of his books didn’t start until the fall Joseph Stalin, and the rise of Nikita Khrushchev’s. His first book, “One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” published in 1962, talks about his horrible experience and the harsh treatment under the Dictator, while he was in multiple labor camps. Many of his books that were published, after his first one he wrote about his personal views that speaks out against the Soviet system of government. The publication and release of his books in the States were unauthorized, and he was soon he was arrested and stripped of his citizenship and kicked out of the Soviet Union. The book “The Gulag Archipelago” was a documentary about the camps he used his personal notes, real people in the camps who spoke up about it, and his own memories. This book not only showed his nightmare and despair, but it showed the true colors of the Soviet Union type of government and also opened the eyes of the rest of the world such as the United States, that brought shame and embarrassment to the country.



Author’s Personal Connection and Motivation for Writing
“In view of such gross infringement on my copyright and “other” rights, will the fourth congress defend me, yes or no? It seems to me that the choice is also not without importance for the literacy future of several delegates.”-Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn. Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn’s whole connection to his book is his motivation for writing as well. The harsh treatment that he suffered while he was in the forced labor camps, forced him to tell his story and also shed light to his situation to the world about the Gulags that a lot of Russian people were harshly mistreated as well. After he was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in labor camps for speaking out against the government and Stalin in a letter, he was sent to a Siberian camp and this is when he first became inspired to write. In his first book, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” a historically fictional/biographical book based on Alex’s firsthand experience in the camp, he wrote the book soon after being released from the camp along with a document writing that he collected from other inmates that were in the camp with him that lead to his arrest. After his books were published they got popular in the West, and he stripped of his citizenship and was forced to leave the country. A lot of his books are directly focused on the system of government that was ran by Joseph Stalin and his criticism. The reason why he wanted to write these books was because he wanted people to know about these camps, he wanted something to be done so that no one had to experience these horrors of the Gulags. His motivation to writing these books has also inspired him to criticize the communist party.

Historical Context of the Novel
The book “One Day in the Life of Ivan Densovitch,” takes place around post World War II and the leader Stalin had taken back states and other places that Hitler and his army had conquered during the World War II. At this time Stalin wanted anyone who resented him or was considered a threat to him to be dead. Assassinations and killings were big in the country because Stalin wanted to keep control of the country, he would even kill his generals and people around him because he was scared that people would betray him. During WWII Hitler had made a treaty and formed an alliance with Hitler, but he soon betrayed Stalin and attacked the Russian Army, and Stalin attacked back. The two leaders were both dictators of there communist countries and they both did not want to give up there positions of power. Gulags were still going on in the country and were used very violently towards many people. Gulags were originally designed by Vladimir Lenin to help hold anyone who was against the Soviet Union party such as spies or anyone who was trying to take down the system of government. Vladimir Lenin was responsible for introducing communism into Russia after Karl Marx created the first form of communism called Marxism witch inspired many dictators after his time to advance the theory of communism. Stalin in 1930’s advanced his own version of communism by putting into effect the Great Purge, witch also made the Gulags bigger because the Great Purge also made it to where anyone who spoke out against the communist party was punished. This made no room for the people to question the government making Stalin’s power much more greater, and allowing of coarse to let communism spread through out many other countries. After the war ended in 1945, Russia became a big world power and along with them, USA also had become a big world power just from recovering from the great depression. The two countries would soon start a 40 year grudge that sends the USA and Russia into a cold war later on(.[|ttp://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=24&entryid=317324&searchtext=russia&type=simple)]

Cultural Context of the Country
In the early 1990’s the Russians had just lost to Japan in a war, and the leader in that time was the Czar, Nicholas II and many people and workers were rioting because of the loss. This influenced the Czar to change the government and become apart of the world allies again. The government was favoring the styles of a democratic system, than in 1917 Vladimir Lenin and his Bolsheviks (made rioters, workers and soldiers.) had overthrown the Czar and his family.([|http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRC&userGrou)]After Lenin and his Bolsheviks had taken over the government they had introduced the title, The Soviet Union to replace Russia. Lenin had also introduced the biggest factor that till this day, had the biggest influence on the country witch was communism. The original ideals from Karl Marx had influenced Lenin to use it in practice, this is what made Russia into the country it is today. Even today it is still a communist dictatorship and still one of the world powers. It became a world power after WWII when the Soviet Union had a big part in defeating the Nazi army, this also brought a fight of powers between them and USA. Russian culture is beautiful, and thanks to the government a lot of wild life is still revered today, places such as their rain forest they have the biggest Rain Forests called “The Lungs of Europe,” that gives the world a big amount of oxygen and helping the environment. Russia’s culture is highly influenced by its government, because the government also influenced different types of ethnic groups that fight within the country and other countries around it.

Political Context of the Book[[image:joseph-stalin3.gif width="273" height="280" align="left" link="http://josephstalinfans.com/"]]
The political issues in the book are real political issues that were going on in Russia in that time around post WWII. In the book it expresses that the leader in that time was Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the country that took over leadership after the revolutionist Vladimir Lenin. Joseph Stalin had made the Gulags bigger then Lenin and he used them to keep control of the country. In the book Ivan had been in a labor camp or a Gulag and in real life these Gulags were really going on, they were harsh camps that were meant to almost brainwash people if they were disobedient to there government.([] ) They would have the same basic logistical thinking of a prison, they were meant to rehabilitate people so they would not speak out against the government again. The book was meant to show the horrors of the Gulags and the political portion of the story is a big part of the novel, because of the government is the whole reason why Alex was writing his book. The government was of coarse was communist, and this to some people was demeaning to there life and some people such as Alex did not agree with how the government was being run. But in a communist country people are not allowed to speak out or citizen the government, a result in doing these actions can end someone up in jail, labor camps, or even dead. Lucky for Alex he was not killed, it’s a good thing because then he would have never been able to write, to expose the camps and bringing the camps publicly known and also known to the West. As a result the government had stripped Alexsandr of his citizenship and he was kicked out of the government. People of the Soviet Union are not protected even to this day, like out Bill of Rights, they do not get to have the Freedom of Expression, of the Freedom of Speech like we do. If someone says anything that the government does not approve of then that could lead to the end of someone’s life. So there is a huge influence on the political part of the Soviet Union, that Alexsandr expresses in his book that he wants many people to know about. Even though Alexsandr went through a lot of stuff and hard times, and his books had opened the eyes of many people, the country has yet to get ride of its communist ways and stop depriving people of there human rights.

Geographical Context of the Novel
In the novel “One Day in the Life of Ivan Densovich” it talks about Russian Gulags and the absolute harshness that Alexsandr had experienced in there. The book takes place in Russia, Russia is located in the eastern part of the world, its more in the eastern part of Europe. And it is just south of the Arctic Ocean and just to the east of it, is the North Pacific Ocean. Neighboring countries are China witch is to the south of Russia and other countries such as the Ukraine to the West and Iran witch is to the South West of Russia. Russia is also the biggest country by landmass, in the whole world. The labor camp in the book was located in Siberia, witch is located in the Western part of Russia it is a very big country and it is where most of the Gulags were taking place. Since Russia is so close to the Artic ocean temperatures can reach very cold conditions, making a lot of plants or food in the country hard to grow because not a lot of the soil is fertile. Plants are not able to grow because of the harsh coldness of the country.

Personal Response to the Book and History of Russia
When I read the book I was first introduced to Gulags, before that I only new about Auschwitz that were created by Germany and it was meant to seize the Jews by the control of Adolf Hitler. When I figured out about these camps it made want to do more research about these types of camps, I wanted to learn more about what type of treatment people hade experience in those types of environments. I also wanted to learn more about Joseph Stalin, I learned that he made these types of Gulags worse then his predecessor Vladimir Lenin who introduced communism. I learned what type of a person Stalin really was, by doing more research that I didn’t need to do also more about WWII and what was going on around the world. Opening my eyes to these types of things I wanted to know if anyone else had used these types of camps and if other governments were like this. I found many other dictators that also used forced labor camps to control people and keep control of their government. People like Hitler, Chairman Mao, Castro, and many other powerful dictators that were harsh to their people and used camps to punish anyone that opposed them. “One Day in the Life of Ivan Densovich,” had inspired me to do mine own research that also helped me understand foreign affairs better, and understand how just the world works in a whole. I have also come to appreciate Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn more and learned his experiences and understood his struggles and through him I wanted to learn about history and the world.

Refrences and Links: (Introduction)[]pName=ccsd5_ehs&tabID=T001&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CH1420079741&&docId=GALE|H1420079741&docType=GALE

(Russia)[]&option=all&searchsites=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,

([|aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail?vid=24&hid=7&sid=f7d47a79-2746-48fe-9dab-2717ee55b81f%40sessionmgr7&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=lfh&AN=MOL9810000725]