Nobel Prizes are awarded in December. 45 years ago the prize for literature went to Alexander Solzhenitsyn ‘for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature.’ This included his story One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Alyosha the Baptist has been a hero of mine since student days.
He appears as a character, minor at first, in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novella of life in a Soviet labour camp, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
It is the chronicle of the daily struggle of the ‘zeks’ (prisoners) existing on near starvation rations, amidst prison guard brutality and relentless manual work, in extreme sub-zero temperatures in Stalin’s USSR. It is a classic record of life in the Gulag camps.
The chief protagonist of the story is Ivan Denisovich Shukhov and Alyosha is one of the three men with whom this seasoned camp survivor shares a bunk in an ice encrusted barrack hut. Solzenitsyn had served some years in a labour camp himself and so we can be sure that his fiction is inhabited by people he had come across in real life. Alyosha the Baptist becomes something of a role model for us of Christian witness in a most severe and threatening environment.
Suffering as a Christian
We first meet Alyosha as Shukhov wakes up one morning feeling unwell. ‘Alyosha was murmuring his prayers’ while another of the bunk quartet has just returned from the latrines estimating that the early morning temperature is at least 30° below zero.
Shukhov gets nowhere as he tries for some respite by reporting to the sick bay only to be turned away. With a little breakfast, Shukhov comes back to the hut. ‘Alyosha the Baptist was reading the Testament under his breath (perhaps specially for Shukhov – those fellows were fond of recruiting): If you suffer, it must not be for murder, theft or sorcery, nor for infringing the rights of others. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he should feel no disgrace, but confess that name to the honour of God.’ (1 Peter 4.15, 16). Solzhenitsyn goes on to explain: ‘Alyosha was smart: he’d made a chink in the wall and hidden the little book in it, and it had survived every search.’ Later in the book Shukhov sees Alyosha as ‘Unpractical, that’s his trouble. Makes himself nice to everyone, but doesn’t know how to earn anything.’ Shukhov’s sees only the needs of this life, but Alyosha’s practical focus is elsewhere.
The injustice suffered by believers is registered. It was Soviet atheism that had, of course, landed the Christians in prison. They are ‘a luckless lot’, the main character muses to himself. ‘What harm did they do anyone by praying to God? Every man Jack of ’em given 25 years. Nowadays they [the authorities] cut all cloth to the same measure – 25 years.’
Witness at work
Shukhov’s work party, along with other groups, is marched off into the freezing morning to work on a power station building site. It is here that Alyosha’s Christian faith in particular commands Shukhov’s respect.
New lorry loads of building blocks arrive unexpectedly. The team comes under pressure to get the work done. Alyosha is assigned to fetch and carry with an ex-naval man. The author describes Alyosha as a ‘quiet lad,’ who anybody could order about. ‘“It’s all hands on deck, middy,” the captain urged. “See how fast they’re laying blocks?” Alyosha smiled meekly: “If it’s necessary to work faster then let’s work faster. Just as you say.” And tramped down for the next load.’ The author comments tellingly, ‘What a treasure’s a meek man for a team!’
And this meekness is not without influence. As the day proceeds and it is necessary to further increase the pace, Shukhov, who is laying blocks with his trowel, asks for them to be heaved up onto the wall he is building so he can work faster. It is Alyosha who steps up to the task. ‘ “All right, Ivan Denisovich. Show me where to put them.” ’ Solzhenitsyn reflects: ‘You could count on Alyosha. Did whatever was asked of him. If everybody in the world was like that, Shukhov would have done likewise. If a man asks for help why not help him? Those Baptists had got something there.’
An opportunity
It all turns into a pretty good day for Shukhov, given the circumstances. He is able to scrounge / graft some extra food. And he finds a discarded hacksaw blade and on returning to camp, gets it past the guards secreted in his glove. This can be turned into a small knife for doing shoe repairs with the potential of earnings from other prisoners.
Back in the hut at the end of the day, Shukhov had ‘had such a good day, he felt in such good spirits, that somehow he wasn’t in the mood for sleep yet’ and he whispers a prayer of thanksgiving. So as the book comes towards its close Shukhov falls into conversation with Alyosha. This section is the longest conversation in the text and may well, therefore, be intended as Solzhenitsyn’s climax, as two attitudes towards coping with life in the labour camp, that of Shukhov and that of Alyosha, are contrasted. Earthly pragmatism and heavenly wisdom lay alongside each other for the reader to consider. Alyosha doesn’t have it all his own way, but he does give a good account of his faith.
Climax conversation
Shukhov ‘lay head to the window, but Alyosha, who slept next to him on the same level, across a low wooden railing, lay the opposite way, to catch the light. He was reading his Bible again. Alyosha hears Shukhov’s mumbled prayer and encourages him to pray more fervently and believingly. The Baptists had prayed in the Caucasus and that hadn’t stopped them being rounded up into the camps! ‘“Oh, we didn’t pray for that, Ivan Denisovich”, Alyosha said earnestly. Bible in hand he drew nearer to Shukhov till they lay face to face. “Of all earthly and mortal things Our Lord commanded us to pray only for our daily bread…” “Our ration, you mean?” asked Shukhov. But Alyosha didn’t give up… “Ivan Denisovich, you shouldn’t pray to get parcels or for extra skilly, not for that. …We must pray about things of the spirit – that the Lord Jesus should remove the scum of anger from our hearts…”’
Shukhov seeks to divert the conversation by telling of a hypocritical priest in his home town, but Alyosha replies: ‘Why are you telling me about priests? The Orthodox Church has departed from Scripture. It’s because their faith is unstable that they’re not in prison.’ The exchange of views continues. ‘ “Alyosha”, he said… “I’m not against God, understand that. I readily believe in God. But I don’t believe in paradise or in hell. Why d’you take us for fools and stuff us with your paradise and hell stories? That’s what I don’t like.” He lay back, dropping his cigarette-ash between the bunk frame and the window…
Content in prison
“Well,” he said conclusively, “however much you pray it doesn’t shorten your stretch. You’ll sit it out from beginning to end anyhow.”
‘ “Oh you mustn’t pray for that either,” said Alyosha…”Why d’you want freedom?… You should rejoice that you’re in prison. Here you have time to think about your soul. As the apostle Paul said: Why all these tears? Why are you trying to weaken my resolution? For my part I am ready not merely to be bound but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 21.13)
‘Shukhov gazed at the ceiling in silence. Now he didn’t know whether he wanted freedom or not…Freedom meant one thing for him – home. But they wouldn’t let him go home. Alyosha was speaking the truth. His voice and his eyes left no doubt that he was happy in prison.’
After all being hauled outside by the guards for another check on the number of prisoners, Ivan Denisovich’s day comes to a close. He is left with real questions, but he has been confronted with the vibrant faith of a Bible-believing Christian who seems to be flourishing under the very worst of conditions.
Whatever our circumstances, Alyosha is a challenge to us all.
JEB
FOOTNOTE
All quotations from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, translated by Ralph Parker, published by Penguin Books, 1972 edition.
