The First Circle (В круге первом, V kruge pervom) is a novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn released in 1968.
The novel details the life of the occupants of a gulag prison camp located in the Moscow suburbs, the Marfino sharashka. Many of the prisoners (zeks) are technicians or academics who have been arrested under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code in Stalin's purges following the Second World War. Unlike inhabitants of other hard labor camps of the Gulag system, the sharashka zeks are adequately fed and enjoy good working conditions.
The title is an allusion to Dante's first circle of Hell in The Divine Comedy[1], wherein the philosophers of Greece live in a walled green garden. They are unable to enter Heaven, but enjoy a small space of relative freedom in the heart of Hell.
[edit] Plot summary
The prisoners work on technical projects to assist state security agencies and generally pander to Stalin's increasing paranoia. While most are aware of how much better off they are than "regular" Gulag prisoners, some are also conscious of the overwhelming moral dilemma of working to aid a system that is the cause of so much suffering.
By the end of the book, several zeks, including Gleb Nerzhin, the autobiographical hero, choose to stop cooperating, even though their choice means being sent to much deadlier camps.
The book also briefly depicts several Soviet leaders of the period, including Stalin himself, who is depicted as vain and vengeful, remembering with pleasure the torture of a rival, dreaming of one day becoming emperor of the world, or listening to his subordinate Viktor Abakumov and wondering: "[...]has the day come to shoot him yet?"
The novel addresses numerous philosophical themes, and through multiple narratives is a powerful argument both for a stoic integrity and humanism. Like other Solzhenitsyn works, the book illustrates the difficulty in maintaining dignity within a system designed to strip its inhabitants of it.
[edit] Characters
- Victor Semyonovich Abakumov: Minister of State Security.
- Grigory Borisovich Abramson: A zek engineer, serving his second term.
- Avenir: Volodin's uncle in Tver; Volodin's visit to him is an important part in his change that leads to his phone call to the American embassy.
- Aleksandr Yevdokimych Bobynin: Zek boss of Laboratory Number Seven at Marfino; a strong personality, it is said, that even his superiors feel a certain respect for him.
- Vladimir Erastovich Chelnov: Professor of Mathematics, a "transient zek," serving his eighteenth year of imprisonment.
- Rostislav (Ruska) Vadimich Doronin: A zek mechanic, 23. Loves Clara, daughter of the prosecutor Makarygin. An informer himself, albeit a reluctant one, is beaten and sent away for helping fellow inmates find out who the other informers are.
- Ivan Feofanovich Dyrsin: A zek engineer, interrogated later because of his wife's complaints in her letters.
- Larisa Nikolayevna Emina: A free employee in the Design Office at Marfino.
- Dinera Petrovna Galakhova: Daughter of the prosecutor Makarygin, wife of Nikolai Galakhov.
- Nikolai (Kolya) Arkadevich Galakhov: A popular writer.
- Illarion Pavlovich Gerasimovich: A zek physicist specializing in optics, a relative newcomer to Marfino. He is offered a position in the development of all sorts of observing cameras, but refuses and is sent away.
- Natalya Pavlovna Gerasimovich: His wife.
- Isaak Moiseyevich Kagan: The zek "director of the battery room", imprisoned for non-reporting of "counter-revolutionary activity", nevertheless turns out to be an informer in prison.
- Ilya Terentevich Khorobrov: A zek radio engineer, imprisoned for defacing his election ballot. He is sent away in the end, mostly because he cannot stop speaking his mind.
- Lieutenant Colonel Klimentiev: Head of the Marfino Special Prison.
- Viktor Lyubimitchev: Considered a "boy as good as gold", but turns out to be an informer in the end.
- Pyotr Afanazevich Makarygin: Prosecutor, father of Dinera, Dotnara and Clara
- Klara Petrovna Makarygina: Makarygin's youngest daughter, works in the vacuum laboratory and falls in love with Ruska.
- Yakov Ivanovich Mamurin: Former military man, fell out of favor with Stalin and works now in Nr. 7 lab. He has a favored position, a single cell and the others nickname him "Iron mask".
- Major Myshin: Prison's head of security.
- Gleb Vikentyevich Nerzhin: A zek mathematician, age 31. An autobiographical character. He is offered a position in a cryptography group, but refuses, even though he knows what the outcome will be.
- Nadya Ilinichna Nerzhina: Gleb's wife. Waited for eight years and became a student in Moscow because of him (Marfino is not far from Moscow) but is considering divorce because she can no longer hide that she is married to a prisoner, which she needs to in order to study or get a job.
- Andrey Andreyevich Potapov: Zek engineer in Nr. 7 lab, good friend of Nerzhin, with whom he shared a bunk in the Butyrka prison.
- Valentin Martinevich Pryanchikov: A zek engineer and head of the acustic laboratory, "Walentulya" is not taken seriously and behaves like a child, despite the fact that he is as old as Nerzhin.
- Adam Venyaminovich Roitman: Yakonov's right hand, the two are separated by their deep rivalry. He gets involved in Rubin's new group, much to the disappointement of Yakonov.
- Lev Grigoryevich Rubin: A zek philologist and teacher, 36, a Communist from youth, but nevertheless always ready for a good joke, even about socialism. Rubin is based on Solzhenitsyn's friend Lev Kopelev. He gets a position in a new group; his first task is to identify the man who called the American embassy.
- Artur Siromakha: The "premier" of informers, he is the one who betrays Ruska's scheme to find the other informers.
- Major Shikin: The institute's head of security. Considers himself a fair man, but is hated by the prisoners.
- Dmitri Aleksandrovich Sologdin: A zek designer, 36, a survivor of the northern camps now serving his second term. Sologdin is based on Solzhenitsyn's friend Dimitrii Mikhailovich Panin, who later wrote a book entitled "The Notebooks of Sologdin". He works on a cryptographic machine in secret, but is found out and has to develop his invention so as not to get sent back.
- Serafima Vitalyevna (Simochka): Free employee at Marfino. Loves Nerzhin, who seemed to reciprocate but refused to make love to her after a visit from his wife.
- Innokentii Artemyevich Volodin: A Ministry official whose phone call at the beginning of the book functions as a catalyst for much of the later action in the sharashka and eventually leads to his arrest. Married to Dotnara (Dotty), daughter of the prosecutor Makarygin.
- Dotnara Petrovna Volodina: Daughter of the prosecutor makarygin, Volodin's wife.
- Anton Nikolayevich Yakonov: A former prisoner himself, he is now Marfino's chief engineer. Has been given a last month to complete his work and fears being sent back to prison.
[edit] Editions
Solzhenitsyn first wrote this book with 96 chapters. He felt he could never get this version published in the USSR, so he produced a "lightened" version of 87 chapters. In the long version, the diplomat Volodin's phone call (chapter 1) was to the US embassy, warning them of a Soviet attempt to get atomic bomb secrets. Also in the long version Sologdin is an Orthodox Christian. Shortly after One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was published, Solzhenitsyn submitted his "lightened" version for publication in the USSR, but it was never accepted. It was this version that was first published abroad in 1968. The complete 96 chapter version (with some later revisions) was published in Russian by YMCA Press in 1978, and has been published in Russia as part of Solzhenitsyn's complete works. Recently, The New Yorker has published the opening of the original novel in English translation, and it has also appeared in The Solzhenitsyn Reader.[2]
[edit] Adaptations
The Polish director Aleksander Ford made an English-language film based on the novel in 1973. While it hewed closely to Solzhenitsyn's plot, the film was a critical and commercial failure.
The 1991 TV miniseries based on the novel, First Circle, won Canada's Gemini Award for Best Photography in a Dramatic Program or Series, awarded to Ron Orieux. Directed by Larry Sheldon, it received nominations for best dramatic miniseries, best actor, best actress, and best writing in the category.[3]It starred Victor Garber as the protagonist, Christopher Plummer, Robert Powell and Dominic Raacke with F. Murray Abraham as Stalin. It was released on DVD.
In January 2006, the RTR TV aired the miniseries directed by Gleb Panfilov.[4] Solzhenitsyn helped adapt the novel for the screen and narrated the film.[5]
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
The First Circle, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author), Thomas P. Whitney (translator), European Classics, pb.
The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947-2005: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Edward E. Ericson, Jr., Daniel J. Mahoney.
The Oak And The Calf - Sketches Of Literary Life in The Soviet Union, (memoir) by Alexandr I. Solzhenitsyn.
[edit] External links
