One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich - The 104th

The 104th

The 104th was a labour camp team to which the main protagonist, Ivan Denisovich, belonged. Other members comprise the following list. Although there were over 20 members in the team the book outlines these characters especially.

• Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, the protagonist of the novel. The reader is able to see Russian camp life through Denisovich's eyes. Information is given through his thoughts, feelings and actions which portray camp life through many of its restricted activities.
• Alyosha (Alyoshka), a Baptist. He believes that being imprisoned is an earned thing, since it allows him to reflect more on God and Jesus. Alyosha is, surprisingly, able to hide part of a Bible in the barracks. Shukhov responds to his beliefs by saying that he believes in God but not heaven or hell, nor in spending much time on the issue.
• Gopchik, a young member of the squad who works hard and for whom Shukhov has fatherly feelings, as he reminds Shukhov of his dead son. Gopchik was imprisoned for taking food to Ukrainian rebels. Shukhov believes Gopchik has the knowledge and adjustment skills to advance far at the camp.
• Andrey Prokofyevich Tiurin (Tyurin), the foreman/squad leader for the 104th, who has been in the camp for 19 years. Tiurin likes Shukhov and gives him some of the better jobs. This is only part of the hierarchy: Tiurin must argue for better jobs and wages from the camp officers in order to please the squad, who then must work hard in order to please the camp officers and get larger rations.
• Fetiukov (Fetyukov), a member of the squad who has thrown away all of his dignity in the camps and is particularly seen as a lowlife by Shukhov and the other camp members. He shamelessly scrounges for bits of food and tobacco.
• Tzesar Markovich (Caesar), an inmate who works in the camp offices and has been given other special privileges, such as being allowed to wear his civilian fur hat, instead of it being given to the Personal Property department. Tzesar is a film director, who was imprisoned before he could finish his first feature film. Some discussions in the novel indicate that he holds formalist views in art, which were probably the reason for his imprisonment. A cultured man, Tzesar discusses film with Buynovsky. His somewhat higher class background assures him food parcels.
• Buinovsky (Buynovsky, "The Captain"), a former Soviet Naval captain. A relative newcomer to the camp, Buynovsky was imprisoned when an admiral on a British cruiser on which he had served as a naval liaison sent him a gift. In the camp, Buynovsky has not yet learned to be submissive before the warders.
• Pavlo, a Ukrainian who serves as deputy foreman/squad leader and assists Tiurin in directing the 104th, especially when Tiurin is absent.
• Johann Kilgas, the leading worker of the 108th squad along with Shukhov. Latvian by birth, he speaks Russian like a native, having learned the language in his childhood. Kilgas is popular with his team for making jokes.
• Senka, a member of the 108th who became deaf from intense fighting during World War II, and having escaped and been recaptured three times by the Germans ended up in Buchenwald Concentration Camp.