Russia 1951, this place and year may not mean a lot to many people living in our world today, but for prisoners during this time, it can bring back unwanted memories. Russia, or the Soviet Union, at this point had become a totalitarian country, trying to control everything that was going on. They wanted their citizens to be like soldiers, always doing everything they are told. Jerry Hough states, “If rulers had an obsession with creating a racially pure society or with transforming human nature so that people would act in the way assumed by Karl Marx's goal of a Communist society, then their control had to be far more intrusive than that needed by a traditional status quo dictator.” This control was seen even more in the prisons, called the…show more content… First, all the prisoners in the Gulag are given a number. They are only recognized and called by this number. “They spelled nothing but trouble, those numbers: if they were distinct the guards could identify you from any distance, but if you neglected to have them repainted in time you’d be sure to land in the guardhouse for not taking care of your number.” The guards only ever refer to the prisoners by their number, showcasing to the prisoners that they are not important. The guards do not care what the prisoner’s name is and they definitely do not care what their life is like. The prisoners are practically forced to forget their old…show more content… Many of the prisoners do not fight back directly but do little things to try and remember their upbringing and try to remember the beliefs that make them who they were before the sentence in the Gulag. You can see these subtle actions throughout Ivan’s day. The first one is that Ivan takes off his hat every time he sits down to eat. “Then he removed his hat from his clean-shaven head – however cold it might be, he could never bring himself to eat with his hat on…” This is something that he was required to do as he grew up. It is engrained in his mind and it gives him a sense of his upbringing and lets him feel like he is still the same human being. It makes him believe he is behaving in a civilized manner. Ivan makes sure that he never stoops so low as to beg for food or to become ravenous. His fighting back does not involve physical fights, but he does it subtly. Ivan refuses to submit to being stripped of his personality and life back home. He thinks about home many times throughout the day pushing him onto the next day. He knows he does not want to lose his humanity and he will do whatever it takes to keep it. Many prisoners may not have been able to be this strong mentally, but Ivan was set in his ways from the
