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Illustrated portrait of Der

A character in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Der

Der is the civilian or prisoner construction superintendent who monitors the power-station site.

The book

Cover of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
One Day in the Life of Ivan DenisovichAleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1962

One prisoner's ordinary day reveals the human reality inside a revolutionary state turned labor camp.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Der is the civilian or prisoner construction superintendent who monitors the power-station site. He threatens to report Tyurin for using roofing material to seal the building, ignoring that the men could not work otherwise. The squad’s united threat forces him to retreat and criticize workmanship instead. He survives the confrontation and leaves without carrying out his threat on the page.

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