Tvardovsky also says that it is the purpose of the novel and of its mentor, Nikita Khrushchev, to "tell the truth to the Party and the people" (note the order of importance of the two terms), in order to avoid such things from ever happening again in the future.
Tvardovsky goes on to affirm that the novel is not a "memoir," or a recounting of personal experiences by the author, but a work of art which is based on personal experience, and which, since it is based on "concrete material," conforms to the aesthetic theory of Socialist Realism.
Because the theme of the novel is limited by the realities of time and place — a Siberian labor camp of the 1950s — Tvardovsky insists that the main thrust of the work is not a critique of the Soviet system but that, instead, it is a painting of an exceptionally vivid and truthful picture about the "nature of man." The novel, the editor stresses, does not go out of its way to emphasize the "arbitrary brutality which was the consequence of the breakdown of Soviet legality," but instead, it describes a "very ordinary day" in the life of a prisoner without conveying to the reader a feeling of "utter despair." Thus, Tvardovsky claims, the effect of the novel is cathartic — that is, it "unburdens our mind of things thus far unspoken [and] thereby strengthens and ennobles us."
It may be unfair to call this preface "political hackwork." Evidence indicates that Tvardovsky was sincere-both in his belief in Khrushchev's liberalization policies and in his disgust at Stalin's personality cult. It is clear, however, that he avoids any outright critique of the Soviet system by insisting that One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich does not level any criticism at the Soviet social and political realities, but rather, it attacks only the excesses of the Stalin regime, a temporary "breakdown of Soviet legality."
