The choice of a protagonist created a problem of narration for Solzhenitsyn. Ivan is certainly not unintelligent, but his educational background is not suited for narrating a lengthy story. On the other hand, it would not have been suitable to have a highly educated narrator tell us about Ivan, because the educational and emotional distance between the two would have been too great. First-person narration by Ivan and third-person omniscient narration were therefore not possible. Solzhenitsyn uses a form of narration in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which is an ingenious variation of a traditional Russian narrative form, the skaz. This technique, employed widely in Russian folk tales, establishes an anonymous narrator who is on the same educational and social level as the protagonist and is able to transmit the main character's actions and thoughts, using the third-person singular, and sometimes the first-person plural, but giving the impression to the reader that the story is being told in first person by the protagonist. Indeed, in One Day, the reader has the impression that Ivan is the narrator, and only a closer look reveals that most of the story is told in third person. The reader sees through Ivan's eyes, although Ivan is not the narrator.
In addition to the skaz narrator, Solzhenitsyn employs another narrator who could be an educated fellow prisoner — the persona of the author — who is used only when the story has to deal with concepts which are clearly beyond the intellectual and linguistic grasp of both Ivan and the anonymous skaz narrator.
In yet other instances, this anonymous alter ego of Ivan's is present, but unable to penetrate into Ivan's mind. In these cases, we are told Ivan's thoughts in the third person, but in Ivan's own words; this perspective is mainly used for Ivan's daydreams.
