Here, the tobacco episode shows Ivan, once again, to be a crafty, practical man; he is clever enough to avoid being taken advantage of in any transaction. While he was paid rubles in the other camps, he was not able to use the money the way he would have liked to. Here, he has to do extra work to make a few rubles, but he can buy much better tobacco on the camp's "black market." As usual, Ivan is able to see the positive side of his situation and does not dwell on the disadvantages, another strong weapon in his survival arsenal.
Without comment, Solzhenitsyn introduces another conversation into this episode, this time about the Korean War and the possibility of its widening into a worldwide war after the Chinese intervention. Ivan, who has come for a practical purpose — to buy tobacco — is not at all interested in this topic. It is as irrelevant to his personal struggle for survival as a debate about Eisenstein films or the latest Moscow theatrical productions. The Korean War or, for that matter, a world war, will not change Ivan's situation substantially. Talking about it is a waste of precious spare time.
The comment by a prisoner about "that old bastard in Moscow with the mustache [who] wouldn't give a damn about his own brother" is the author's only direct reference to Stalin in the whole work. It is claimed that Khrushchev, through the editor of the first edition of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, wanted at least one direct, negative comment made about Stalin, whose policies he was trying to undo. This passage was Solzhenitsyn's way of complying with this request. Significantly, he chooses to refer to Stalin as "that old bastard in Moscow with the mustache," almost literally the same expression which he himself used in his correspondence with a friend; earlier, his correspondence and this reference were the reasons for Solzhenitsyn's imprisonment. Here in camp, however, the authorities don't even bother to punish such irreverence — a meaningless leniency which Ivan naively interprets as "freedom of speech." We must remember, however, that the Captain will spend ten hard days in solitary confinement for a more innocent and a more justified remark. In addition, there is not much time in this "special" camp to engage in "free speech," and Ivan considers any abstract discussion a waste of time.
