This episode could rightly be entitled "Tyurin's Story." It serves to direct interest away from the protagonist for a short time and to demonstrate how many Russians of all backgrounds have been sent to the camps during the Stalin regime. Tyurin's only crime is that he is the son of a kulak, a farmer who had understandably resisted the government takeover of his private farm. Rather than expose his young brother to the inevitable wrath of the Stalin regime, he gives him into the care of a street gang, where he might learn the necessary techniques for survival. The power of Tyurin's story, like much of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, lies in the matter-of-fact way in which it is told — with no attributes of anger or sorrow accompanying Tyurin's account of his own fate and that of his brother. Indignation is really impossible because Tyurin's story is not extraordinary at all. It has been experienced by all of his listeners in the camp and by uncounted Russians outside.
There is also a brief glimpse of Ivan's basic, uncalculated humanity when he gives the butt of his cigarette to the deaf Senka Klevshin, whom he pities for not being able to follow the boss' story; before that, he even considers — momentarily — giving the butt to the scavenger Fetyukov, because he feels sorry for him.
