In general, labor camps were some of the harshest places to spend your life. Many people all over the world were sent to labor camps for many different reasons, such as their nationality, their religion and what they believe about politics. In 1929, there were over one million people in these labor camps. Then in 1940, there were over 12 million people. These workers did many different jobs such as, building highways, different buildings and many other ordinary day to day jobs (Sauder). Solzhenitsyn, the author of many books, portrayed his life as the character Ivan in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. This book describes how he lived when he was sent to a labor camp in 1945 (Nobel Foundation). The book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, is entirely based on the theory of survival of the fittest.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn did many things during his life. He used survival of the fittest in his life in many different ways. He started his life with some fairly good education while he was growing up. He started out with math, and became very successful with his math skills. Later on, he decided that he wanted to be a writer, and he also became very successful with that since he wrote many books, speeches and plays such as: "The First Circle," "August 1914," "The Oak and the Calf," his commencement speech at Harvard University, "A World Split Apart," and one of his plays, "Love Girl and the Innocent." In 1945, Solzhenitsyn was arrested. He was caught saying some disrespectful remarks about Stalin. When he was arrested, he was sent to detention/labor camps. He spent eight years in concentration camps, then three years in exile (Nobel Foundation; Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich). While he was in the camp, he was very honest. He used his survival of the fittest skills in order to survive and he thinks that he has a good life while he spent his time there.