The Gulag Archipelago [Abridged] (Harvill Press Editions)

If you’re prone to retching on hearing stories of gruel being served up in washbasins, human corpses being shoved under beds, prisoners eating the remains of a dead horse and 80 prisoners crammed into a transit train being left to wet themselves because visits to the toilet took too long to supervise, THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO is not for you. But if your stomach can stand such tales, and many far worse, the book is quite simply a masterpiece. Written in the spirit of the Star Trekkers, its Nobel Prize-winning author boldly going, like Captain Kirk and his crew, where no man had gone before, it was the first-ever true exposé of the brutality that occurred in the Stalin-era labour camps, or GULAGs as they were known. Predictably its publication in the West resulted in serious consequences for Solzhenitsyn – he was deported to the USA in 1974 – but thank God it was published. I first became acquainted with Solzhenitsyn’s writings whilst a pupil at a well-regarded grammar school in the Home Counties in the 1970s. My third-year class studied ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, which documents a typical day in the life of a prisoner in the “special” camps in which Solzhenitsyn served eight years as an “Article 58er” (basically an anti-Soviet agitator). It interested me sufficiently follow it up with GULAG, to which IVAN DENISOVICH is effectively a prequel. So I purchased a copy in Foyles Bookshop back in late 1976 and read it over the subsequent six months. It really does make IVAN DENISOVICH seem rather tame. Unfortunately, I gave the book away some years after reading it, but the invention of e-books and my recent retirement gave me the money and time to purchase it and re-read it. What struck me in the ‘70s, and now, were the similarities between the attitudes and mindsets of the GULAGs and those which I encountered daily at my school. Was this surprising? Not really, when you consider that many of the parents and teachers of the time had served in prisoner of war camps, albeit more likely German rather than Russian ones. Let’s look at just two examples. The main weapon of torture against GULAG prisoners was the cold. Prisoners working in mine shafts had to strip naked, have cold water poured over them and run naked to their compound. This evokes memories of the compulsory showers that pupils had to endure after compulsory games three days a week, even in midwinter. Not only was the water freezing, the teachers would walk round the changing rooms, obviously “checking out” the naked teenage bodies of their pupils. In Stalinist Russia, the state was always right and its subjects always wrong. Every complaint ever made to a camp chief was somehow proven wrong. This sounds like a parallel to my school experience, where a succession of complaints about sex abuse by a “Jimmy Saville” teacher were dismissed for alleged “lack of evidence” even though they had been well documented with dates and times. The offender was caught, pleaded guilty and jailed – 20 years later. Sexual abuse of women prisoners was commonplace in GULAGs ; many women got favourable treatment in return for granting sexual favours to male guards. The GULAG experience stayed in prisoners’ minds for many years afterwards. Solzhenitsyn deserves kudos for recognising that the human defence mechanism does not allow such experiences to be forgotten. In Volume 3, he appeals to fellow writers not to write that people discharged from camps have forgotten it all and are happy. Absolutely true, and a parallel to some of my unfortunate classmates who were on anti-depressants for a long time after leaving the school, With free speech now under serious threat from moral totalitarianism, GULAG is actually more relevant now than it has ever been. In Volume 1, Solzhenitsyn recalls a case of a university lecturer losing his job for quoting Lenin, but not Stalin, in a lecture. The parallels with what is happening now, with academics losing their jobs and receiving death threats for questioning the wisdom of gender self-identification, and stating the biologically provable fact that only women can get pregnant, are alarming. A central message of GULAG is that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Now, it would seem, is a good time to reiterate that message and read this book, to which I award five well-deserved stars.

Admittedly, when I first got this book and seen how large it is, I was immediately intimated. Shortly after starting it, this feeling continued. Before reading this I literally knew nothing about Russian history, not a thing. So I barely understood what Solzhenitsyn was talking about and for the most of the beginning of the book, this is a problem. Obviously Solzhenitsyn references many names and events relating to Russian history, which I had no understanding or connection to which inevitably made the book difficult to interpret. So in response to this, I took the time to research Russian history to at least give me a basic understanding. Once things began to make more sense, the book wasn’t as heavy to pick up. For someone who finds themselves in a similar situation to myself or even struggles to read the first 1/4 anyway, STICK IT OUT. This book is phenomenal. Solzhenitsyn proves himself as possibly one of the most impressive writers of the 20th century. His life and the fundamentals that made up the gulag archipelago open your mind in a way which no other book will.The horrific details and truth within this book gave me a new found appreciation for life. You’re life problems immediately seem insignificant as you can’t even imagine the pain and suffering felt by the victims of the gulag archipelago. Solzhenitsyn does an amazing job at showing you very human aspects of so many different events which occurred. As well as this, you can’t help but appreciate his determination and outstanding skills to have actually written such a book, having gone through what he did. This book definitely isn’t pretty and can sometimes be tough to read because of the horrific details it shares but, is a massive eye-opener for anyone who is willing to read it. I’m very happy I read it and can say it has influenced me to dig even deeper into Russian literature.

I had been quite naive to the atrocities carried out during the Russian communist regime under Joseph Stalin until I read Child 44 - the epilogue of which detailed a number of facts and numbers about those who died, who were imprisoned and those (literally millions) who were sent to various gulags to suffer years of torment and abuse. Tom Rob Smith also cites the Gulag Archipelago as one of his sources and I decided to learn more. Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is an astounding work. And even more astounding is that what was done in the name of communism has essentially been whitewashed by history, bar books such as this. It is terrifying to think that what Hitler was doing for 2 years was being done to the populace of the USSR for almost 40. To put it in perspective, around 60 million Russians (and Finnish, Germans, Ukrainians, Jews...the list goes on) died during this period - the population of Britain! This was 40 years of execution, starvation, torture, fear and denouncement. No one was ever brought to account (unlike the majority of the Nazis) and the perpetrator of all of this died of a stroke at the ripe old age of 75. Solzhenitsyn encompasses all of this and more. The main focus is the Gulag system however he begins with the fear of arrest, the torture and imprisonment, and then moves to the archipelago. The subject is understandably an emotional one and the prose is punctured by asides from the author berating the system and also berating those who - as late as the 70's - were obviously still trying to keep a lid on what had happened. This makes the book incredibly personal and all the more interesting from a person who lived through all of this (along with stories and quotes from other witnesses and victims) rather than a more objective modern view. The only negatives for me are that the book sometimes feels slightly disjointed. It is an abridged version of the earlier publications which were 4 books covering the entire period - and there are areas where chapters have been taken out which might (in my view) have been better kept in. Particularly a chapter on an escape attempt which I would have loved to have read (and will look up). Also, Solzhenitsyn sometimes goes into very descriptive chapters on the Russian system which - whilst necessary - can be a little dry. All of this aside, this book should be read by everyone.

I greatly appreciate the journey of this author. I feel privileged to be informed of the plight that the people of the Gulag who were punished so brutally. The writing style is good but there are a few translation trap doors that can confuse a reader with no knowledge of Russia or Russian history. I sincerely thank Jordan P. for recommending it to the west and us westerners that simply were not informed of any of this harrowing true story.

This is one of the most important books of the 20th century and can be credited in large part to bringing down the former soviet union. In honest and deeply saddening terms it explains how communism almost inevitably leads to disasterous consequences by taking you through the real life experiences of Alexandr Solzenhitsyn and his incarceration in the Soviet gulag system. Where men almost inevitably become monsters by increments. It is a stark warning to those who would run the most large scale and conclusive social experiment in ideology ever tried. With the predictable consequences seen throughout the modern history. It should be mandatory reading in every western school. It is not an easy read but you do come out of it wiser and with a better understanding of the flaws in the ideology and why and how things consistently go wrong every time it is tried and taken to its inevitable conclusion.

This is the book I've spent a great deal of my life avoiding reading. I thought this was because the dire nature of the subject-matter was off-putting, but I have discovered that what Solzhenitsyn describes as the cultural mix underpinning so much atrocity and injustice is a phenomenon which has become progressively embedded in our own Western culture. The problem with what we encounter in 'The Gulag Archipelago' is that it seems so extreme that we almost cannot identify with it. We think that it cannot possibly have any direct relevance to the West, and what is happening here. But what Solzhenitsyn diagnoses is the pathology of a culture in self-destruct mode, one which allows the Lenins and the Stalins of this world just enough credence and space to perpetrate their evils. Whilst he uses Russian or Soviet terminology to describe this phenomenon, what we see are the kinds of sentiment, intellectual dishonesty and absence of accountability that are now prevalent within left-leaning secular western culture. Time and time again, as he describes the disingenuous self-justifications of the communist leadership in pre and post-war Russia, I was reminded that I have encountered the very same kinds of prevarication within our own regulatory bodies in the UK, the same lines of reasoning, based upon the same set of values and beliefs about human nature and civilisation. This is a beautifully-written book. It is full of righteous anger at the phenomenal human waste perpetrated by the communist ideologues, and humour too. It is not written according to a modern, western discipline of analysis, but then much of it was composed within Solzhenitsyn's head whilst he served his time within the Gulags. We encounter many thinkers, at that time, who were unable to write anything down - and so they memorised their entire oeuvre, in the hopes that one day they might be free to write it down. As the author observes, what Hitler got up to, in relation to the Jews, was a mere dress rehearsal compared to what Lenin and Stalin achieved between them, pre and post-WW2. Yet Hitler's evils feature prominently within our self-awareness because he was a fascist, yet Stalin's predations seem to get a free pass, because Western thinkers were fawning over the wonderful advances of socialism, and turning a blind eye to its very obvious evils. A slight frustration with this edition is the number of chapters summarised only by a title and a couple of explanatory lines - but this was, originally, a massive three-volume work. It is nothing short of a miracle that we have this - and in my opinion, it should be required reading on every booklist before it is too late.

Pretty interesting, not normally into history.

This is not a dry and depressing chronicle of suffering in prison camps. Solzhenitsyn certainly conveys very well the appalling inhumanity of the Soviet penal system, but this book is so much more than that. Written around a loose semi-autobiographical structure, this is really a series of essays about different aspects of Solzhenitsyn's own experiences, the history of the Soviet prison camp system, and life in the Soviet Union. It may well be one of the great works of its kind. The writing comprises vivid descriptions, passionately-held views, forceful arguments, irresistable logic, compassion, honesty, insight and humour. Yes, humour - Solzhenitsyn tells several funny stories, notably the story of the provincial party meeting where the assembly stood to drink a toast to Stalin, and no-one dared to be the first to stop clapping. I found the book truly inspirational, and I only wish I had read it many years ago. The abridgers of this extraordinary book have done the world a great service.

Notable controversies (like the book being pure fiction, etc) surrounding this book are addressed by Anne Applebaum's forward. Solzhenitsyn got many numbers wrong, and some stories are just impossible to confirm but, as Applebaum rightly says, it's surprising how much he gets right. GULAG archipelago is testimony, memoir, a first hand account, an invaluable piece of literature and a moral and courageousforce much needed in today's world. In the famous federalist papers you can feel the authors' frustration with past governments and how we as humans have done such a bad job at learning from history (the analysis gets more nuanced than this but the core issue is about the legitimate roles of government). Fast forward to 20th century, the situation is no different. The least we can do is acknowledge and learn how people like us have suffered under not just wrongheaded policies but under wrongheaded governments and know how failure to act can lead to an irreversible catastrophe and how one word of truth can outweigh the whole world.

Great to read. A thorough commentary on the Soviet society. A cautionary tale too. If it happened there it can happen here. An analysis of how far the human mind can rationalize inhumanity.

I think Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" is one of the most important books of world literature. It provides a deeper look into the horrors of the Stalinist regime while giving a voice for those who could not be heard.

THE book to understand what Lenin and Stalin did to the people of Russia and the other countries around.

Praise is not needed! It is excellent! To be read or reread! An good reminder of what happened in Stalin's Russia.