The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

An Experiment in Literary Investigation

De: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Narrado por: Ignat Solzhenitsyn

“BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY.” —Time

“It is impossible to name a book that had a greater effect on the political and moral consciousness of the late twentieth century.” —David Remnick, The New Yorker

The Nobel Prize winner’s towering masterpiece of world literature, the searing record of four decades of terror and oppression, in one abridged volume (authorized by the author). Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.

Drawing on his own experiences before, during and after his eleven years of incarceration and exile, on evidence provided by more than 200 fellow prisoners, and on Soviet archives, Solzhenitsyn reveals with torrential narrative and dramatic power the entire apparatus of Soviet repression, the state within the state that once ruled all-powerfully with its creation by Lenin in 1918. Through truly Shakespearean portraits of its victims-this man, that woman, that child-we encounter the secret police operations, the labor camps and prisons, the uprooting or extermination of whole populations, the “welcome” that awaited Russian soldiers who had been German prisoners of war. Yet we also witness astounding moral courage, the incorruptibility with which the occasional individual or a few scattered groups, all defenseless, endured brutality and degradation. And Solzhenitsyn’s genius has transmuted this grisly indictment into a literary miracle.

“The greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever leveled in modern times.” —George F. Kennan

“Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece. . . . The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today.” —Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag: A History, from the foreword

A must read (or listen)

One of the most important books of the 20th Century. It's not what I expected, it was more. Study the details and never forget how a society void of personal liberties can devour itself.

Painful remainder, still worth every minute

If only people who disagree with their government were at least given the chance to leave their country instead of being imprisoned for their dissent we would have a better world.

Mandatory Reading

This book is especially important, pertinent now. Two Communist countries are intent on ruling the world and upending the USA and the West.

The Best Piece of Literature I’ve Ever Read/Heard

An outstanding novel that puts as much fear in the reader/listener as it does hope. The stories shared are horrifying and a stark warning to people to never let their government become tyrannical. There isn’t enough space provided to accurately describe or articulate the significance of this book and how informative it is. Every Liberty loving person in the world should read or listen to this book. It is truly exceptional.

A monument to the millions that died in the Gulags

This book is a lot of things at the same time but, I will try to highlight some aspects.

The narration is excellent and easy to follow. The subjects of each part is logically set out to keep some order. There is not really a story line as such but many references to incidents by means of small “sketches”. As the author mentions, the flow is sometimes very slightly disrupted due to his own difficulties in writing the book.

It opens the door to the vast and terrible world of the gulags and does an excellent job to ask the reader hard and probing questions relevant to everyone.