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.

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.

This book has changed my life

Please read this book. I cried a Kleenex box full of tears tears by the end. One of my greatest sorrows while reading this book is to see the exact same things happening in my own country right now. Everyone sits and does nothing. Comfortably going about on Social media condemning and criticizing things that they know nothing about. We are a People who have never suffered, never truly worked, never been truly hungry or cold. Or even been slightly uncomfortable. Look how picky we are just about our own toilet paper. We are a people who actually chose to not eat The abundance and excess of food that is around us (vegan, meat only diets are some examples) And they looking down on others because they don’t agree. Extreme pickiness in adults and children who will eat only Junk food. And this is because we have such an abundance of it. I think of the amount of food, that even I throw away every day. Food that could’ve fed so many in these Gulag camps that I throw away food for the dumbest reasons, thinking it just a little too stale or I don’t quite like the flavor. Or even the potato peals I threw in the trash, I flippantly discard. My trash, these poor Gulag Prisoners would have thrown themselves in the mud to eat off the ground, feeling so lucky to have gotten their hands. It is so easy to except for my fellow Americans Marks Lenin and Stalin. We are so Spoiled with over abundance and warm and fall and bored. But what can be done? It’s not totally our fault, nobody’s been educated nobody knows any of these stories. No one knows what really happens in these countries. Any real information is crashed and repressed And the corruption is rampant. The fact that we have this book is an actual miracle. People, real superheroes died to get this book out of Russia and Peoples stories in this book are real superheroes. We now soak up the lies as truth of our Government, “experts” and our media. History truly does repeat itself. When you get to see information repressed and stories crushed for the sake of the greater good. To keep our machine the United States going. My soul aches for these Russian people and now for my own country the United States. I grew up in the 80s when Russia was the enemy and communism was a horrible word. No one with want that word attached to them. We were “free” we were the “lucky ones” we were the “blessed ones” But oh how things have changed. And not very many years. We are creeping down that black hole of communism read the Gulag archipelago and watch their descent. And see the parallel of our dissent as we go blindly into communism. The deceivers are cunning.