Gulag

A History

By: Anne Applebaum

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2004

The Gulag - a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners - was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. In this magisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost.

Applebaum intimately recreates what life was like in the camps and links them to the larger history of the Soviet Union. Immediately recognized as a landmark and long-overdue work of scholarship, Gulag is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand the history of the 20th century.

©2007 Anne Applebaum (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Stalin was a monster

Russians have never had a government that did not exploit them. Reading this fascinating account of gulag history allows us to see how the Russian mind is still realing from such terror and thus so fragile and able to be controlled by criminals who ply them to this day with propaganda and threats of violence. Once again Anne Applebaum delivers a highly readable and terrifying account of life in a totalitarian society.

I loved the book but...

The Russian pronunciation was very poor.

Still. The book is great otherwise and worth reading.

Atrocious Russian pronunciation

The book is thought-provoking and painfully insightful.

The narrator's terrible, incomprehensible pronunciation of Russian names and places is extremely off-putting.

Great Book. Terrible Pronunciation.

Narrators Russian Pronunciation is Atrocious. to the point that it makes keeping track of the places and people she mentions difficult. she replaces the D sound is Vladivostok with a second V sound, Making it "Vlavivostok." There are all kinds of other basic Russian errors throughout. Her English is Fine Though.

Important

Extremely important if difficult history., this book lays out a comprehensive look at the Gulag system from the arrests and what landed people in trouble, to the prison, “trial”, transport, and incarceration in the Gulag. Read this not to wallow in another nation’s shame, but rather for what behavior is within humans