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 20th 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 11 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)

©2007 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

If you've read Marx, balance it with Solzhenitsyn.

One cannot approach truth by seeing just one side of an issue. This book represents the that crucial other side necessary for creating a holistic paradigm where dogma and reality intersect.

Unbelievable Cruelty

I am thankful for this book which only confirms that in the absents of God and in a corrupt society, with alternative truths ; where survival and self aggrandizement is all that matters a society can truly debase itself to the lowest levels a human can reach!! Yet there are always a few bright stars who refuse to go along with the masses, thank God for thes few.

Probably the most important book of the 20th Century

This book is a must read for anyone interested in Communism, Russia, prison conditions, or human rights.

God spare us from repeating this .

This is still all too possible in this day of American history. Read Orwell's 1984 and disagree.

A Must read for every American!

The author paints the clear grim Spector of the evils of communism. The book is a poignant and relevant reminder of how destruction and death follow the nice sounding platitudes of socialism, Communism, and Marxism. As we in America stand poised, staring into the abyss of a socialist coup of our gov we need this warning from the Gulag Archipelago more than ever!

A must list for any would be socialist / communist

Listen you young communists and realize where your ideology will take you. Millions of innocent dead. Millions of full hearted communists went to their death without knowing they were only feeding a tyrants machine of death.

Fantastic, chilling, and heartbreaking history

A must read for anyone who naively thinks that communism could still work, or that Russia "wasn't real communism". State mandated work, state mandated pay, food, housing, and like all economic systems, power consolidated in the hands of the corrupt few (who then terrorized and brutalized all those below them). This history deals with the Zeks (prisoners) of the Russian prison system, who they were, the horrors they faced, and the causes of the corruption.

I’m grateful

To everyone who reads this book, may your souls be humbled by the shared tragic horrors described herein. This book is more than worth the read, but reader be warned, there’s much thought to be had. May god bless us all, amen.

Eye opening and a must listen

The account of the critical role played by the prison system created by the Soviet to control and terrorize sn entire country.

Difficult and Relevant

Although difficult material, this book remains relevant and should be required reading in our universities.