The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

An Experiment in Literary Investigation

By: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Narrated by: Ignat Solzhenitsyn

Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

"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

Mandatory reading in Russia, not USA. Why?

Why is this excellent, powerful record not REQUIRED READING for US students. It’s a damned shame that the sickness of Marxism has taken such hold here... wake up Americans!

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.

Incredible

This might be the single most Important book I have ever read or listened to. So much insight into the current political situation in the US. Communism is the true contagion we should be fearing.

Outstanding narration.

Very necessary read

This boo should be mandatory reading for any person who wants to go into the social sciences, especially political science. This book contains a history lesson that needs to be remembered forever.

Counter-revolutionary, yet Revolutionary

I wish this was required reading for me in high school. I had embraced so much leftist ideology up until the moment I listened to this book. I sincerely believe that so many more people my age would abandon Marxist thinking if the even got halfway through this book.
I’m now planning on reading the full three-volume version to what more I can get out of it. I can’t emphasize enough just how life-changing Solzhenitsyn’s writing is.

Must read

The chapter on torture is difficult to stomach, but this book contains lots of wisdom.

Must read book!

One of the best historical treatments of atrocities of communist atrocities. Excellent performance as well.

Amazing

Instant mind blow from beginning to end. Unspeakable horrors, yet we have so much to learn from their stories.

This book should be required reading for all US high schoolers, as I heard it is in much of Russia today.

Americans could learn a lot and save ourselves great suffering if we heed the final words of Solzhenitsyn.

A Breathtaking Catalogue of Abuses

This is an amazing book, not only in its scope and breadth, but that it was written under the constant threat of discovery with dire consequences for its author. That it survived to be published outside the USSR is a miracle. The abridged version makes the work far less daunting than the three large volumes of the full work. This audiobook in particular is recommended because Ignat Solzhenitsyn has a very engaging reading style and conveys his father’s tone in a way that might be misunderstood when reading the written page. There are passages where Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn writes sarcastically in the manner of the apologists of the “organs of state security” which Ignat Solzhenitsyn delivers in an appropriately sarcastic tone of voice. It is also helpful to hear the correct pronunciation of the Russian names of people and places. I highly recommend this audiobook to anyone with an interest in the history of the Soviet Union and communism.

RUN Don't Walk

"The Gulag Archipelago" is more than required reading. It shouldn't even be a question. Read it. Now. There is no more time. We are out of time in the west. Of course, the unabridged option is always preferred, but this unabridged version is spectacular. It doesn't take away from the unabridged volumes. Knowing the Ignat Solzhenitsyn is reading this makes the reader feel closer to Aleksandr. His reading is absolutely spellbinding. Thank you Ignat. Now if some wonderful volunteer, like Ignat, would redo the unabridged audio it would be perfect. But the unabridged versions available now are incredible. We the reader are ecstatic to get what we can get.

To read this is to understand something, be it just in writing, about what it is like in a communist concentration camp. It is not facts, though there are many, it is the all encompassing drama of real human beings that lived it. To read it is to have the upmost respect for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for his incredibly bravery, heart, and steadfastness in getting this story on paper. And out to all of us. Just in the nick of time as the sun sets on the free west. THANK YOU!!

Extremely disappointing interpretation of fundamental literature

Sorry but the interpretation by the narrator does not sit well. Aware of his relation to the author, but he lends no gravity to what he describes, extremely incongruous and came across as almost light-hearted at times.

abridged version

Great abridged version. Edited beautifully would highly recommend. Haunting and life changing listening to the account of misery.

A must read

It is a book, that everyone must read in today’s world, with everything that is going on.

Monumental, heart-wrenching, provocative

The book is wonderfully read and easy to listen to because of the pace and straightforward writing style and translation of Sozhenitsyn. Its difficult and dark content will provoke thought, introspection and enquiry, yet did not overwhelm. It is very possible to leave off for a moment and pick back up later without difficulty. This is a good book for short or long bursts. It is a good companion to a more general history of Eastern Europe, Russia and/or the Soviet Union.