The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 3

An Experiment in Literary Investigation

By: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 21 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Volume 3 of the Nobel Prize winner’s towering masterpiece: Solzhenitsyn's moving account of resistance within the Soviet labor camps and his own release after eight years. Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.

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

“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, New Yorker

“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

©2015 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

The Ultimate Indictment of the Communist, Collectivist and Socialist

What an amazing book and an amazing man! We are so lucky he survived to write the book for the tens of millions murdered by Lenin, Stalin and their minions and protégés!

Well over 50 hours of audible and felt like it barely scratched the surface!

So topical for today’s times as it is easy to se the parallels in the socialists In-N-Out society.

Frederick Davidson’s voice is like music.

A Sobering Finish!

In the final volume of his great work, Solzhenitsyn details the final terrible years of his gulag experience and the exile thereafter. The stories of escape attempts by prisoners, especially Georgi Tenno, was particularly captivating. One of the most depressing aspects for escaped prisoners however, is that that once they escaped they could not trust anyone. The indoctrination and brainwashing of soviet citizens was so complete that they would enthusiastically report anyone suspected of being an escaped "enemy of the state". Such is the horrifying reality of ideological capture which is unfortunately becoming more and more manifest in western society as evidenced during the COVID pandemic. Those who do not learn from history will be damned to repeat it. Solzhenitsyn appropriately warns that we must not allow this evil ideology to devour the west as it has the east.

A Lesson in Evil, Philosophy and Psychology

Hitler's evil came at the world in a blitzkrieg that the west could not contain, Stalin's evil was a way of life for mostly Eastern Europe alone, and so the west chose to contain it.

Ghastly Oppression

Enjoyed learning about these historical Russian episodes. Easy to follow format. Concise. Chronological events of ghastly oppression.

Powerful and important

To understand what has been, to see what can occur. We need to listen to the warnings of those who, at great cost, speak.

wow

if you never knew what people are talking about when it comes to authoritarianism, these volumes will enlighten you to truths rarely explained in such a way. an absolute for any history buff.

A must read.

One of the most important books every written. Out of respect for the millions of lost souls, I decided to read the complete book that is all three volumes. There is a short version of this but if you do have the time read the complete book.

Worth it

I imagine some people beginning this audiobook will find the narration annoying and difficult to understand. In my experience I found that I got used to the narrators voice and after a while it no longer sounded strange and I even liked it. The book itself was impressive, horrifying, and informative.

Epic History

80 hours of listening, but worth it. I'm not a fan of the Narrator, but he fades into the background fast enough. Contemporary histories like these are fascinating and rare and necessary if we plan, as a society, not to repeat them.

Life changing

Reading Solzhenitsyn should be a requirement in every high school curriculum, history must not every be forgotten.