I finally finished reading The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn after almost a month and a half...
It is a difficult book to read, but it is also a very interesting book to read.
I think it should be compulsory to read the book, especially in Eastern Europe, so then nobody will regret the Soviet/Communist Era!
The book is a three-volume work on the Soviet prison camp system. It it based upon Solzhenitsyn's own experience as well as the testimony of 227 former prisoners and Solzhenitsyn's own research into the history of the penal system. It discusses the system's origins from the founding of the Communist regime, with Lenin himself having responsibility, detailing interrogation procedures, prisoner transports, prison camp culture, prisoner uprisings and revolts, and the practice of internal exile.
The appearance of the book in the West put the word GULAG into the Western political vocabulary.
A very interesting fact is that in the year it was published (1974 in France and USA), unbound and hand written copies of The Gulag Archipelago began being surreptitiously passed between Soviet citizens. These initial readers were normally given 24 hours to finish the work before passing it on to the next person, requiring the reader to spend an uninterrupted day and night to get through the work. Years later, this initial generation of Soviet readers could still recall who had given them their copy, to whom they had passed it on, and who they had trusted enough to discuss their thoughts about the book.
It is a difficult book to read, but it is also a very interesting book to read.
I think it should be compulsory to read the book, especially in Eastern Europe, so then nobody will regret the Soviet/Communist Era!
The book is a three-volume work on the Soviet prison camp system. It it based upon Solzhenitsyn's own experience as well as the testimony of 227 former prisoners and Solzhenitsyn's own research into the history of the penal system. It discusses the system's origins from the founding of the Communist regime, with Lenin himself having responsibility, detailing interrogation procedures, prisoner transports, prison camp culture, prisoner uprisings and revolts, and the practice of internal exile.
The appearance of the book in the West put the word GULAG into the Western political vocabulary.
A very interesting fact is that in the year it was published (1974 in France and USA), unbound and hand written copies of The Gulag Archipelago began being surreptitiously passed between Soviet citizens. These initial readers were normally given 24 hours to finish the work before passing it on to the next person, requiring the reader to spend an uninterrupted day and night to get through the work. Years later, this initial generation of Soviet readers could still recall who had given them their copy, to whom they had passed it on, and who they had trusted enough to discuss their thoughts about the book.
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