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davidsansun's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This was fascinating. At times it was beyond belief to the point of hilarity. Some of the stories recounted by Solzhenitsyn that lead to people receiving 25 years in the Gulag were just flabbergasting.
Knowing this went on for 50+ years defies belief.
Knowing this went on for 50+ years defies belief.
avoidthenoid's review against another edition
3.0
Would love some citations or at least corroborative facts. Just a lot to consume based on someone’s experience. That said it tells about something Americans don’t often hear about. Also could’ve done with no Jordan Peterson.
spopovic's review against another edition
5.0
Volume 1 of a three volumes work. Intense detailed account of political prisoners' life in the Soviet prison system. Based on the author's own experience as well as on testimonies of other inmates. The book explains the process of going through the prison system, from arrest, to interrogation, to transportation, to transit prisons, and finally to work camps. It is a strong plea against authoritarianism, torture and arbitrary emprisonment. I couldn't help not think about Guantanamo prisoners.
linseyhermsen's review
Finally worked through this book. Very informative but I cannot imagine that this is the abridged version, do people actually read the unabridged one? Mental.
(Also did not rate this because i feel weird doing that to a book that is so informative and serious, but therefore also 0.0% enjoyable)
(Also did not rate this because i feel weird doing that to a book that is so informative and serious, but therefore also 0.0% enjoyable)
jdubes's review against another edition
5.0
This is a book that will change your life and your view of pain and suffering, for the better.
captaincocanutty's review against another edition
Another book I'm not sure how to rate.
This book is at its best when Solzhenitsyn discusses how the GULAG crushes the human spirit, and in turn affects and is entwined with the Soviet system that produced it.
It does lose me at the various points when he glosses over or whitewashes the state of affairs under the tsarist system. Given the time period this was written in and the information available at the time, I don't think it interferes with the book.
Solzhenitsyn does lose me though when the Soviet Union is compared with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. While both very clearly had their atrocities, Solzhenitsyn does such a thorough job of showing all the horrors of the Soviet communism that it *almost* cheapens his own words.
This book is at its best when Solzhenitsyn discusses how the GULAG crushes the human spirit, and in turn affects and is entwined with the Soviet system that produced it.
It does lose me at the various points when he glosses over or whitewashes the state of affairs under the tsarist system. Given the time period this was written in and the information available at the time, I don't think it interferes with the book.
Solzhenitsyn does lose me though when the Soviet Union is compared with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. While both very clearly had their atrocities, Solzhenitsyn does such a thorough job of showing all the horrors of the Soviet communism that it *almost* cheapens his own words.
iwannareadsomethinglol's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
wwatts1734's review against another edition
4.0
In the thirty years since the fall of the Soviet Union, there is been a lot of confusion among young Americans about why the West spent so much time, money and effort in fighting Communism. Why was Communism so bad? Why did Ronald Reagan refer to the Soviet Union as the “Evil Empire”? Wasn’t the Soviet Union merely a country like the United States with competing interests?
It is ignorance like this that makes a work like the “Gulag Archipelago” so important. Alexander Solzhenitzyn was a Soviet citizen, one of many thousands of Soviet citizens who were interred in slave labor camps by his own Soviet government. But Solzhenitzyn was one of the lucky ones. As he writes in “The Gulag”, the history of the Soviet secret police organizations like the Cheka, the GRU and the KGP is full of mass executions, torture and imprisonment of Soviet citizens from the time of the Revolution in 1917 all the way to the time of the publication of the “Gulag” in the 1970s. Solzhenitzyn’s research is extensive. He has first hand accounts of the Gulags, stemming from his own tenure as a prisoner and the experience of many of his friends who were also imprisoned. Ultimately he shows that the entire foundation of the Soviet economy and political system consisted of this network of work camps that spread throughout the country.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the Soviet Union, and the reason why the fall of Communism was one of the best things to happen in the history of Western Civilization.
It is ignorance like this that makes a work like the “Gulag Archipelago” so important. Alexander Solzhenitzyn was a Soviet citizen, one of many thousands of Soviet citizens who were interred in slave labor camps by his own Soviet government. But Solzhenitzyn was one of the lucky ones. As he writes in “The Gulag”, the history of the Soviet secret police organizations like the Cheka, the GRU and the KGP is full of mass executions, torture and imprisonment of Soviet citizens from the time of the Revolution in 1917 all the way to the time of the publication of the “Gulag” in the 1970s. Solzhenitzyn’s research is extensive. He has first hand accounts of the Gulags, stemming from his own tenure as a prisoner and the experience of many of his friends who were also imprisoned. Ultimately he shows that the entire foundation of the Soviet economy and political system consisted of this network of work camps that spread throughout the country.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the Soviet Union, and the reason why the fall of Communism was one of the best things to happen in the history of Western Civilization.
monica_r_jae's review against another edition
5.0
A must read. I love Russian literature and I consider Solzhenitsyn to be at the top along with Gorky, Chekov and guess who else ? ;>