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A review by amerynth
Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg
4.0
My "to read" pile is large enough that often a book rises to the top of it and I have no recollection whatsoever of what put it into the pile in the first place. This was definitely true of Eugenia Ginzburg's autobiography "Journey into the Whirlwind." But boy, am I ever glad for whatever put this book into my sights in the first place.
Ginzburg's autobiography takes place in the 1930's in Russia, where she, a loyal member of the Communist Party, is sentenced to 10 years in solitary confinement as part of Stalin's "Great Purge." By the end of this story, she ends up in a Siberian labor camp after slipping away from death numerous times.
I only wish I had read this book decades ago, when I was in college and obsessed with Russian history... it probably would have had an even greater impact. I also wish the book's ending was so abrupt... while Ginzburg mentions she never saw her oldest son again, there is no information on what happened to her family (or how she eventually left the labor camp herself.)
At any rate, this is a really moving book and provides a great deal of insight, not only into a horrible period of Russian history, but also the human condition.
Ginzburg's autobiography takes place in the 1930's in Russia, where she, a loyal member of the Communist Party, is sentenced to 10 years in solitary confinement as part of Stalin's "Great Purge." By the end of this story, she ends up in a Siberian labor camp after slipping away from death numerous times.
I only wish I had read this book decades ago, when I was in college and obsessed with Russian history... it probably would have had an even greater impact. I also wish the book's ending was so abrupt... while Ginzburg mentions she never saw her oldest son again, there is no information on what happened to her family (or how she eventually left the labor camp herself.)
At any rate, this is a really moving book and provides a great deal of insight, not only into a horrible period of Russian history, but also the human condition.