The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Book Cover
Average Rating

Available Platforms

Libby/OverDrive
Titles may be read via Libby/OverDrive. Libby/OverDrive is a free app that allows users to borrow and read digital media from their local library, including ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines. Users can access Libby/OverDrive through the Libby/OverDrive app or online. The app is available for Android and iOS devices.
Kindle
Titles may be read using Kindle devices or with the Kindle app.

Description

Drawing on his own incarceration and exile, as well as on evidence from more than 200 fellow prisoners and Soviet archives, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn reveals the entire apparatus of Soviet repression -- the state within the state that ruled all-powerfully.

Through truly Shakespearean portraits of its victims -- men, women, and children -- we encounter secret police operations, 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 the astounding moral courage of the incorruptible, who, defenseless, endured great brutality and degradation. The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 -- a grisly indictment of a regime, fashioned here into a veritable literary miracle -- has now been updated with a new introduction that includes the fall of the Soviet Union and Solzhenitsyn's move back to Russia.

More Details

Format
eBook, Kindle
Street Date
10/27/2020
Language
English
ISBN
9780062941633

Discover More

Similar Titles From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for titles you might like if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
These books have the subject "soviet union history."
These books have the genre "history writing -- europe -- russia"; and the subjects "stalinism" and "communism."
Lenin: the man, the dictator, and the master of terror - Sebestyen, Victor
These books have the subject "communism."
The day will pass away: the diary of a gulag prison guard, 1935-1936 - Chistyakov, Ivan
These books have the subjects "prisons," "concentration camps," and "stalinism."
These books have the subjects "concentration camps," "political persecution," and "soviet union history."
These books have the subjects "prisons," "political prisoners," and "concentration camps."
These books have the genre "adult books for young adults"; and the subjects "political prisoners" and "concentration camps."
These books have the genre "life stories -- politics -- political prisoners"; and the subjects "political prisoners," "concentration camps," and "political imprisonment."
These books have the subject "communism."
These books have the subjects "political prisoners," "concentration camps," and "political persecution."
Though The Four Books is Chinese fiction while The Gulag Archipelago is Soviet nonfiction, both are horrific and eye-opening psychological explorations of life as a political prisoner in an internment camp under a brutal totalitarian regime. -- Melissa Gray
Both award-winning books chronicle the history of Soviet Union labor camps. -- Kaitlin Conner

Similar Authors From NoveList

NoveList provides detailed suggestions for other authors you might want to read if you enjoyed this book. Suggestions are based on recommendations from librarians and other contributors.
The compelling novels and nonfiction of Vasilii Grossman and Alexander Solzhenitsyn are deeply moving, richly detailed testimonials to the history of war, revolution, and political oppression in the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn has been known in the West for decades; Grossman's legacy is coming to light a half-century after his death. -- Michael Shumate
These authors' works have the subjects "political prisoners," "communism," and "russian history."
These authors' works have the genre "war stories"; and the subjects "russian history," "intellectuals," and "revolutions."
These authors' works have the genre "historical fiction"; and the subjects "political prisoners," "communism," and "russian history."
These authors' works have the subjects "political prisoners," "communism," and "prisons."
These authors' works have the subjects "communism," "russian history," and "revolutionaries."
These authors' works have the subjects "communism," "politics and government," and "russian history."
These authors' works have the subjects "communism," "russian history," and "political culture."
These authors' works have the genres "historical fiction" and "war stories"; and the subjects "communism," "russian history," and "revolutionaries."
These authors' works have the genres "literary fiction" and "historical fiction"; and the subjects "communism," "russian history," and "soviet union history."
These authors' works have the genres "historical fiction" and "war stories"; and the subjects "communism" and "russian history."
These authors' works have the genres "classics" and "page to screen"; and the subjects "russian history," "soldiers," and "war."

Published Reviews

Kirkus Book Review

No one is capable of encompassing all this, of course, and it would merely be a bore to read whole volumes,"" writes Solzhenitsyn in midstream. This lengthy volume is not a bore; it is ultimately numbing. Its predecessor, Parts I and II, described arrest procedures in the Stalin period, transports, and transit camps and prisons. This book is devoted to the labor camps themselves, the final destination. From his own experiences and others' accounts, Solzhenitsyn reconstructs pus-filled deaths from pellagra, prostitution of women and bestialization of children, rule by thieves and stool pigeons, and every inch of cold, filth, and murderous labor. The dumb, austere span of Ivan Denisovich and the privileged realm of First Circle internment become a gigantic scroll of moral and physical degradation. It seems inane to pick an anecdote. Solzhenitsyn gives his material a fierceness and at the same time an anthropological elaboration--the nuances of mother-centered prisoner slang, the codes of the guards, the question of why suicide was so infrequent are treated with rich authority beyond second-hand chroniclers or other memoirists. The book begins with a sermon on Lenin's responsibility for it all. And the monument of corpses and exponentially destroyed lives ends with the message that such ordeals bring spiritual benefits! Solzhenitsyn concedes that the deceased may not agree. The impression remains that Solzhenitsyn's human sympathies have been scarred more deeply by his camp ordeals than he realizes. To adversely draw out the inevitable comparison with Dostoyevsky, he makes us feel the horror, but not the full love and pity. Nonetheless this is the most forceful thing Solzhenitsyn has written: after his last, crankish book to be published here (From Under the Rubble, p. 502), he reappears in full measure. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Powered by Syndetics

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.

Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Solzhenitsyn, A. I. (2020). The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation . HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I. 2020. The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation. HarperCollins.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I. The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation HarperCollins, 2020.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Solzhenitsyn, A. I. (2020). The gulag archipelago, volume 1: an experiment in literary investigation. HarperCollins.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I. The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation HarperCollins, 2020.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

Copy Details

CollectionOwnedAvailableNumber of Holds
Libby200

Staff View

Loading Staff View.