The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation

Written by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Narrated by Ignat Solzhenitsyn

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

“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, The New Yorker

The Nobel Prize winner’s towering masterpiece of world literature, the searing record of four decades of terror and oppression, in one abridged volume (authorized by the author). Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.

Drawing on his own experiences before, during and after his eleven years of incarceration and exile, on evidence provided by more than 200 fellow prisoners, and on Soviet archives, Solzhenitsyn reveals with torrential narrative and dramatic power the entire apparatus of Soviet repression, the state within the state that once ruled all-powerfully with its creation by Lenin in 1918. Through truly Shakespearean portraits of its victims-this man, that woman, that child-we encounter the secret police operations, the 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 astounding moral courage, the incorruptibility with which the occasional individual or a few scattered groups, all defenseless, endured brutality and degradation. And Solzhenitsyn’s genius has transmuted this grisly indictment into a literary miracle.

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

“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

• Language: English
• Publisher: Caedmon
• Release date: Oct 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9780062941619

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

After serving as a decorated captain in the Soviet Army during World War II, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) was sentenced to prison for eight years for criticizing Stalin and the Soviet government in private letters. Solzhenitsyn vaulted from unknown schoolteacher to internationally famous writer in 1962 with the publication of his novella One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. The writer's increasingly vocal opposition to the regime resulted in another arrest, a charge of treason, and expulsion from the USSR in 1974, the year The Gulag Archipelago, his epic history of the Soviet prison system, first appeared in the West. For eighteen years, he and his family lived in Vermont. In 1994 he returned to Russia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died at his home in Moscow in 2008.

Reviews for The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

[Samir Seif · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A profound read which made my soul weep with each chapter .This is a must read, a lesson for those living in our current turbulent times.

[Norbert Condoros · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the most groundbreaking works in human history. A must read.

[Jonathan Kyser · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A man who personally faced the hardest questions of politics & human cruelty and suffering comes to surprising conclusions

[Woodrow Carlisle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the most important reads I have come across so far in my life, outside of the Bible.

[Draxthim Sklounst · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The most politically and internally moving book of the 20th century. An absolute monument to the atrocities and dangers of the implementation of Marxism and communism.

[vladimiro sousa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is a treaty in human nature. all in all. in the resistance and the absolute evil, in suffering and lack of purpose, in the fortune of a flea and the bad luck brought by a simple act? You go to the police station because the adults of a neighbor were arrested and children were left alone, and next you know, you are in a truck to Siberia, accused of conspiracy against the state, for nothing more than the need to comply with quotas of prisoners that must be send! Is there a way to prevent this for repetition? Is there a way to prevent the systematic annihilation of full nations? And yet, despite all that, all the ordeal, there is hope, propose, resistance, valor in hell!

“The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

“Even a strong man had no way left him to fight the prison machine, except perhaps suicide. But is suicide really resistance? Isn't it actually submission?”

"A person who is not inwardly prepared for the use of violence against him is always weaker than the person committing the violence."

“We like to take our anger out on those who are weaker, those who cannot answer. It is a human trait. And somehow the arguments to prove we are right appear out of nowhere.”

“No one, no one at all, ever set out to torture us on purpose! ... After all, was it because Pontius Pilate wanted to humiliate him that Christ was crucified between two thieves? It just happened to be crucifixion day that day - and there was only one Golgotha, and time was short.”

[Paul Kern · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve never read a book so profound and moving as this one. I’m speechless. It’s exquisitely well written and coveys imagery in an amazing way. That said, be ready for a long, dark book, but I completely understand why it must be this way. So worth the investment.

[Andrew Wells · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a powerful work. It is not just about prison camps in the Soviet Union. It is also about human nature, good and evil, courage and cowardice. This abridged version moved me to years several times, but I also laughed at the superb irony, thrilled at stories of escape, and rejoiced for the power of the human spirit, especially among the Christians.

[Tony High · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

And it all happened in the last 100 years and is most likely still happening today.

[kwappe ulrich · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This account is great beyond measure. Thank you Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

[Murray Simon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Terrifyingly fantastic, eyeopening, sad & well read! If you know nothing of the horrors of the Gulags, then this is compelling reading.

[Austin Deleel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Opened my eyes to a new world view. Fantastic abridgment of the original 3 volumes

[Marly Elizabeth · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

has no sources, and it is based on pure self experiences without including more data.

[Pedro Bas Hayes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Glad I finally got round to reading this book, an excellent indictment of tyranny, and a warning to us all. When we begin to experience these situations slowly occur in the West, we'll know it will lead us to our own Gulag unless we resist.

[David Dietrich · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Eye-opening and surprisingly timely, decades after its publication, especially now.

[Jeremiah · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Everyone needs to read this book!!!!!! I love this book.

[alex portik · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely infuriating how things like this could happen. The human is capable of incredibly disgusting, and righteous things.

It boggles my mind how things can go so wrong.

[Chris Samwells · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Should be compulsory reading...
For all of those who think they are hard done by

[Deviani Sher · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A hard book to listen to because of what it describes, but we should never forget that this happened so we guard against it happening again.

[Asen Georgiev · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A must read or listen to. The testimony of people who lived through events is vital in understanding the past and the in-depth reflections of Solzhenitzin on the times and events he lived though adds a great deal of insight into what is probably the greatest failure of humanity not only in the XX century. We need not only to know but also to understand history in order not to repeat it.

[Alex Londono · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the least enjoyable book I've come across, an yet simultaneously, the only one I know of that is a MUST READ! for every human.

[Yann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A description almost unbearable of the martyrdom endured by so many people from so many nations for so many years.
It’s hard to decide whether the author’s irony that keeps contrasting the awful reality with the lofty communist ideals makes reading further easier or more difficult at each page.
Very grateful to Soljenitsine for holding out all these years in camp and beyond, making the effort to keep pages and pages in his mind for years, writing A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, gaining the trust of a whole nation, being submerged by the testimonies from thousands of survivors turned spontaneous witnesses, and hiding in a cabin in the woods to let the tales of the witnesses flow through him and become a book.
What a book! What a chant to the greatness of the human soul, no matter how crushing the tyranny and how triumphant evil may seem.
Thank you, God, for Holy Russia and for raising up such a writer among us!