Never Remember: Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia

By Masha Gessen and Misha Friedman

A haunting literary and visual journey deep into Russia’s past—and present

The Gulag was a monstrous network of labor camps that held and killed millions of prisoners from the 1930s to the 1950s. More than half a century after the end of Stalinist terror, the geography of the Gulag has been barely sketched and the number of its victims remains unknown. Has the Gulag been forgotten?

Writer Masha Gessen and photographer Misha Friedman set out across Russia in search of the memory of the Gulag. They journey from Moscow to Sandarmokh, a forested site of mass executions during Stalin's Great Terror; to the only Gulag camp turned into a museum, outside of the city of Perm in the Urals; and to Kolyma, where prisoners worked in deadly mines in the remote reaches of the Far East. They find that in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, where Stalin is remembered as a great leader, Soviet terror has not been forgotten: it was never remembered in the first place.

“A short, haunting and beautifully written book.” —Wall Street Journal

• Language: English
• Publisher: Columbia Global Reports
• Release date: Mar 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9780997722970

Masha Gessen

MASHA GESSEN is a journalist who has written for Slate, Seed, the New Republic, the New York Times, and other publications, and is the author of numerous books, including The Future is History, which has been nominated for the National Book Award. 

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Reviews for Never Remember

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Russian gulags, the most known book on this subject is the [book:The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956|70561], which I have not read, the pure size and small print was too daunting. I have read about them in various fictional renderings, but this is the first non fiction book I read. I was just appalled, that is not a strong enough word, at the amount of people that were imprisoned in these barren wastelands. Many died of the conditions but millions were murdered. The difference between this mass killing in Russia, and that of the Holocaust, is that it wasn't a particular group or groups that were targeted. Sometimes it was political or activists speaking out against Stalin, but other times it almost seemed like the luck of the draw.After Stalin's death, for once became the new if temporary rule. Many gathered at political offices trying to find out what happened to family members. Some were able to find answers and a reluctant peace. The author touring different sites of closed gulags, found see ites of mass murders, graves filled with bones. After Putin's election history is once again being rewritten in Russian. "The cacophony conveys the sense that the Gulag meant everything and nothing. That is the distinguishing characteristic of the Putin-era historiography of Soviet terror. It says, in effect, that it just happened, whatever."There is so much more in this book, including a look at the last Gulag. The book also has full page, black and white photos that demonstarte different aspects of these Gulags. The barreness of the surroundings, sometimes just a snap shot of broken railroad ties, a picture of the face of a woman, a forlorn watchtower amongst ruins, very effective. The many ways history can be rewritten time and time again, depending on who is in power. The title, Never remember refers to the whitewashing of this system occuring in Putin's Russia.