It is a question if any work of literature in our era other than The Divine Comedy is commensurate with The Gulag Archipelago in structure, scale, multiplicity of incident and characters, emotional range, variety of inflection and, above all, in the staggering magnitude of its underlying concept.In this masterpiece, the author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The First Circle has … Circle has orchestrated thousands of incidents and individual histories into one narrative of unflagging power and momentum. Written in a tone that encompasses Olympian wrath, bitter calm, savage irony and sheer comedy, it combines history, autobiography, documentary and political analysis as it examines in its totality the Soviet apparatus of repression from its inception following the October revolution of 1917.
The “Archipelago” of Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s work is the network of secret police installations, camps, prisons, transit centers, communications facilities, transportation systems and espionage organizations which, in his view, honeycombs the length and breadth of the Soviet Union.
Drawing on his own experience, material from Soviet archives, cases collected during his eleven years of labor camps and exile, and the evidence of more that 200 fellow prisoners, Mr. Solzhenitsyn concludes that the secret police are the vital element of the Soviet regime, and have been ever since its founding by Lenin.
Numerous studies of the Soviet system of control have been published in the West but until now nothing so complete, so carefully documented and assembled, and never before has a literary giant devoted his gifts of narrative and characterization to the enterprise. Solzhenitsyn has here created and peopled with brilliantly portrayed human beings a vast, overarching fresco of that state within a state which is the Gulag Archipelago.
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Strangely I didn’t find it depressing, despite the topic. At times it was even funny. There are a LOT of names/places that I was not familiar with, so that made it harder to read, but it was worth it.
Our Gem tonight is a Blood Diamond, frosted over from the farthest reaches of Siberia. It’s Gem Cutter working silently in secret over many decades. Honing the words to tell his story and the stories of those who never again would breath freely or feel warmth or the satisfaction of a full stomach nor the peace of open worship. I give you the one book that, with the exception of the Holy Bible, has made the biggest impact on my life: Alexander Solchenitzen’s The Gulag Archipelago.
Written in secret, from 1958 to it’s publication in 1973, the Author could have been put to death for it’s very existence. It therefore, in my humble opinion, deserves to be read. In his preface, Solchenitzen makes it clear this was not his effort alone: “This book could never have been created by one person alone. In addition to what I myself was able to take away from the Archipelago — the skin on my back, and my eyes and ears– material for this book was given me in reports, memoirs, and letters by 227 witnesses, whose names were to have been listed here. What I here express to them is not personal gratitude, because this is our common, collective monument to all those who were tortured and murdered.”
Alexander pulls no punches, his pen is not a bakery. He tells everything. From his time in the Russian Army to his life out of the Gulag. He tells of the life he lead outside of prison and inside. He lays bare what awaits in the Gulags.
He speaks in admiring tones of the Christian woman, who upon her arrest, began to witness and held a room full of KGB, government staff and others enthralled as she witnessed to them unafraid, in a clear voice for nearly 20 minutes without interruption. Of the Christians and Jews who kept their faith in a frozen Hell on earth.
I loved this book for it’s honesty, it’s truthfulness, for Solchenitzen allowing me to view his pain and suffering like a distress note in a bottle that I’d found and might be able to help. I wept, I was angry, I became determined that my Nestling would always understand how precious our freedoms are and why.
One very important thing he says and I leave you with is that when a government completely removed God, there is a hole which must be filled. It is always filled with the Gulag ( or a form of the Gulag).
I encourage, beg you, get this book. It is two volumes. It is easy to read, the writing flows. But there are sections that are emotionally hard to get through. Read it anyway. Get it for young people heading to college. Teachers get it for your highschool students. College Professors make it mandatory reading. Let Solchenitzen not have worked so hard in vain.
I purchased this two volumes set at a used book store twenty years ago and still consider it one of the best investments I’ve ever made.
Our first book’s inspiration and a true changer. It brought down the Evil Empire. What more praise can one bestow upon this masterpiece?