Gulag Archipelago
Discussion
Has anybody read the whole un-abridged version?
I've nearly finished book 1 (parts I-II) and am just browsing ebay for the second and third books.
Not easy going at times but still far more readable than i thought it would be. And it's made me realise that no matter how bad my day may be it really is nothing and anybody living in this country today, or any other free and democratic country should be so grateful.
I've nearly finished book 1 (parts I-II) and am just browsing ebay for the second and third books.
Not easy going at times but still far more readable than i thought it would be. And it's made me realise that no matter how bad my day may be it really is nothing and anybody living in this country today, or any other free and democratic country should be so grateful.
Oh no, there's three books ? I'm ploughing through book 1, I find his style quite ponderous though.
What I found unbelievable though were the sentences handed out to returning soldiers due to them being potential enemies of the state from their exposure to foreigners, it really gives you an insight into the Russian acceptance of suffering for the state.
As an aside I found Primo Levi's " if this is a man" , his personal account of surviving the Holocaust a far more concise and harder hitting account of personal suffering.
What I found unbelievable though were the sentences handed out to returning soldiers due to them being potential enemies of the state from their exposure to foreigners, it really gives you an insight into the Russian acceptance of suffering for the state.
As an aside I found Primo Levi's " if this is a man" , his personal account of surviving the Holocaust a far more concise and harder hitting account of personal suffering.
Pobolycwm said:
Oh no, there's three books ? I'm ploughing through book 1, I find his style quite ponderous though.
What I found unbelievable though were the sentences handed out to returning soldiers due to them being potential enemies of the state from their exposure to foreigners, it really gives you an insight into the Russian acceptance of suffering for the state.
As an aside I found Primo Levi's " if this is a man" , his personal account of surviving the Holocaust a far more concise and harder hitting account of personal suffering.
Yep, unless you've got an abridged copy (which is cheating!) it was published in 3 books, book 1 is parts I and II. Think there are VII parts in total over the 3 books.What I found unbelievable though were the sentences handed out to returning soldiers due to them being potential enemies of the state from their exposure to foreigners, it really gives you an insight into the Russian acceptance of suffering for the state.
As an aside I found Primo Levi's " if this is a man" , his personal account of surviving the Holocaust a far more concise and harder hitting account of personal suffering.
I nearly picked up "if this is a man" in Waterstones the other day, would you recommend it then?
Pobolycwm said:
As an aside I found Primo Levi's " if this is a man" , his personal account of surviving the Holocaust a far more concise and harder hitting account of personal suffering.
To be fair though, Gulag Archipeligo is more of an archive document. Remember that it was written during the situation it describes. Primo Levi wrote after the events (not to disparage PL - his books are excellent).A better comparison with If this is a man etc, would be A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch - which is a genuine classic, or even cancer ward.
TooLateForAName said:
To be fair though, Gulag Archipeligo is more of an archive document. Remember that it was written during the situation it describes. Primo Levi wrote after the events (not to disparage PL - his books are excellent).
A better comparison with If this is a man etc, would be A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch - which is a genuine classic, or even cancer ward.
Can't disagree with that, though I thought Primo Levi kept a diary as opposed to writing from memory, may be wrong though, difficult thing to do in Auschwitz and keep secret.A better comparison with If this is a man etc, would be A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch - which is a genuine classic, or even cancer ward.
I found Ivan Denisovitch a bit remote, I read somewhere else in this forum that someone after reading it thought there was an awful lot of soup in it
TooLateForAName said:
A better comparison with If this is a man etc, would be A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch - which is a genuine classic, or even cancer ward.
Cancer Ward, my fave book of all time.Should be recommended reading for anyone who gets cancer, so they can run around celebrating how lucky they that they have cancer here and now instead of having cancer in the Soviet Union in 1954!!!
I read Dolgun which is the story of an American embassy employee who get's bundled into a car one day in Moscow and his decades long journey to get home via the Gulag and various other prison in Russia. What's so good about his account is the humour and the characters he meets rather than the unrelenting misery that must have formed most of his experience. I really found it easy to read, but at the same time a morbidly fascinating account of the Gulags.
Finally talked my self into starting it in October and now am about 50 pages away from finishing the first book. Like others have mentioned it is more readable than it would initially seem and some chapters, particularly the small snippets he gives about his own time and people he meets in the cells are very enjoyable. But god does it ramble on in some places. The worst chapters are those discussing in list order the important court cases that got the Gulag ball rolling which seem long and overly drawn out. I really struggled not to lose concentration and would be a third of the way though some chapters and just have no idea who or what I was reading about because my mind had wandered eleswhere.
Only another 1200 or so pages more to go with books 2 & 3 which Im hoping that by covering actual life and experiences in the camps will be slightly more readable and attention grabbing.
I can really recommend Anne Applebaums Gulag book which I read a few years ago for those that dont feel upto slogging through the three Solzehnitsyn books.
Only another 1200 or so pages more to go with books 2 & 3 which Im hoping that by covering actual life and experiences in the camps will be slightly more readable and attention grabbing.
I can really recommend Anne Applebaums Gulag book which I read a few years ago for those that dont feel upto slogging through the three Solzehnitsyn books.
I've read volume 1 unabridged, but in spite of having vols 2 & 3 on the shelf I went out and bought an abridged version.
If you enjoyed Gulag Archipelago (or even if you didn't), I recommend 'Kolyma Tales' by Varlam Shalamov - it's a collection of short stories based on his experiences in the Gulag. They are beautifully written and translated, but the situations described are quite horrendous.
Whilst on the subject of Soviet-era horrors, 'Execution by Hunger' by Miron Dolot is an even more disturbing read. It's about the terror famine in the Ukraine that resulted from the forced collectivisation of farms. I found it genuinely upsetting.
Anne Applebaum's book is excellent.
If you enjoyed Gulag Archipelago (or even if you didn't), I recommend 'Kolyma Tales' by Varlam Shalamov - it's a collection of short stories based on his experiences in the Gulag. They are beautifully written and translated, but the situations described are quite horrendous.
Whilst on the subject of Soviet-era horrors, 'Execution by Hunger' by Miron Dolot is an even more disturbing read. It's about the terror famine in the Ukraine that resulted from the forced collectivisation of farms. I found it genuinely upsetting.
Anne Applebaum's book is excellent.
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