The Gulag Archipelago (Архипелаг ГУЛаг), probably the most powerful and famous book about the Soviet prison system, is a three-volume history written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn based on extensive research as well as his own experiences as a prisoner in the Gulag. It was published in 1973.
GULAG (Glavnoe Upravlenie Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerei, "Chief Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps") is an acronym for the administration of the Soviet prison labor camp system. The word archipelago compares the system of labor camps spread across the Soviet Union with a vast "chain of islands", known only to those who were fated to visit it. It also produces a rhyming title in Russian (arkhipelįg gulįg) that is not reproduced in English translation.
Solzhenitsyn originally wrote the book in secret after his own term as a political prisoner, but he had it published abroad in 1973 after the KGB (Soviet secret police) confiscated a copy of the manuscript.
The detail of the book, which presented information on the putative crimes and criminals, their phony trials, the transportation and treatment of prisoners, which put the USSR in a negative light, all in the context of a long history of oppression dating back to Lenin's absorption of the Tsarist penal system, was used by Western anti-communists.
External links
The Gulag Archipelago in original Russian, parts 1 and 2 (http://lib.ru/PROZA/SOLZHENICYN/gulag.txt), parts 3 and 4 (http://lib.ru/PROZA/SOLZHENICYN/gulag2.txt), and parts 5, 6, and 7 (http://lib.ru/PROZA/SOLZHENICYN/gulag3.txt).
The GulagArchipelago 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.
What is truly unique about Gulag is that it takes us inside the the minds of the victims and the perpetrators, revealing the central yet unspoken theme of the book.
Gulag is a call for us to see politics in a different way.
Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire" and even a cursory reading of "The GulagArchipelago" would serve to drive home the point.
The stories of individuals interwoven with history and analysis in "The GulagArchipelago" gave a human face to the suffering caused by the mindless imposition of a utopian system that failed to take into account human nature and the yearning for freedom.
Ultimately, the book would prove to be one of the leading factors in the demise of the Soviet Union.
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