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The notes, bibliography, and text and illustration permissions is a small novel in itself, covering a dizzying array of informational sources (there is even a glossary of terms, so as you read the book, you understand the terms and slang that was in everyday use by those unfortunate enough to have been "caught up" by the system).She also covers the lasting impressions made upon Soviet (now Russian) society by the draconian system that imprisoned millions of people for "violations", whether real or imagined. While I don't normally do book reviews (I'm a film fan first and foremost), this one is probably the best on this particular subject. Applebaum went to great lengths-even going to some of the locations mentioned in the book."Gulag" covers the history of the Gulag system from it's inception, to the remnants of the system after Glasnost and beyond. That Russia doesn't want to bring discussions on the system that nearly caused economic disaster during both world wars, just adds to the curiosity factor. that the Soviet "elite" did this sort of thing, that could be best described as xenophobia, is not surprising, as it probably seemed natural to the state, their history being one of fear of invasion (which happened at least four times in their history)for quite some time.For anyone who is curious about the gulag, or any student of Soviet/Russian history, this tome just can't be surpassed.
Similarly fact-filled: The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Russia. Lastly, (and most uncharitably) she implies that he was nothing more than another Gulag memoirist, though a lucky one, with these words: (p 521) "the many hundreds of Gulag memoirs that have been published since the 1980s are ample testimony to the eloquence and talent of Soviet ex-prisoners, many of them of whom wrote in secret for years.
It is absolutely stuffed with facts about the Main Camp Administration and bits about camp life taken from many memoirs. Journalist Anne Applebaum won the Pulitzer prize (for non-fiction in 2004) for this ultra-comprehensive, well-researched and written book about all things Gulag.
writes that he (p 521):"served as an informer before seeing the light"implying that he actually informed. My only beef with the book is the handful of negative statements Applebaum makes about two of the most famous Gulag memoirists, Varlam Shalamov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Of Shalamov, author of (the semi-autobiographical) Kolyma Tales, she writes stuff like: (p 203) "Technically, Shalamov was wrong" (about his criticism of the prisoner delousing procedure) and that he was (p 206) "ever-obsessive on the issue of underwear." Additionally, of his contention that most prison escape attempts were endeavored by "newcomers" she claims he did so (p 390) "with characteristic gloom." She treats Solzhenitsyn even worse, claiming because he chose to refer to communists as "Goodthinkers" in The Gulag Archipelago that he did so (p 304) "not very charitably;" and of his positive words about camp marriages, she says he (p 317) "momentarily drops the cynicism." Furthermore, although she initially states just the fact about AS signing up to become an informant (p 367): "He signed a pledge, promising to report news of any escapes to the authorities, and chose a conspiratorial pseudonym: Vetrov," of which he was admittedly ashamed but "By his own account, Solzhenitsyn never did actually report on anything."Later, she (uncharitably). What made Solzhenitsyn truly unique, in the end, was the simple fact that his work appeared in print, in the Soviet Union, while Krushchev was still in power." Great Gulag-related information, but the negatives on Shalamov and Solzhenitsyn bugged me.
Better: The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov.
This is just a rehash of the Gulag Archipelago, with a few new bits of information that have come since Solzhenitsyn published his great work. Applebaum even borrows the structure of her book from Solzhenitsyn. And somehow, she manages to make the subject boring. It's a really lackluster, half-baked stab at a monumental subject.
It only ended because it simply became inefficient to run slave labour camps. Unlike Hitler, Stalin inflicted his terror mostly on his own population including imprisoning millions of them in the GULAG. So much of communist behaviour was just a continuation of Tsarist policies including banishing people to Siberia - but it took the communists to turn the GULAG into a vast slave labour system that the Soviet economy depended on. This is a brilliant account of the GULAG system. Should be read in conjunction with Donald Rayfield's excellent Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of A Tyrant and Those Who Served Him and Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Signet Classics).
Their arrests were caused by "the cunning work of foreign intelligence services".With this kind of people abounding in your country what can anyone expect. Seems like Russia -and the rest of the world- is in for some more trouble soon.One might wrongly assume that once through the first half of the book, the second will be just more of the same, but read on, it can always get worse.Despite the huge amount of information it collects, it still does not cover the story of the "special exiles", millions of people who were sent not to concentration camps but to live in remote villages were they died of cold, starvation or overwork.Gorky's description of the prisoners of the forced labor camps, and the kulaks: "half-animals".
It covers every aspect of the Gulag system from its pre-history to its closing-down.Russia's history is sad, unsentimental, and violent. It's a work of labor as much as debt and seer investigative powers.
"The new Russian elite's arrogant contempt for its fellow citizens lives on" says the author. One must thank God that Americans took a more noble and humane path for their history.
If people get what they deserve, the Russians must be really wicked, and Americans must congratulate themselves.Take these words from a Russian of today: "Perhaps the old system was bad -but at least we were powerful, we don't want to hear that it was bad." So will the devil himself say on the day of reckoning.Bad people make bad systems. He and the other "intellectuals" were the ones most exhilarated by the "progress" of Soviet society.What still amazes me most is the extreme of voluntary blindness that many Russian communists reached to explain away their own arrests and torture: "We are honest Soviet people, hurrah for Stalin, we aren't guilty and our state will free us from the company of all these enemies.
Thank God, again and again, for America.
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