Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

This is a very fine book but it is not one you want to read if you are feeling depressed. I have tried to read it twice, but there is only so much oppression a soul can take. I have never managed to get beyond half way. The book tells the story of Solzhenitsyn's life. He was a Russian soldier in Stalin's army who rather stupidly wrote a letter to a friend in which he criticised Stalin. The letter was intercepted and Solzhenitsyn was arrested. There then follows a harrowing account of his trial and imprisonment, including his experiences of torture and the Gulag. To say that this book is a biography is only half true. It is also a history of the ...  Read the complete review

Although non-fiction, Gulag Archipelago is highly readable, describing one of the darkest areas of the old USSR. Solzhenitsyn himself was condemned in 1945, sent to work camps for eight years, then several more years in exile within the USSR. His own experiences, and research, created this book, for which he was further punished by disapproval and eventually left the country. This is a harrowing description of the secret police and work camps used by Stalin and his successors to control and repress Russia. The powers of the regime over its citizens are chillingly close to 1984, while the individual has little right or hope except to submit. The actual Gulags - ...  Read the complete review