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rotorguy64's review
5.0
Kolyma: the Arctic Death Camps is a description of the Kolyma camps, the most infamous of the Soviet Gulags, and a remarkable book in more than one respect. This starts with how wide the scope of the book really is: It deals with the political and economic motives surrounding the camps (including their change from labour to death camps on Stalins order), the logistics and the management of the camps and the transfers of prisoners to them, the reactions of westerners who visited or wrote about them and so on and of course the conditions that the prisoners lived in, finished by a very transparent and detailed calculation of the number of victims that died in Kolyma (Conquest makes a conservative estimate of three-million). All of this is dealt with on less than three-hundred pages, and yet I never had the feeling that Conquest merely scratched on the surface of any topic, even when he referred multiple times to books that you apparently ought to have read before his. That was a bit bizarre, especially because I really understood everything and didn't felt left in the dark at any point, so... what happened?
Every topic I just mentioned was handled very, but where Conquest really shone was in his painting a vivid picture of life at Kolyma based on multiple witness reports. We learn of the perils and the suffering of the prisoners, their attempts to survive and to escape, the formal and informal hierarchies in the camp (common criminals, urkas - called apaches by fellow prisoners for their savagery - held a higher rank than the politicals in general and the supposed trotskyists in particular and could abuse them with impunity), the importance of favors and connections, the coping mechanisms of different groups like Christians and Muslims, the role of women in Kolyma with their impressive resilience and, lastly, the few moments of humanity by both prisoners and officials, who miraculously maintain their beauty even when contrasted with the hellish conditions at Kolyma, like gems in a barren wasteland. Through all this, conquest shows the incredible ability to effortlessly convey both the bigger picture and the individual perspective that contributed to it at the same time, handling the subject matter with delicacy while still maintaining the objectiveness of the true scientist. I can honestly say that I know of no other author who could surpass him in this regard, not even among those that I venerate.
I would've given Kolyma: the Arctic Death Camps 4.5 out of 5 stars, with the half star subtracted because Conquest does not abstract much from his subject matter and only hints at how it fits into a wider context. This, however, is at most a minor flaw, so I am rounding up to the full five stars. In conclusion, I can say that Kolyma: the Arctic Death Camps is a great monograph and as gripping as any novel, and that you cannot go wrong with picking it up even if you have already accepted the monstrosity of Stalin and of the Soviet Union.
Every topic I just mentioned was handled very, but where Conquest really shone was in his painting a vivid picture of life at Kolyma based on multiple witness reports. We learn of the perils and the suffering of the prisoners, their attempts to survive and to escape, the formal and informal hierarchies in the camp (common criminals, urkas - called apaches by fellow prisoners for their savagery - held a higher rank than the politicals in general and the supposed trotskyists in particular and could abuse them with impunity), the importance of favors and connections, the coping mechanisms of different groups like Christians and Muslims, the role of women in Kolyma with their impressive resilience and, lastly, the few moments of humanity by both prisoners and officials, who miraculously maintain their beauty even when contrasted with the hellish conditions at Kolyma, like gems in a barren wasteland. Through all this, conquest shows the incredible ability to effortlessly convey both the bigger picture and the individual perspective that contributed to it at the same time, handling the subject matter with delicacy while still maintaining the objectiveness of the true scientist. I can honestly say that I know of no other author who could surpass him in this regard, not even among those that I venerate.
I would've given Kolyma: the Arctic Death Camps 4.5 out of 5 stars, with the half star subtracted because Conquest does not abstract much from his subject matter and only hints at how it fits into a wider context. This, however, is at most a minor flaw, so I am rounding up to the full five stars. In conclusion, I can say that Kolyma: the Arctic Death Camps is a great monograph and as gripping as any novel, and that you cannot go wrong with picking it up even if you have already accepted the monstrosity of Stalin and of the Soviet Union.
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