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dreiac's review against another edition
5.0
I’ll review this one with a quote from the book:
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
This is, hands down, the best non-fiction book I have ever read. It’s hard to read - because it’s so heartbreaking - but entirely necessary.
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
This is, hands down, the best non-fiction book I have ever read. It’s hard to read - because it’s so heartbreaking - but entirely necessary.
markgoodyer's review against another edition
4.0
Life in a Gulag, told first hand. The writing was brilliant and this is possibly one of the mist important books ever written. Serving as a warning of unchecked powers, leaders without accountability. The Russian people were decimated by their own leader seemly at random at certainly at will.
This book is a catalogue of suffering and systematic abuse but also a story of the strength of the human body and mind. The way various people kept their minds free and occupied and thus helped a broken body hold on and endure was inspiring.
From one prisoner meticulously measuring out every room and open area of his camp then upon release drawing detailed maps. To the author composing and memorising poems and books, line by line in his head.
It is a great reminder that our minds can never been taken from us, or dulled down, until we allow it.
This book is a catalogue of suffering and systematic abuse but also a story of the strength of the human body and mind. The way various people kept their minds free and occupied and thus helped a broken body hold on and endure was inspiring.
From one prisoner meticulously measuring out every room and open area of his camp then upon release drawing detailed maps. To the author composing and memorising poems and books, line by line in his head.
It is a great reminder that our minds can never been taken from us, or dulled down, until we allow it.
athousandgreatbooks's review
5.0
Camps, secret police, prisons, spies, transit centers, interrogations, the freezing cold of the Siberian tundra and taiga, the degradation and destruction of millions of souls, the betrayal of a whole nation, and an unrelenting State that benefits from the exploitation and slavery of whole peoples deceived, denounced, and eliminated methodically.
Of the blackest chapter in the history of the 20th century, The Gulag Archipelago is a tour de force compiled from the bravery of some 200 inhabitants of the Gulags who put their life (and much more!) on the line to reveal what the State took pains to conceal, and what the rest of the world so conveniently wanted to overlook.
Solzhenitsyn, through his searing sarcasm, blows the lid off this carefully constructed lie of the so-called Liberal world looking to get to heaven by stepping over millions of corpses and the destruction of everything human.
I cannot, for the life of me, ever get over the stories of these people, sometimes satirical in its comedy, often inconceivable horrible, but always with the same ends - depredation, death, famine, disease, repression, regression, and the heart-wrenching tearing out of the Russian soul from the degrading Soviet body.
But the destruction is not complete, it could never be, and interspersed are feats of super-human will, faith, and moral integrity of those that survived, but more so of those who didn't.
Nothing that has come before, be it in Tsarist Russia, or the contemporaneous camps at Auschwitz or Dachau, could compare (though it seems unreasonable to compare suffering and death) to the sordid and moral vacuity of any number of the Gulag camps, whether one finds basis in the numbers or the conditions, or even in the ingenuity and deliberateness of the acts.
This is the cost of lies, remembering the first few words from Chernobyl, the HBO miniseries. Never look away. Remember.
Of the blackest chapter in the history of the 20th century, The Gulag Archipelago is a tour de force compiled from the bravery of some 200 inhabitants of the Gulags who put their life (and much more!) on the line to reveal what the State took pains to conceal, and what the rest of the world so conveniently wanted to overlook.
Solzhenitsyn, through his searing sarcasm, blows the lid off this carefully constructed lie of the so-called Liberal world looking to get to heaven by stepping over millions of corpses and the destruction of everything human.
I cannot, for the life of me, ever get over the stories of these people, sometimes satirical in its comedy, often inconceivable horrible, but always with the same ends - depredation, death, famine, disease, repression, regression, and the heart-wrenching tearing out of the Russian soul from the degrading Soviet body.
But the destruction is not complete, it could never be, and interspersed are feats of super-human will, faith, and moral integrity of those that survived, but more so of those who didn't.
Nothing that has come before, be it in Tsarist Russia, or the contemporaneous camps at Auschwitz or Dachau, could compare (though it seems unreasonable to compare suffering and death) to the sordid and moral vacuity of any number of the Gulag camps, whether one finds basis in the numbers or the conditions, or even in the ingenuity and deliberateness of the acts.
This is the cost of lies, remembering the first few words from Chernobyl, the HBO miniseries. Never look away. Remember.
eleutheria's review against another edition
Note: This is my fourth review of a non-fiction book, first on good reads. As a policy I don't give ratings for non-fiction works, I'm perfectly happy to let my personal biases reflect my opinions of non-fiction work, but I'd rather reflect on non-fiction as it is, than let how much I agree with it impact how much I like it
I just got around to reading Solzhenitsyn's 'The Gulag Archipelago', I read the abridged because I'm too much of a pussy to read 3 volumes of this.
The more recent editions prologue is written by Jordan Peterson, I didn't hate the prologue, I actually largely like Peterson as controversial as that is, but I do think that took away from the rest of the book. Peterson was (unsurprisingly) far more political than the book intended to be and probably would have turned some readers off from an otherwise highly valuable book
I learned a lot more about the operations of secret police than I expected too.
On the treatment of people in gulags, in some ways, it was much better than I expected, in some ways it was worse. My expectations were pretty low so I guess that was unsurprising.
We then get to the line, Solzhenitsyn's most famous quote, one I was familiar with well before reading this book, it's poetic, and probably would have been even more profound in the unabridged than the abridged version. "In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible", I mean maybe I'm wrong but had I read more about Solzhenitsyn's backstory, much of which, as I've been told, was cut from the unabridged version that already powerful quote might have been even moreso
But one thing I didn't know before reading which I love even more now, was directly after that quote, Solzhenitsyn says something I've been echoing for years, the importance of the Nuremberg trials. Putting evil on trial and actually giving evil a fair trial when doing so
I actually view the Nuremberg trials alongside the US Constitution as two of the pinnacles of morality in human history, and I was really happy to see Solzhenitsyn had similar sentiments, especially because he's a much better person than I am
I just got around to reading Solzhenitsyn's 'The Gulag Archipelago', I read the abridged because I'm too much of a pussy to read 3 volumes of this.
The more recent editions prologue is written by Jordan Peterson, I didn't hate the prologue, I actually largely like Peterson as controversial as that is, but I do think that took away from the rest of the book. Peterson was (unsurprisingly) far more political than the book intended to be and probably would have turned some readers off from an otherwise highly valuable book
I learned a lot more about the operations of secret police than I expected too.
On the treatment of people in gulags, in some ways, it was much better than I expected, in some ways it was worse. My expectations were pretty low so I guess that was unsurprising.
We then get to the line, Solzhenitsyn's most famous quote, one I was familiar with well before reading this book, it's poetic, and probably would have been even more profound in the unabridged than the abridged version. "In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible", I mean maybe I'm wrong but had I read more about Solzhenitsyn's backstory, much of which, as I've been told, was cut from the unabridged version that already powerful quote might have been even moreso
But one thing I didn't know before reading which I love even more now, was directly after that quote, Solzhenitsyn says something I've been echoing for years, the importance of the Nuremberg trials. Putting evil on trial and actually giving evil a fair trial when doing so
I actually view the Nuremberg trials alongside the US Constitution as two of the pinnacles of morality in human history, and I was really happy to see Solzhenitsyn had similar sentiments, especially because he's a much better person than I am
eeely's review against another edition
4.0
This was very brutal. I read it, but it was rough. There are a few quotes that go way too hard however, and I carry this book around with me forever engrained in my soul. Few books have been able to penetrate me and change me in such a way, I greatly recommend everyone read this. However, don't be a Jordan Peterson and think everything written here is the gospel truth, it is an impressive account of one mans experiences and his attempts to extrapolate in order to show the full scale of the horrors of the Gulags is (as it always was doomed to be) inaccurate. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn did a better job than probably anyone else on the planet ever could given the circumstances he was under, but read this more as an insight into the inhumane experiences one must endure in such abhorrent conditions.
tim515's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
5.0
jcampbell's review
dark
informative
slow-paced
4.5
dark and twisted, and at times you had to remind yourself that this was not fiction, but such a necessary read!
spav's review against another edition
1.0
Uf...qué peñazo aaaaaridooo!. A temática está interesante, o desarrollo moi complexo de ler (por aburrido).
dale_kooyenga's review against another edition
5.0
Stephen King couldn’t match the horrors inflicted in this book. The detailed account of the Soviet Gulag system is beyond my original understanding of the scope of depravity Stalin inflicted on his fellow countrymen, women and children.
I am glad I read the abridged versions. Three detailing the faces of the Gulags is a huge service to history but more than I would of wanted to fill my brain and time with considering the opportunity costs of reading other books on my to read list.
The author is a hero and he has served history well.
I am glad I read the abridged versions. Three detailing the faces of the Gulags is a huge service to history but more than I would of wanted to fill my brain and time with considering the opportunity costs of reading other books on my to read list.
The author is a hero and he has served history well.