The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[Scott]

Sometime in 2006 I read The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It's a great book, and I highly recommend it if you haven't read it.

This book was banned in the USSR for depicting human rights abuses by the Soviet government, particularly in its justice system and prisons.

I find the book very scary because of the parallels in the United States today, namely in the law enforcement, justice, and prison systems. Although at this time it's not as extreme, power-hungry officers of the government abuse their power in similar ways (again usually not as extremely) for similar motivations, and get away with it for the same reasons.

Who's read this book? What did you think of it?

Here's an excerpt I really liked:

...let the reader who expects this book to be a political expose slam its covers shut right now. 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?

What do you think?

[readertim109]

It was a scary book and gross at points... like when the guards would urinate on suspects.

[baconpatroller]

I read Part I, it was a bit of a tough slog, but okay. I started to read Part II but gave up. Solzhenitsyn's much shorter One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is also much better.

[PaulR]

This old joke is a good indication of how some – who have been born and lived only in freedom – have trouble perceiving tyranny: An American lady asks a Cuban émigré who just explained to her how Castro keeps a grip on power by oppressive surveillance and persecution that includes mysterious murders: "One thing I don't understand; if that Fidel is so terrible, why people keep voting for him?" Well perhaps, not only some ordinary people have a bit of a problem perceiving tyranny. Wasn't Churchill, Rosevelt and others saying, by forcefully 'repatriating' tens of thousands of Rusian POWs and Russian émigrés to the Soviet Union from 1945 until 1947: "How could any people not be willing to return to their home? If you are dissatisfied with Stalin, … do not re-elect him." Practically all repatriated Russians disappeared in gulags, some were executed. Didn't Churchill and Rosevelt know that that's going to happen?

-- 06 Nov 2016, 12:45 --

Was it just paranoia that led Stalin to murder or imprison the POWs and Russians who fought in the forces of the Western Allies? Yes, but not entirely. During the war, lots of Soviet soldiers – first Estonians then Ukrainians, other ethnic minorities, even Russians – defected to Germans showing clear rejection of Stalin's tyranny. They formed many military units under German command. Later, attempts were made to unite more than 100,000 defectors and released POWs in ROA under the command of Russian General Vlasov, but the end of the war interfered. The 'O' in the name ROA, translated into English, means liberation from communist tyranny. On the way to a meeting place for all ROA units, the infantry division of General Buniachenko stumbled upon the uprising of Prague citizens against Germans. With Americans already at Pilzen and the Red Army fast approaching from the east, the end of WW II was near. In desperation, Buniachenko and his men switched sides again and joined the Prague uprising. So, Prague was liberated by Russians in German uniforms. The primary fight awaiting the Red Army in Prague was to hunt down all Vlasovites. Many in communist Czechoslovakia didn't know that since Stalin attempted to delete this fact from the history – the witnesses wisely kept quiet.
For illustration (removed by mod).

-- 11 Nov 2016, 00:58 --

Let's go back to the beginning. Late in 1917, sailors on the Tzarist battleship Aurora joined the proletariat, shoot few salvos towards St. Petersburgh, while Red Guards attacked the Winter Palace and after a little bit of fighting took over the Russian government. That was it; the Great October Revolution has won. In schools that were under the Soviet control, all kids learned this but not few details that were omitted: Tzar's family was executed, without trial, together with leading aristocrats and the rich bourgeoisie. Lot's of their wealth ended up not in government coffers but the hands of the revolution leaders (they would need it in case of defeat.) Lesser class enemies and counterrevolutionaries were locked in prisons or better yet in Corrective Labour Camps. Russian soldiers and emigrés returning from the West at the end of WWI were all suspects, so they went to the camps too. But the fragile Soviet economy required more labour for great socialist projects or to cut trees and mine ore, without pay, in Siberian wilderness. No problem for Stalin; he just ordered the 'security' forces to arrest more people. Pretty soon the Soviet Union was the largest slave owner of all times. But the outside world, even some Soviet citizens, didn't learn about this, as they all were fed theatrically staged stories of enthusiastic, heroic, socialist workers.

-- 13 Nov 2016, 19:18 --

Was it just paranoia that led Stalin to send millions to the gulag? Yes, but not entirely. Contrary to the pretty picture of quick Bolshevik victory forced-fed later to Soviet vassal countries, the revolution was a tough, protracted civil war. The political and ethnic groups opposing Bolsheviks were many, too numerous to mention. Severe fighting lasted five years, sporadic armed resistance for further eleven years till 1934. After that, opposition was crushed but could spring up anytime. The continuous waves of innocent victims disappearing into the gulag's maw were necessary not only to remove any potential leaders of the opposition but mainly to keep the population terrorized into submission. The glorious communist utopia can't be built for several reasons, but the necessity of dictatorial power to kick start the process is the main one. "The power corrupts, and the absolute power corrupts absolutely," in many different ways.
Now, let's try to compare this horror with just about anything in the human history.