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The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

An Experiment in Literary Investigation

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The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

Written by: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Narrated by: Ignat Solzhenitsyn
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About this listen

"Best Nonfiction Book of the 20th Century" (Time)

“It is impossible to name a book that had a greater effect on the political and moral consciousness of the late 20th century.” (David Remnick, The New Yorker)

The Nobel Prize winner’s towering masterpiece of world literature, the searing record of four decades of terror and oppression, in one abridged volume (authorized by the author). Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.

Drawing on his own experiences before, during, and after his 11 years of incarceration and exile, on evidence provided by more than 200 fellow prisoners, and on Soviet archives, Solzhenitsyn reveals with torrential narrative and dramatic power the entire apparatus of Soviet repression, the state within the state that once ruled all-powerfully with its creation by Lenin in 1918. Through truly Shakespearean portraits of its victims - this man, that woman, that child - we encounter the secret police operations, the labor camps and prisons, the uprooting or extermination of whole populations, the “welcome” that awaited Russian soldiers who had been German prisoners of war. Yet we also witness astounding moral courage, the incorruptibility with which the occasional individual or a few scattered groups, all defenseless, endured brutality and degradation. And Solzhenitsyn’s genius has transmuted this grisly indictment into a literary miracle.

“The greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever leveled in modern times.” (George F. Kennan)

“Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece.... The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today.” (Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag: A History, from the foreword)

©2007 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Freedom & Security Ideologies & Doctrines Russia War Scary Thought-Provoking Imperialism Stalin Military
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What listeners say about The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

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Extremely Important

Hopefully this book can be consumed by enough people so that communism can never enslave The West again.

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4 people found this helpful

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Incredible

This was such a powerful thing to listen to. Humbling and terrifying. I can’t even begin to imagine what life must have been like....

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Powerful & Mind blowing

I highly recommend this book as an essential book philosophers, sociologists, and anyone interested in history. this book has left a noticeable impact on my life.

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Absolutely Essential

Before committing fully to Marxist ideology or Communist philosophies, and even if afterwards you are still not convinced, you MUST read this absolutely essential work on the immutable nature of humans. "Human nature changes as does a mountain range"

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Should be a mandatory read in Schools.

A masterpiece detailing the absolute horror the Soviet people were put through for decades upon decades. I recommend this book to everyone, I was appaled reading this book that I have never even heard about any of this beforehand. I think our society would look a lot different than it does today if people really understood what happens under socialism/communism.

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Devastating and evil.

I enjoyed this version of the book and the reader but I did not enjoy listening to the atrocities. I had to pause and even step away for days because it's so dark. I pray history never repeats itself however during this uncertain covid, false news and cancel culture times of 2020/2021 I think we are on the path to do so.

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This book will change you.

Listening to the moral depravity, self-delusion and twisted thinking of this period is shocking. It will force you to look at yourself and ask if you could succumb to it had you lived at this time. This should be mandatory reading for all young adults.

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Painful Perfection

I'm a Ukrainian Canadian . Some of my relatives were sent to Siberia.
This book...I listened with tears and a lump in my throat. Thank you, author and son.

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Heavy

This is not light.
So heavy that at times it defies its own telling weight.
And yet there is a weightlessness in its being told. That the spirit of humanity can endure what the spirit of humanity can inflict.
Yeah…it’s pretty dark.

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Speechless

If I could go back in time and tell my 19yr old self to do one thing in life it would be this: read this book.

Now, 35 years old, I struggle with my political and spiritual beliefs and this book made my struggle no easier. I’ve always known about the Gulags but I never TRULY knew anything about them.

Something in this book sparked something different and unknown inside me. I view the world, corruption, politics,laws, morals and much more in an extremely different light now.

I urge people to take in every word of this book. Reread parts if you have to. 70million lives lost deserve that much

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