Works, including One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) and The Gulag Archipelago (1973-1975), of Soviet writer and dissident Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970, exposed the brutality of the labor camp system.
This known Russian novelist, dramatist, and historian best helped to make the world aware of the forced Gulag.
Exiled in 1974, he returned to Russia in 1994. Solzhenitsyn fathered of Ignat Solzhenitsyn, a conductor and pianist.
Solzhenitsyn systematically goes through the horrors of the Soviet slave labour camps, one of the blackest chapters in world history. I read this book as a teenager, not long after it came out, and I was appalled that my parents had presented the Soviet Union as anything other than a monstrosity. For some reason, leftist people wouldn't properly admit it for a long time. I still can't quite understand why.
If you feel any shadow of sympathy for Soviet Russia, read Solzhenitsyn and you will be cured. One of the first myths he explodes is that it was all Stalin's fault, and that Lenin was basically a good guy. Lenin just happened to die early, so it wasn't as obvious that he was equally to blame. Solzhenitsyn recounts a comparatively minor and unknown incident from the revolution, where Lenin brutally orders some railway workers to be executed for not fully cooperating with the Bolsheviks. As he comments: just for this one episode, Lenin fully deserved to be shot. He was responsible for dozens of much worse things.
I began ploughing through this book in the dreary and climacteric era of my workplace coming of age.
A quickly-promoted amateur in a world of pros, I was fast falling out of my depth - and the deft irony of this book鈥檚 prose was no match for my witlessness.
This book probably acted as one of its precipitants. Who knows?
But, three years later, recuperating from the last of my fatal plummets, I met Fred.
Fred was a disproportionately effusive returner of favours, like me. And, like me, he was bipolar.
So, working half-days then, I enlisted his help.
Most of the guys bad-mouthed him, but I was by then a Christian, so avoided their game.
In fact, I opened up to Fred, and confided to him that I needed to find something for my wife and asked him, a trained expert in such things, to help find it.
He did more than that. Much more (and it was so typically beautiful of Fred)...
He brought me in one of his spares from home and GAVE it to me. I was understandably floored. And my wife was delighted.
Next morning, working from home, I spotted this book on our piano. Eureka!
Fred - veteran as I was of tragic falls into his own gulags from official grace - would surely appreciate it.
That afternoon when I arrived at work I placed it quietly on his desk.
Was he fulsomely effusive in his thanks?
Yep - you got it - just like I can be.
(We鈥檙e like two overripe peas in a pod...)
You know, guys: I never would have finished my weary slog through these prolix chapters anyway, at that soul-stretching time of drastic downsizing in our organization.
And me in the state I was then.
I had a job in hard economic times, and no matter how enervatingly demanding it got, I was HOLDING ON to it.
But eleven years later - fully retired, though on a fraction of my income - wouldn鈥檛 I have loved, you鈥檙e saying, to restart this book THEN?
You鈥檙e darned right, friends. Books are expensive.
And inflation keeps shrinking my pension in real terms.
But folks, wouldn鈥檛 YOU have done exactly the same...
For a kid-at-heart like Fred, that day:
To see his big face light up in garish gratitude like the Times Square Christmas Tree?!
I read this in 1974 in a bad situation in my life. This put "a bad situation" in America in a totally new light. I wish more Americans would listen and have listened to Solzhenitsyn.
Update: I don't know how many of you have followed the...discussion that has been going on here but it inspired me to extend this review a little. The above is the original review in which I simply urged people to read the book for themselves as it has much to say and is applicable in many ways to events happening now.
The book traces the history of the Soviet Gulag and then the willing "refusal to look" at the Gulag system (that went on till the '80s well after the book's publication).
I still recommend this book I doubt anyone will have trouble seeing the resemblance between the Gulags and the Concentration Camps of the Third Reich...unless of course by willful ignorance.
There has also been a suggestion that Solzhenitsyn was antisemitic. This apparently came from the controversy over his book where he says that "some" Jews were as much perpetrators as victims in Russia. I can't take a stand on this but so far as I can see it's not antisemitism it's simply part of the book. It was intended to be a comprehensive history of Jews in Russia.
So far as THIS book goes I still recommend it and suggest as I do about all books that it be approached while thinking.
I can not in clear conscience say that I really like a book about Soviet Gulags. To be honest, I repeatedly reached my limit of emotional energy. The story of any one of the 20 million people directly affected would have more impact.
Oh, right. He tried that first, . In a lot of ways, this a response to critics and deniers of his earlier book.
Given its historical importance, I fully expected that The Gulag Archipelago would be a lofty read. What I didn't expect was that it works so well as a story. Instead of being a straight history book, Gulag lies somewhere between journalism and history, and Solzhenitsyn's narrative voice is familiar and engaging. The book feels less like a history lesson, and more like a conversation with a good friend who knows how to put together and express an interesting, important, heartbreaking, and unforgettable story. A narrative about the Soviet prison camps seems like it would be so weighty as to be unreadable, but Solzhenitsyn makes it surprisingly palatable. It's quite refreshing when you read a classic for the first time, and instantly understand where all the hype came from.
鈥淓ach of us is a center of the Universe, and that Universe is shattered when they hiss at you: 鈥淵ou are under arrest.鈥� So Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 journey into the gulag began in 1945 where he spent eight years. This is a personal history by a survivor of the false arrest, the long prison sentence, the brutal dehumanizing treatment that sends shivers up the spine. Solzhenitsyn also reports the experiences of many others. Each report is heartfelt. Solzhenitsyn changed history by once and for all undermining the mythical image of the Soviet Communist Party as a party for the workers. He convincingly exposed the brutality and hypocrisy of the Soviet system under Lenin, Stalin and after.
It begins with the arrest for a few critical words, or having a friend who uttered them, or not turning in your friend, or just to fill a quota. Such is the job of the bluecaps, the SMERSH, the apparatchiks of the State Security system, the interrogators whose job it is to get confessions. Their job is not to determine guilt or innocence. That is irrelevant. Their instructions are clear. Stalin has enemies. You must deliver them. If you do the rewards are great. If you don鈥檛 you will be gone. This is how the gulags were filled.
Perhaps most surprising is how effective the secrecy was. The average Soviet citizen knew people were watched and arrested or disappeared, but were ignorant of the scope. Many in the West were taken in by Soviet propaganda. While Stalin鈥檚 purges in the late thirties unsettled some admirers in the West, for others it took Solzhenitsyn to show them the true nature of Soviet society.
For many, incarceration was automatic. All returning prisoners of war in WWII were sent to camps. Similarly Russians who for any reason spent time in the West were sent to camps. Anyone who performed any function under the German occupation was sent to camp. These millions were added to the millions of political prisoners from the great purges and routine surveillance.
Solzhenitsyn describes the special camps, prisons, prison trains and the horrific penalty cells. Inmates were routinely crowded into small, dirty, vermin infested, unheated compartments and cells. For those that complained or attempted escape the penalty cells served up a wide variety of torture. In camps inmates lived in primitive huts or crowded barracks sleeping together in confined spaces. Many were not even allowed correspondence. These unfortunates could receive no news of loved ones nor could their loved ones know anything about them. Cut off completely from any prior life they ceased to exist to the outside world. Here inmates worked off their 10 or 25 year sentences if they lived that long and their sentences were not extended. Even if fortunate enough to eventually be released, they were sent with nothing but the rags on their backs to internal exile in some remote desert or tundra.
Solzhenitsyn details the constant humiliations, the beatings, the tortures, the starvation diets of gruel and bread crusts. He describes the work, harsh and meaningless, hour after hour, day after day, without respite. Some camps intentionally worked the inmates to death. Other camps were designated to contribute to the five year plans, to dig canals, to lay train tracks. The inmates received nothing for this and the quality of the work reflected their motivation. This use of prisoners kept the quotas high for the State Security system.
Solzhenitsyn tells us about the inmates. Typically dispirited, subject to a system designed to bring out the worst behavior 鈥� at times they support each other but all too often it is each person out for him or herself. He describes their captors, how they live off the system. Upon arrival they take any remaining inmates possessions and the best looking young women for private mistresses. Afterword they steal the inmate鈥檚 food and use their labor for their personal gain.
Deprived of every dignity and every hope, some inmates finally come to acceptance and Solzhenitsyn describes its remarkable effect on the soul 鈥� a feeling of quietness, peace. In his seventh year of prison Solzhenitsyn experiences an epiphany. 鈥渓ooking back, I saw that for my whole conscious life I had not understood either myself or my strivings鈥n the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel鈥nd it was only when I lay there rotting on the prison straw that I sensed in myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either 鈥� but right through every human heart鈥ven within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains鈥n uprooted small corner of evil.鈥�
Thus Solzhenitsyn does not condemn the secret policeman, the interrogator, the camp guard as inherently evil. 鈥淚f only it were 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.鈥� - 鈥淭o do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he鈥檚 doing is good鈥�..Ideology - That is what gives evildoing its long sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.鈥� - 鈥淭hanks to ideology the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing calculated on a scale in the millions鈥�
In our present time of rising populist nationalism, we should not forget Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 warning, 鈥淭here is always this fallacious belief: 鈥業t would not be the same here; here such things are impossible.鈥� Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth.鈥� 鈥淵et, I have not given up all hope that human beings and nations may be able, in spite of all, to learn from the experience of other people without having to go through it personally.鈥�
One of the accounts from the book that still makes me laugh (you read that right, though I shouldn't really) is:
A political meeting was going on with about 1000 - 2000 people present in the hall somewhere in USSR (I can't recall the exact location and time of the event). Now the desiderata for survival in Stalin era was that everyone should stand up and clap their hands furiously at the mention of his name, and you don't want to be the one to stop clapping first. This might suggest that you oppose Comrade Stalin (how dare you, O ye of feeble bourgeois mentality).
So, at this assembly someone inevitably mentioned Stalin's name. Right at that exact moment the whole congregation stood up and began to clap without forgetting to put a beaming stupid smile on their faces. Now you can't be sure that if Cheka agents are watching you at that moment or not. And moreover, you cannot stop clapping before your neighbor does, as he/she might inform on you. So this went on for 8 minutes (I tried clapping for 10 seconds myself and came to the conclusion that you clap twice in a second if you are doing it with gusto - fake or genuine). So they battered their hands together for at least 900 times.
After smashing their hands together until they began to hurt, the highest ranking local member of the Party at the meeting decided that this was getting ridiculous even by then Soviet Standards. He thought that 8 minutes of clapping and smiling was enough for showing their loyalty for a singular mention of Comrade Stalin's name. So he slowly stopped clapping and sat down. The congregation took no more than half a second to do likewise following his lead. Nobody spoke anything about the event in the concluding hours of the meeting. (But I am pretty much sure that everybody made certain that they didn't mention Stalin's name again for rest of the evening).
Next day, the Party member was arrested and never heard from again.
This book would have been comical if it would have been a work of fiction rather than non-fiction. But alas, that is not the case which makes it a sad sad collection of numerous accounts of human suffering under Soviet tyranny.
This is a wonderful book, but like many Russian authors, Solzhenitsyn goes on too long too often and all the excess verbiage takes away rather than adds to the enjoyment and understanding of the book. However this does not mean that some idiot librarian has the right to decide that all seven (I think it was 7) volumes of the book should be divided willy-nilly into just three volumes. So "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books III-IV" has all sorts of volumes combined in it, volume 2, volume 4 etc. WTF?
I view people that cling to the tenets of communism the same way I view Holocaust deniers. From the Bolsheviks of 1917 to the turmoil in Venezuela of 2017; Communism is as Churchill said; the equal sharing of misery. The pages of Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 Nobel Prize winning masterpiece are full of misery.
Solzhenitsyn paints a picture for the na茂ve westerner of the backbone and main pillar of Soviet Socialism: The gulag. The purpose of the network of gulags in the Soviet Union is to 1. Intimidate the masses so that they dwell in a constant state of fear and 2. To provide the nation state with an endless supply of slave labor. From the pages of this book you will learn that communism is probably the cruelest form of government in the history of humankind.
Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 writing is first hand. He was imprisoned for 8 years after being accused of writing letters that were critical of Stalin. He wrote these letters while serving in the Red Army during WWII. Being able to tell his story and that of his fellow zeks(convicts) was the motivation used by Solzhenitsyn to survive a brutal prison system designed to systematically kill it's inhabitants. His writing style is angry and he uses sarcasm to describe the system of Soviet Gulags that make Tsarist Russia look like the Cub Scouts in comparison. It is not an easy read. One thing that makes it a difficult read is that that the author rambles on and repeats himself. Solzhenitsyn apologizes for this but he explains he was never able to proofread the manuscript. In fact, he never saw all of his notes in one place. He had written this book and hid it in pieces all over the Soviet Union. He was raided by the KGB while in the process of smuggling the pieces out of the country for publication. So please forgive the author if he repeats himself and makes a few errors. He wrote the book while living in a police state and didn鈥檛 have the luxury of being able to proofread it. THIS IS HOW YOU HAVE TO WRITE A BOOK WHEN YOU LIVE IN THE SOVIET UNION!!! For this reason, make sure you select the abridged version.
This book is full of horrific but interesting stories. Many are laughable if they weren't so cruel. The NKVD (the precursor to the KGB) would observe a mass meeting. Clapping would commence at the mere mention of comrade Stalin鈥檚 name. The ovation would last for 15 minutes or more. People applauding would quite literally pass out rather than be the first one to stop clapping. Finally, one of the factory general managers stopped clapping because, after all, this was ridiculous. There was an agenda to keep. After the gathering the factory manager was arrested. This was how the NKVD separated out the leaders. The Soviet Union only wanted sheep. Leaders were dangerous and sent to the gulag. There is another story about the man who was struggling carrying a mass produced bust of Stalin. The bust was too heavy and he had no way to carry it properly so he tied a rope around Stalin鈥檚 head and slung it over his shoulder. The man was given a 10 year sentence for terrorism. Still another man was given 10 years for draping his hat and coat on a bust of Lenin. There are endless stories about how the zeks (convicts) and the 58鈥檚 (political prisoners) were coerced into confessions and sentenced without a trial for political crimes they didn鈥檛 commit. When the suspect were charged with a crime it would be in code. When the citizen asked 鈥渨hat is code 58-[XYZ]鈥� they were told by their interrogators 鈥渢hat is for us to know.鈥� During interrogations, the arrested argued that they had fought against the Germans or fought in the Revolution and their interrogators would say that 鈥渢hat is another matter.鈥� Please note that I did not use the term 鈥渟uspects鈥� because there were no suspects. If arrested, you were guilty.
These were not isolated incidents. Solzhenitsyn said that almost every family had at least one family member or more incarcerated in one of the many islands of prisons throughout the Soviet Union. The zeks were fed a ration that could not sustain them when subjected to backbreaking labor. They were forced to work hard labor 7 days a week and often 16 hour days even if temperatures fell to -60藲F. The author tells of a canal built to the black sea where a quarter million zeks were killed in the process. Solzhenitsyn refused to compare the building of the canal to the building of the pyramids because, as he says, the difference was that the Egyptian slaves were at least given contemporary technology while the Soviets used only primitive technology! Trees were cleared by tying ropes to the tops of them and having gangs of zeks wiggle the tree until it could be toppled over. The canal was dug by pick and shovel and the frozen earth was carried away in wheel barrows or in a sack carried over the shoulder. People were dead from exhaustion, starvation, and by exposure and froze to death where they fell. The useless canal that ended the lives of so many was never even utilized. This and other things built by slave labor and managed by central government planning were most often inferior and shoddy.
Solzhenitsyn argues that peasants of Tsarist Russia were far better off than peasants living under Soviet rule. He cites the outrages that led to revolution and uses statistics to demonstrate how these outrages pale in comparison to the modern Socialist State and the system of Gulags. The Russian peasants were far, far, far better off before Lenin and Stalin came along. Yes, the peasants were slaves prior to 1867 but they got Sundays off and several Christian Holidays off. There were far fewer political prisoners and capital punishment was relatively rare. Ironically, all of these things 鈥� abject slavery, political prisoners, and capital punishment 鈥� inspired the Revolution. Lenin 鈥� who had never pushed a wheelbarrow or worked a pick or shovel 鈥� thought it was a good thing for prisoners to work rather than sit idle. The gulag was his idea. Millions upon millions of the former peasants 鈥� some who had even fought in the revolution - were rounded up and convicted as political prisoners for such terrible crimes as 鈥渉aving a defeatist attitude.鈥� Many were executed there on the spot but others were executed very slowly in the work gangs of the gulag.
I found the following argument very interesting: Solzhenitsyn remarks about how West Germany had convicted former Nazis for war crimes and crimes against humanity. By 1966, West Germany had convicted 86,000 of them. He said that the Soviets loved to read about this in the paper. Each person would express glee each time a Nazi was sentenced. He said if the West Germans convicted 86,000 than the Soviet Union should proportionately convict 250,000. However, only 10 men total in the Soviet Union were ever convicted of crimes against citizens. Solzhenitsyn cries out in the pages of this book that the killers of millions of people walk among us every day. He said that when he brings this up, he is told that he shouldn鈥檛 dredge up the past. Solzhenitsyn contends that Soviet society needed the healing that it would provide when these men and women would repent and confess for their terrible sins for incarcerating, torturing, and murdering their own citizens. He argued that the Soviet Union needed this healing just like the Germans experienced.
I could go on and on about the destruction of the Kulaks, political prisoners as young as 6-years old, a system of informants and stool pigeons, prison demonstrations and work stoppages that were settled under the tracks of T-34 tanks and strafing planes鈥� but I have had enough. Communism disgusts me.
Gulag Archipelago is a fifty year old book. But it is timely reading. Over 40% of millennials surveyed say that they would prefer a socialist form of government over capitalism. Inside Russia, I am told that the youth yearn for the old days. Closer to home, the local high school has allowed the children to start a communist club. Isn鈥檛 that nice? Imagine the outrage if the school allowed the students to start a Nazi club? Maybe all the world鈥檚 鈥渦seful idiots鈥� (as Lenin used to call them) have need to read Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 masterpiece?
This a perfectly acceptable and in some ways a better single volume version of S that I recommend to everyone. I read the original trilogy, and most of the rest of S, but most readers don't need this. It's full of old stories, but the single volume, here, is the best choice. It has everything the reader needs.
鈥淭he simple act of an ordinary brave man is not to participate in lies, not to support false actions! His rule: Let that come into the world, let it even reign supreme鈥攐nly not through me.鈥�
-Solzhenitysn
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鈥淓verything will be all right. And, even if it isn鈥檛, we鈥檒l have the consolation of having lived honest lives.鈥�
鈥� Alexei Navalny, imprisoned Russian dissident and critic of Putin
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what Solzhenitsyn and Orwell knew.....
鈥淣othing makes with greater certainty of making earth into a hell, then a man wanting to make it his heaven.鈥�
-Friedrich H枚lderlin
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new article: the author who brought down an empire...
a story from Solzhenitsyn's opus...
The audience exploded into applause. Every person in the room jumped up and began to wildly clap, as if racing each other to see who could get to their feet the fastest. The applause was all to honor the dictator Joseph Stalin at a 1937 conference of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.
But the big question soon became: Who would have the nerve to be the first person to stop clapping in honor of Comrade Stalin? No one had the courage, so the clapping went on鈥nd on鈥nd on.
You might be wondering why in the world anyone would be afraid to stop clapping for any leader. To understand this, you need to know Joseph Stalin.
Stalin was a ruthless dictator who ruled the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952. Although no one knows the precise number of political prisoners he executed, estimates usually reach well over a million.
Historian Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev estimated that Stalin had about 1 million political prisoners executed during the Great Terror of 1937-38 alone. That doesn鈥檛 even count the 6 or 7 million who died in the famine that Stalin created through his policies, or the millions who had to do long, hard sentences in the Gulag labor camps.
So when people were afraid to stop clapping for Stalin, they had good reason.
Here is how the Nobel Prize-winning writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described the surreal scene in his great book, The Gulag Archipelago:
鈥淭he applause went on鈥攕ix, seven, eight minutes! They were done for! Their goose was cooked! They couldn鈥檛 stop now till they collapsed with heart attacks! At the rear of the hall, which was crowded, they could of course cheat a bit, clap less frequently, less vigorously, not so eagerly鈥ine minutes! Ten!鈥nsanity! To the last man! With make-believe enthusiasm on their faces, looking at each other with faint hope, the district leaders were just going to go on and on applauding till they fell where they stood, till they were carried out of the hall on stretchers.鈥�
At last, after eleven minutes of non-stop clapping, the director of a paper factory finally decided enough was enough. He stopped clapping and sat down鈥攁 miracle! 鈥淭o a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down,鈥� Solzhenitsyn says.
That same night, the director of the paper factory was arrested and sent to prison for ten years. Authorities came up with some official reason for his sentence, but during his interrogation, he was told: 鈥淒on鈥檛 ever be the first to stop applauding!鈥�
This summer, the Wall Street Journal asked me to pick five books I admired that were somehow reminiscent of A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW. To that end, I wrote on five works in which the action is confined to a small space, but in which the reader somehow experiences the world. Here is #3:
In 1945, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, an officer of the Russian army and recipient of the Order of the Red Star, was arrested for including criticisms of Stalin in his personal letters. Having been interrogated in the Lubyanka, he was sentenced to eight years of hard labor and shuttled off to the remote and inhospitable wilds of his own country where, as he puts it, 鈥渢he sooner you get used to being without your near and dear ones, and the sooner they get used to being without you, the better.鈥�
But faced with interment under unspeakable conditions, Solzhenitsyn makes an extraordinary choice: rather than succumb to bitterness and despair, he determines to pursue the richness of the human experience through conversations with his fellow inmates. Where are they from? Why were they arrested? What happened at their trial? Who did they leave behind? What do they miss? And what keeps them going now?
Years later, the vast catalog of these interviews stored away safely in Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 memory became the basis for one of the most harrowing, inventive, and subversive works of the 20th century: the 鈥渆xperiment in literary investigation鈥� he called The Gulag Archipelago. With every element of liberty, every sensation of color, every hint of festivity stolen from him, Solzhenitsyn uncovers the richness of the human experience and the resilience of the human spirit. Though you may never face incarceration, the author鈥檚 advice to the new prisoner is valid just the same: 鈥淥wn only what you can always carry with you. Know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag鈥� Look around鈥攖here are people around you. Maybe you will remember one of them all your life and later eat your heart out because you didn鈥檛 make use of the opportunity to ask him questions. And the less you talk, the more you鈥檒l hear.鈥�
A bleak and unremittingly grim account of the gulags between 1918 and 1956, narrative history rather than Solzhenitsyn鈥檚 usual literary voice. There are occasional flashes of hope and redemption, but these are few. Solzhenitsyn provides a historical account reasoning through the state鈥檚 decision-making process and covering all the process of prison and exile from arrest to release (not so many reached release). There are detailed descriptions of the food, interrogations, torture, sanitary arrangements, travel, weather, clothing, the guards, stool pigeons, the daily work, rebellions, hunger strikes, executions, cells, relationships between the sexes and exile. It is comprehensive and Solzhenitsyn does not spare the reader. He also outlines some of the policies which led to the gulags, the architects of them (primarily Lenin and Stalin) and provides some estimates of the death toll generally from the gulags, starvation and land clearance; figures are in the tens of millions all told. It is an indictment of what Lenin and Stalin made of Marx in the Russian situation and some of the logical inconsistencies in the system (you achieve the withering away of the state by making it bigger). The whole thing is a testament to the fortitude of the human spirit. There are occasional flashes of humour; the party meeting where no one wants to be the first to stop clapping and so it goes on for over 8 minutes springs to mind. The book is of historical importance; placing the origins of the gulag with Lenin rather than Stalin; he just exploited and perfected it. It is a must read and there isn鈥檛 a lot more to say. Anyone who wants to understand Soviet history has to read this.
Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. 厂辞濒箩别苍铆迟蝉颈苍
H谩 livros que nunca deveriam ter sido escritos, mas que devem ser lidos.
Uma obra e um homem por tr谩s dela surpreendentes! 厂辞濒箩别苍铆迟蝉颈苍 dedicou-se a escrev锚-la a partir de 1965, num lugar secreto na Est贸nia. Durante dois invernos seguidos- 65 dias no primeiro e 81 no segundo- escreveu, escreveu e s贸 escreveu. Sozinho, sem vizinhos, cheio de precau莽玫es e com pouco mais do que alguma lenha e comida que ca莽ava, f锚-lo em mem贸ria de todos os torturados e mortos no Gulag. 脡 extraordin谩ria a resili锚ncia do autor n茫o s贸 por ter sobrevivido aos campos de trabalho corretivo e a um tumor canceroso (quando era ainda prisioneiro), mas tb por se propor a reviver e a sentir novamente a dor das atrocidades.
A partir da sua experi锚ncia e principalmente do testemunho de 227 pessoas, que lhe chegaram em forma de relatos , recorda莽玫es e cartas , criou um extenso livro de Hist贸ria , de mem贸rias pessoais , de reflex茫o pol铆tica e filos贸fica. O Arquip茅lago est谩 dividido em sete cap铆tulos ( A Ind煤stria Prisional / Movimento Perp茅tuo / Exterm铆nio pelo Trabalho / A Alma e o Arame Farpado / Os Trabalhos For莽ados / O Desterro / N茫o h谩 Estaline), que se subdividem em cap铆tulos menores.
O Gulag - referido na obra como a esp谩tula gigantesca, o tumor canceroso; o lado escuro das nossas vidas; o f铆gado dos acontecimentos - era o sistema dos campos de trabalho for莽ado. A ' Alma Mater' do Gulag, express茫o de 厂辞濒箩别苍铆迟蝉颈苍, s茫o as ilhas Solovki, onde um mosteiro da Igreja Ortodoxa Russa foi transformado no primeiro campo de trabalho por decreto de Lenine. Estaline deu asas 脿 insanidade e esticou milh玫es de quil贸metros de arame farpado por todo o pa铆s, nascendo assim um 'arquip茅lago' tenebroso.
厂辞濒箩别苍铆迟蝉颈苍 foi preso, aos 26 anos, em 1944, devido a correspond锚ncia interceptada pela censura. A um amigo da escola referia- se a Estaline como o Cabecilha por ter tra铆do a revolu莽茫o, pela deslealdade e crueldade. N茫o se podia sussurrar quanto mais escrever o que se pensava, por isso enfrentou o Artigo Cinquenta e Oito do c贸digo penal. Era com ele que se condenavam os ' inimigos do povo' ( conceito usado pela primeira vez neste artigo) , os suspeitos de atividades contra-revolucion谩rias. Foi com ele que milhares de inocentes tiveram acesso r谩pido e direto ao inferno. Era-se preso por qualquer coisa e por coisa nenhuma : por se ter um carrinho de linhas, por se pertencer a um grupo ou classe social, por se chegar atrasado ao trabalho, por se ser esteta (10 anos!) e at茅 por se ser parecido com Estaline! Os ind铆genas do Gulag morriam de exaust茫o e tamb茅m de escorbuto,tuberculose, fome, tortura, distrofia alimentar, edema de car锚ncia ou por estarem 1 mil铆metro desalinhados da fila ( era-se reeducado eficazmente com um tiro! ).
Grandes obras foram constru铆das pelos zeks a custo zero, por isso os campos eram economicamente vantajosos. A primeira grande constru莽茫o foi a do Bielomorkanal . Estaline forneceu as diretrizes: " o canal deve ser constru铆do num curto prazo e ficar barato" . Assim, um canal com 227 km de comprimento, do Mar Branco ao B谩ltico, ficou pronto em 22 meses 脿 custa de 30 mil homens. Foi inaugurado no 1* de Maio. (O canal do Suez com 160 km foi constru铆do em 10 anos e o do Panam谩 , com 80 km, em 28) . No campo de Kolim谩 , na Sib茅ria, era dia de trabalho com 45 ou 50 graus negativos. Os presos, protegidos com farrapos, trabalhavam as mesmas horas que nos outros campos , 16 ou mais.
Soljenitsin foi meticuloso no relato que nos deixou. Nada ou quase nada do que se viveu entre 1918 a 1956 foi esquecido. N茫o h谩 nenhum monumento no seu pa铆s em mem贸ria destas v铆timas. Deixou-lhes ele este tributo.
Nestas p谩ginas, o Cabecilha 茅 tamb茅m o Grande Celerado ou ironicamente, o Tigre Brincalh茫o , o Amigo, ou o Genial Estratega de todos os tempos. Quis o Amado Mestre ficar conhecido como Stalin, que significa "homem de ferro". De ferro era, mas a sua m茫e queria-o mais male谩vel ( seminarista!...)
"They have tightly bound my body, but my soul is beyond their power."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago is probably the greatest and most disturbing account of human rights violations and political oppression. Now I look around me and see other people stress over nothing, and am disgusted by their egotistical self-centeredness.
I am surprised, no, shocked actually, at how perfectly constructed, researched and organized Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's 'The Gulag Archipelago' is. He methodically describes the entire scheme developed in the Soviet Union from being arrested to examination and conviction in a legal court of judges to transportation to the awful Siberian prisons. Stalin perfected this legal political police state in order to legally murder or enslave millions of Russian citizens, but he only continued what others began.
I have no doubts the Communist revolutionaries used communism like a drug or a religion to develop a religious and sexual ecstasy in themselves. Destroying free will and independence in their victims involved lots of nakedness and torture and starvation - to break down pride in their victims (and do what to watchers, hmmmm). Their version of communism became a legalized tool to utterly destroy any tendency to think for oneself in any human head, especially brains resistant to religious ecstasies.
The novel '1984' is based on historical fact, gentle reader. The Soviet Union's history.
This is a stomach-churning story of insanity and torture, gentle reader. Solzhenitsyn's scholarship cannot deaden the horror of a police state. Unlike the Nazis, the Communist revolutionaries passed laws which were totally bonkers. This was done in order to ensnare ANYONE who actually expressed any sort of opposition, or who might be thinking in the future of opposing, or maybe they simply cross their legs looking like they oppose the revolutionaries. These insane laws fed victims into an assembly line of institutionalized slavery madness by Stalin and his government. Perhaps the communists were trying to literally create metalic robots from living flesh through torture and starvation. Survivors were certain to be broken mentally after the systemic methodologies the revolutionaries developed to make human brains incapable of all thought.
Honestly, if the revolutionaries and Stalin really wanted to only transform people into the type of citizen they wanted, they should have driven spikes into the eyes of their entire population. It works.
Lobotomy:
Instead, I think they WANTED to keep their people busy in the daily work of torture and killing.
What, I can hear you say, that is crazy! Yes, gentle reader, I agree. Yet it happened and was sustained by a human government and an entire country of compliant citizens. The Soviet Union later invaded all of eastern Europe and influenced many countries all over the world to change their governments into similar police states the Soviets had perfected.
It is a mistake to blame the political theory of communism for this, gentle reader, in my humble opinion. This is male genetics gone wild. These are men given license to act on those impulses to make war on their fellows and control other people's bodies through violence. In 'The Gulag Archipelago' it was a Communist government. This madness has also been expressed by:
-the Catholic Church ,
-America's Red Scares and Salem witch trials ,
-Idi Amin's Uganda ,
-Cambodia's Khmer Rouge ,
-China's Cultural Revolution
-North Korea
and many many many many many other instances of human history, too numerous to list. Truly. Too numerous to list. Think about it.
The insanity of these systemic institutionalized regimes of terror is clear to see. The mistake you might be making every day, gentle reader, is to assume this stuff could never happen again. It will happen again. It will.
I strongly recommend reading 'The Gulag Archipelago' at least once in your life. At minimum, read '1984', a shorter fictional read which nonetheless mirrors the reality of many many many instances of human history.
The Gulag Archipelago is without a doubt the heaviest book I have ever read in my life. It took enormous mental fortitude and discipline for me to perservere to the end. This was in no way due to any fault of the author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who deserves full credit for this literary tour de force, but rather due to the disturbing subject of the book 鈥� the Russian Gulags (i.e., the labor and correction prison/slave camps in Russia during communism).
The descriptions of the inhumanity and senseless cruelty inflicted on millions of innocent Russian citizens by the morally bankrupt and corrupt communist regimes under Stalin and Khrushchev is utterly depressing. The Gulag Archipelago could easily lead one into misanthropy, since it gives an unprecedented look into the hellish depths of depravity to which the human soul can descend.
Yet there is a silver lining. Through the suffering and moral desert of the Gulags some prisoners, Solzhenitsyn among them, find a way to survive, not only physically but spiritually. They refuse to be morally corrupted against all odds and in fact extract a positive upliftment from the suffering that they endure. They realize that despite being innocent of the crimes for which they are imprisoned, they are nevertheless like all human beings guilty of doing wrong to others (in the past), which means in a spiritual sense they are not undeserving of their sentences.
If I were to distill the priceless nugget of wisdom that Solzhenitsyn imparts through this monumental opus it would be that the secret to finding meaning in life and reaching our higher selves as human beings lies in suffering. This is of course a bitter pill for many to swallow, but one which is worth serious meditation. I am not sure everyone has the stomach for such a heavy book, but if you are up for the challenge I would highly recommend The Gulag Archipelago.
Firstly a note on the edition - this is the ABRIDGED version, but it was authorised by the author, as the original runs to 1800 pages in some editions and would be too much for most non-specialised readers. On the whole I think the abridgement is impressive, but if you value your sanity, you should skip Jordan Peterson's introduction unless you like being talked down to by aggressively right wing Americans. I read the book for a discussion in the Reading the 20th Century group, and I am glad I did, though it is not an easy read and there might have been better ways to start a new reading year.
Solzhenitsyn's own experience of the gulags is a key source, but he also accumulated stories from many others - this edition also contains a glossary of names which identifies which of them were among his witnesses. While there is inevitably a degree of political spin, it is humanity, laced with a surprising amount of dry humour, that characterise the authorial voice, despite the grimmest of subject matter - the list of torture techniques employed by Soviet investigators is long and detailed, and the sheer scale of the atrocities becomes mind-numbing.
The book broadly follows the experience of a political prisoner (zek) as he passes through the system, so the first part is about arrest, interrogation and initial prison experiences, and it is quite some time before we reach the main subject, life in Stalin's camps. Right at the end we get a little about release and its aftermath.
Solzhenitsyn also challenges the widely held view that the atrocities were largely confined to Stalin's famous purges of the 1930s - his list of state casualties starts with the Revolution and continues right through to the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras. There is also quite a lot on how the Bolsheviks tightened and massively extended the systems of repression developed by the Tsars.
This is a monumental and sobering book that had to be written for the many victims whose stories can never be fully told (and it is oddly comforting to think that there are much worse places to be than a western country in the throes of a pandemic), but it is never a comfortable one to read.
One of the most monumental accounts of one of the cruellest ideologies of history,this book should be read by all Layer by layer Solzhenitsyn exposes the hideous system of imprisonment ,death and torture that he refers to as the 'Gulag Archipelago' He strips away that the misconception of the good Tsar Lenin betrayed by his evil heirs and exposes how it was Lenin and his henchmen who put into place the brutal totalitarianism , which would be inherited and continued by Stalin In fact the only thing that Stalin really did differently was to introduce a more personalised ,Imperial style of rule but otherwise carried on the evil work of Lenin It was Lenin who imprisoned the Cadets (Constitutional Democrats) , Mensheviks,Social Democrats,Social Revolutionaries Anarchists and independent intelligentsia and had many killed In this way he completely destroyed all opposition to Bolshevik hegemony Under Lenin the persecution started of anybody convicted of religious activity and the complete destruction of the church in Russia And it was Lenin who began the genocide of whole ethnic groups that would later gain momentum under Stalin Under the Communist system all that is spiritual or not purely material in nature is destroyed.And we discover what a horror Marx's idea of 'dialectic materialism ' really is But I cannot describe the horrors which Solzhenitsyn outlines in this book :the hideous torutres,the slave markets selling of young women into sexual slavery Solzhenitsyn describes how the prison system of the Tsarist system was compassionate by comparison but the mild abuses of Tsarist imprisonment where reacted to with a shrill outcry that never greeted the horrors of Bolshevism and Communism As he says in his ever present biting sarcasm "Its just not fashionable,just not fashionable And even today,even after the fall of Communism in Europe (though its iron grip remains strong in parts of Asia,Africa and in Cuba) its still not regarded as fashionable to highlight the horrors of Comm
Apa yang harus saya ceritakan tentang buku ini? Tak ada--atau lebih tepatnya tak bisa. Buku ini harus dibaca sendiri.
Nyaris tak ada buku yang bisa menyajikan teror semenggelisahkan buku ini. Banyak orang yang tersedu-sedan saat membaca buku tentang kekejaman holocaust seperti di buku Diary of Anne Frank atau Night. Tapi kalau mereka sudah membaca buku ini, mereka akan menangis guling-guling.
Bercerita tentang kengerian kamp konsentrasi buat para "si penjahat malang" (baca: siapapun yang dianggap menentang keinginan Si Kumis Besar a.k.a Stalin) yang bernama Gulag, buku ini sudah menimbulkan kengerian bahkan sejak halaman pertama. Gulag jauh lebih mengerikan daripada penjara manapun buatan manusia lainnya--bahkan Iblis pun tak mungkin bisa sekejam ini. Tak akan cukup kata di review ini buat menuliskan kengeriannya. Baca sendiri! Dan bersiaplah untuk mimpi buruk yang tak akan pernah berakhir.
Gulag merupakan versi neraka di bumi yang bahkan lebih kejam daripada neraka versi agama langit. Di neraka-Nya, penghuninya masih diberi makan berupa onak duri dan air nanah bercampur logam mendidih. Di Gulag, para tahanannya sama sekali tak diberi makan kecuali sisa sampah yang bahkan hewan paling putus asa pun tak akan mau memakannya.
Stalin telah membuat Hitler terlihat seperti bocah bengal 7 tahun yang hanya bisa melampiskan amarahnya dengan menyiksa kecoa malang.
Buku ini sama sekali bukan bacaan yang menyenangkan. Teror, nestapa, dan kebrutalan yang dihadirkannya akan menghilangkan selera makan, meremukredamkan perasaan, dan meluluhlantahkan pertahanan otot air mata. Buku ini akan menantang pembacanya dengan pertanyaan paling fundamental tentang aspek moral kemanusiaan: "Apakah manusia itu pada hakikatnya terlahir sebagai seorang yang baik? Atau malah jahat?" dan yang paling menohok, "mana yang lebih utama, menyebarkan derma kebaikan atau mencegah angkara kejahatan? Mengapa kita lebih mudah melakukan kebaikan dengan gagah namun sering kali tak berdaya mencegah kejahatan yang tampak mudah dibantah?".
Ketika saya membaca buku , saya merasa stress. Ketika membaca buku ini, saya merasa depresi. Dengan tema yang sama--memoar menyakitkan tentang perjuangan orang-orang yang bertahan dari penindasan rezim represif, Gulag menyajikan teror berkali-kali lipat tak berkesudahan sampai halaman terakhir dan akan terus mengendap di benak pembacanya selamanya...
PS: Tengkyu Panda atas pinjemannya. ditunggu pinjeman Nyanyi Sunyi 2-nya :P
A very tough read. (1973), is 's exhaustive account of the Soviet Gulags between 1918 and 1956.
It's almost unremittingly grim and is based on Solzhenitsyn's own years in labour camps and the testimony of around 200 survivors. The reader learns about the waves of mass arrests, the interrogations and torture techniques, adapting to life in the camps, the food, sanitary arrangements, executions, cells, the guards, the travel to/from camps, weather, clothing, guards, escape attempts, stool pigeons, daily work, prisoner uprisings, hunger strikes, relationships between the sexes, and so on.
Take, for example, the section on interrogations and torture techniques which consists of pages and pages of horribly vivid and imaginative torture techniques and other psychological methods to extract confessions. It's incredibly hard to even momentarily consider how awful each method would have been for the victims, and yet these techniques were unofficially sanctioned by the state and inflicted on millions of innocent ordinary Soviet citizens.
Much of 's account is blackly comedic, absurd, and stranger than any fiction, for example how thieves were co-opted into the revolution as they were already opposed to private property. Where they were caught or prosecuted (their crimes were often ignored) they got significantly lighter sentences than political prisoners and were offered preferential roles within the labour camps. Or how children could be guilty of political crimes and so became an increasingly sizeable proportion of the prison population (e.g. 8 years for stealing a potato) and quickly adapted to the dog-eat-dog ruthlessness of camp survival.
I listened to the abridged version which is about a third of the length of the original, it's still almost 600 pages long, or 23 and a half hours of audio. Even abridged, it's still sometimes somewhat monotonous and chapters on, for example, some of the more famous show trials felt superfluous to the book's core messages, or the occasional circular philosophical musings about the implications of Soviet policy. Perhaps the gruelling length, occasional monotony, and repetition is the most appropriate way to shine a light on the scale of State sanctioned murder and abuse by a country on its own population? Total deaths in the Gulags have been estimated at 60 million, but no one knows for sure. It's impossible to really get your head round the scale of the suffering and death but is about as close as an individual reader will ever manage. Everyone should read this book in order to gain some understanding about what happened in the Soviet Union in the decades following the October Revolution, after all, those who fail to understand the past are condemned to repeat it.
4/5
The blurb...
A vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair.
' helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph
As I don't have a Kindle I took pictures on my phone of parts that stopped me dead. After further reading and picture taking, I now have an Archipelago folder on my phone. I did this because the words and points made so utterly shattered and moved me that I felt it so important I revisit these pages in the future.
The writing style reminded me of reading Henri Charrieres Papillon. Fast, to the point, and powerful.
Probably one of the most important books I will ever read.
I read this with one of my 欧宝娱乐 groups and I need to thank them, because, originally I was going to read the three volume version of this. I am never fond of abridged versions, but, said my lovely 欧宝娱乐 friends, it is an approved version and, trust us, it is much the best version. Well, they were right. As always.
First of all, can I just say this is a seriously important book. It is a book which needed to be written. Not only is it the record of Solzhenitsyn's arrest, and time in the camps, but it is a record of the system itself. Full of the stories of people that Solzhenitsyn has collected and, movingly, full of the names and pictures of those who suffered and died and need to be remembered.
However, although this is a book which needs to be read, which should be read, it is a difficult, tragic, unremitting account of those events, which is hard, sometimes, to face. From the very first part, arrest, Solzhenitsyn asks you, the reader; what if your life suddenly ended? What if you were home one day and you are arrested. Sick relatives taken from their beds, your child's corpse, laid out in a coffin in your front room, tipped onto the floor, so they can search thoroughly? If you are to withstand what happens, Solzhenitsyn is clear - you need to renounce your life to withstand what is coming.
Each section deals with different part of this new life. The endless interrogations, transportation to the labour camps and, possibly, exile. Often, Solzhenitsyn uses dark humour, such as when he explains the difficulties presented to the prison guards when transporting prisoners on trains. How do you take so many prisoners to the toilet? They have to have their dried fish, which makes them thirsty, but, give them water and they may want to be taken to relieve themselves? A difficult dilemma, soon removed by the refusal of water...
This is a bizarre world, without reasoning or pity. Where men who went off to fight in WWII came back to find themselves thrown into prison. Where anything was suspect - including leaving the country (for any reason) and certainly returning was viewed with deep suspicion. We all know the saying that power corrupts. This book will show you how horribly true it really is.
(execrable) Anti communist fanfiction by the friend of Apartheid and Franco. Even Mrs. A.S. was surprised at the purchase of Solzhy's regurgitations. Everyone's a critic I suppose.
Este livro 茅 um imenso n贸 na garganta, que come莽a logo na dedicat贸ria:
鈥淒edico este livro a todos quantos a vida n茫o chegou para o relatar. Que eles me perdoem n茫o ter visto tudo, n茫o ter recordado tudo, n茫o me ter apercebido de tudo.鈥�
N茫o 茅 um livro de leitura f谩cil, por v谩rias raz玫es. A primeira 茅, evidentemente, o conte煤do, o relato da experi锚ncia do autor e de outros 27 antigos presos pol铆ticos nas pris玫es e campos de trabalho russas nos anos 1930-50. Mas o livro tamb茅m se torna dif铆cil pela escrita torrencial e pela nomea莽茫o de pol铆ticos da 茅poca e personagens e acontecimentos hist贸ricos, que me deixaram um pouco perdida dados os meus fracos conhecimentos da hist贸ria da R煤ssia. No entanto, 茅 um livro que recomendo e que me deixou com vontade de ler mais, tanto sobre o per铆odo pr茅, como p贸s revolu莽茫o.
Ficam alguns excertos que fui anotando: da p谩g. 93, onde ap贸s uma descri莽茫o bastante gr谩fica dos v谩rios tipos de tortura a que eram submetidos os presos pol铆ticos, e que n茫o quero reproduzir, o autor conclui que Aquilo que ainda se admitia sob o poder de Aleksei Mikhailovich e que j谩 sob Pedro, o Grande parecia b谩rbaro; (...) e que j谩 era completamente imposs铆vel de suceder no reinado de Catarina, isso foi realizado em pleno florescimento da sociedade do nosso grande s茅culo XX, concebido segundo os princ铆pios socialistas (...). E foi realizado, n茫o por um criminoso isolado num lugar secreto, mas por dezenas de milhares de bestas humanas, especialmente amestradas, sobre milh玫es de v铆timas indefesas.
Na p谩g. 156, encontrei a descri莽茫o exata da minha opini茫o acerca das ideologias, embora nunca a tivesse formulado:
A ideologia! Ela fornece a desejada justifica莽茫o para a maldade, para a firmeza necess谩ria e constante do malfeitor. Ela constitui a teoria social que o ajuda, perante si mesmo e perante os outros, a desculpar os seus actos e a n茫o escutar censuras nem maldi莽玫es, mas sim elogios e testemunhos de respeito. Era assim que os inquisidores se apoiavam no cristianismo, os conquistadores no engrandecimento da p谩tria, os colonizadores na civiliza莽茫o, os nazis na ra莽a, os jacobinos (de ontem e de hoje) na igualdade, na fraternidade e na felicidade das gera莽玫es futuras.
Na p谩g. 171, Soljenitsine descreve como conheceu, na pris茫o, um velho bolchevique, agora considerado indesej谩vel e, mesmo ap贸s conhecer a sua hist贸ria, contada na primeira pessoa, tem dificuldade em libertar-se das suas ilus玫es acerca do regime (p. ex., que Lenine era um her贸i, e a culpa de tudo o que se passa no presente 茅 unicamente de Staline, n茫o possuindo ra铆zes mais fundas):
(鈥�) chega-se 脿 conclus茫o que da deporta莽茫o czarista somente n茫o fugiam os pregui莽osos, t茫o f谩cil isso era. Fastenko foi dos que 鈥渇ugiu鈥�, ou seja, saiu simplesmente do lugar do desterro sem passaporte. Dirigiu-se a Vladivostoque, esperando partir de barco com o aux铆lio de um conhecido. N茫o conseguiu, n茫o se sabe porqu锚. Ent茫o, sempre sem passaporte, cruzou tranquilamente, de comboio, toda a m茫e R煤ssia, viajando at茅 脿 Ucr芒nia, onde era bolchevique clandestino e onde tinha sido preso. Ali deram-lhe um passaporte de outra pessoa e dirigiu-se para a fronteira austr铆aca, a fim de a passar. Esta empresa era considerada pouco perigosa, e a tal ponto Fastenko n茫o sentia atr谩s de si o h谩bito da persegui莽茫o que manifestou uma despreocupa莽茫o surpreendente: ao atingir a fronteira e ao dar o seu passaporte ao funcion谩rio da pol铆cia, apercebeu-se, de repente, de que n茫o se recordava do seu novo apelido! Que fazer? Os passageiros eram uns quarenta e o funcion谩rio j谩 tinha come莽ado a cham谩-los. Fastenko fingiu que estava a dormir. Ouvira entregar todos os passaportes e como tinham chamado diversas vezes por um tal Makarov, sem ter a certeza de se tratar dele. Finalmente, o drag茫o do regime imperial inclinou-se para o clandestino e, amavelmente, tocou-lhe no ombro: 鈥淪enhor Makarov! Senhor Makarov! Por favor, o seu passaporte!鈥�. Fastenko viajou at茅 Paris. Ali conheceu Lenine (鈥�). Para mim dir-se-ia que o mais importante e admir谩vel nesse homem era o facto de ter conhecido pessoalmente Lenine, mas ele pr贸prio recordava isso de modo completamente frio. (鈥�) Ele dizia-me claramente em russo: 鈥淣茫o cries 铆dolos!鈥� Mas eu n茫o o compreendia! Ao ver a minha exalta莽茫o, ele repetia, insistentemente, por mais de uma vez: 鈥淰oc锚 茅 matem谩tico, para si 茅 imperdo谩vel esquecer Descartes: h谩 que submeter tudo 脿 d煤vida! Tudo!鈥� Ou ent茫o dizia: 鈥淨uase n茫o h谩 j谩 velhos presos pol铆ticos, eu sou um dos 煤ltimos. Os velhos deportados pol铆ticos foram todos aniquilados e a nossa associa莽茫o foi dissolvida logo nos anos 30.鈥� 鈥淢as porqu锚?鈥� 鈥淧ara que n茫o nos reun铆ssemos e n茫o discut铆ssemos.鈥� Embora estas simples palavras, ditas em tom tranquilo, fossem de bradar aos c茅us (鈥�) eu compreendia-as s贸 como tratando-se de outra malvadez de Staline. Um facto penoso, mas sem ra铆zes.
Na p谩g. 188 encontrei uma descri莽茫o comovedora do conforto que os presos pol铆ticos encontravam nos livros, dispon铆veis em algumas pris玫es, no meio de toda a mis茅ria em que (sobre)viviam:
Mas a biblioteca 茅 o ornato da Lubianka (鈥�) Mas que maravilha: cada dez dias, vindo buscar os livros, vai satisfazendo os nossos pedidos! Ela escuta, com essa mecaniza莽茫o inumana da Lubianka, sem se poder compreender se ouviu bem os nomes e os t铆tulos, ou mesmo as nossas palavras. Depois sai. N贸s passamos v谩rias horas entre a inquieta莽茫o e a alegria. Durante esse tempo s茫o folheados e verificados todos os livros que nos foram entregues: procura-se ver se deix谩mos picadas ou pontos debaixo das letras (茅 esse um processo de correspond锚ncia dentro da pris茫o), ou se assinal谩mos com a unha as passagens de que mais gostamos. Inquietamo-nos com isso, embora n茫o sejamos culpados de nada. Eles podem vir e dizer que foram descobertos pontos,e, como sempre, ter茫o raz茫o, como sempre n茫o ter茫o necessidade de provas e ficaremos privados, durante tr锚s meses, de livros, se 茅 que n茫o transferem toda a cela para os calabou莽os. E s茫o estes os melhores e os mais radiosos meses prisionais, enquanto n茫o nos enterram na cova de um campo de trabalho! Como 茅 doloroso ter de passar sem livros! N贸s n茫o tememos apenas, estremecemos, tal como na adolesc锚ncia ao mandar uma carta de amor e ao esperar a resposta. Vir谩 ou n茫o? E qual ser谩?
Na p谩g. 265 茅 descrito o modo de funcionamento dos tribunais revolucion谩rios, que ap贸s o derrube do regime czarista e elimina莽茫o do respetivo c贸digo penal, funcionaram durante quatro longos anos sem um c贸digo no qual se baseassem, sem que isso fosse considerado um problema. Estes s茫o excertos retirados de uma colet芒nea de discursos de N.V. Krilenko, primeiro-comiss谩rio do Povo e acusador de alguns dos principais processos judiciais:
O Executivo do Comit茅 Central tem o direito ilimitado de amnistiar e castigar segundo o seu belo prazer. (鈥�) Tudo isto, diferencia com vantagem o nosso sistema, da falsa teoria da separa莽茫o de poderes, que 茅 a teoria da independ锚ncia do poder judicial. 脡 bom que os poderes legislativo e executivo n茫o estejam separados, como no Ocidente (鈥�) Todos os problemas se podem resolver rapidamente.
E que n茫o venham dizer-me que os nossos tribunais penais devem aplicar exclusivamente as normas escritas existentes. Vivemos um processo revolucion谩rio (鈥�) Num tribunal revolucion谩rio n茫o devem renascer as subtilezas e os casu铆smos jur铆dicos (鈥�) O conceito de culpabilidade 茅 um velho conceito burgu锚s. (鈥�) Um tribunal revolucion谩rio 茅 um 贸rg茫o de luta da classe oper锟斤拷ria contra os inimigos e deve atuar sob o ponto de vista dos interesses da Revolu莽茫o (鈥�) tendo em conta os resultados mais desej谩veis para as massas oper谩rias e camponesas. (鈥�) No nosso tribunal revolucion谩rio n茫o fazemos caso nem dos artigos nem das circunst芒ncias atenuantes; devemos partir de considera莽玫es de utilidade.
Na p谩g. 303 explica-se como foi preparado o novo C贸digo Penal e as 鈥渕elhorias鈥� introduzidas por Lenine no seu rascunho:
Seis artigos do c贸digo previam como pena m谩xima o fuzilamento. Isso era insatisfat贸rio. Em 15 de Maio, em notas 脿 margem do projecto, Vladimir Ilich Lenine acrescentou mais seis artigos, para os quais era imprescind铆vel o fuzilamento (entre eles, o artigo 69潞: propaganda e agita莽茫o鈥� em particular, o incitamento 脿 resist锚ncia passiva contra o Governo, ao n茫o cumprimento em massa das obriga莽玫es militares, ou ao n茫o pagamento dos impostos). O fuzilamento devia ainda ter lugar noutro caso: por regresso, sem autoriza莽茫o, do estrangeiro.
Na p谩gina 500, Soljenitsine descreve o inesperado regresso 脿 pris茫o onde havia estado anos antes, ap贸s transportes em vag玫es de gado e estadias em campos, e a forma como, por compara莽茫o com o que entretanto viveu, esta agora lhe parece quase um para铆so:
Nesse ch茫o asfaltado, debaixo dos beliches, rastejando como os cachorros, com o p贸 e as migalhas a cair nos olhos, eu era absolutamente feliz (鈥�) Dizia Epicuro, com justeza: 鈥淎 aus锚ncia de diversidade pode sentir-se com prazer quando se sucede a amarguras diversas鈥� (鈥�) Nessa cela mantiveram-me dois meses, mas dormi o sono do ano anterior e o do ano seguinte (鈥�) vinte minutos de passeio, era coisa mais deliciosa! N茫o renunci谩vamos ao passeio mesmo que chovesse torrencialmente. Mas o principal eram as pessoas, as pessoas, as pessoas! Pela noite n茫o havia discuss玫es, organizavam-se palestras, concertos. (鈥�) Os emigrantes faziam relatos sobre os Balc茫s e a Fran莽a. Algu茅m pronunciou uma palestra sobre Corbusier, outro sobre os h谩bitos das abelhas, ainda outro sobre Gogol. (鈥�) Kostia Kiula, da minha idade (鈥�) lia os seus versos escritos na pris茫o. A sua voz estava embargada pela emo莽茫o. (鈥�) Quando na cela ouves declamar versos escritos na pr贸pria cadeia, n茫o pensas se o autor se desviou do sistema t贸nico-sil谩bico e se as linhas terminam com asson芒ncias ou se rimam. Estes versos s茫o sangue do teu cora莽茫o, s茫o l谩grimas da tua esposa. Na cela, choravam.
E quase a fechar este primeiro volume, algumas reflex玫es finais:
O mais importante na vida, todos os enigmas dela, se quiserem, exponho-os j谩 a voc锚s鈥� N茫o corram atr谩s de fantasmas, atr谩s de alucina莽玫es, de bens e de t铆tulos: isto consegue-se 脿 for莽a do nervos ao longo de d茅cadas e 茅 confiscado numa noite. Vivei com supremacia sobre a vida, n茫o vos assusteis com as desgra莽as e n茫o vos canseis da felicidade, pois, como quer que seja, nem o amargo dura um s茅culo, nem a do莽ura 茅 plena. J谩 n茫o ser谩 pouco se n茫o ficardes gelados e se as garras da sede e da fome n茫o vos rasgarem as v铆sceras. Se n茫o tendes a coluna vertebral fraturada, se as duas pernas se movem, se os dois bra莽os se endireitarem, se ambos os olhos v锚em, e os ouvidos ouvem, a quem tendes de invejar? Para qu锚? A inveja dos outros 茅 o que mais nos corr贸i, lavem o cora莽茫o e d锚em valor, antes de mais nada, aos que vos amam e est茫o convosco. N茫o os molestem, n茫o os insultem e n茫o se separem de qualquer deles por uma zanga: pois nunca ningu茅m sabe se essa pode ser a 煤ltima atitude perante eles, e assim ficar-se lamentavelmente na sua mem贸ria!...
Em resumo, um livro dif铆cil de ler, mas que estou feliz por ter conseguido levar at茅 ao fim. Daqui a uns meses hei-de ler o segundo volume. Agora vou fazer uma pausa para aprender sobre a hist贸ria da R煤ssia e intercalar outros livros que tenho em fila de espera.
鈥淚f there was any excuse to be a Marxist in 1917 there is absolutely and finally no excuse now. And we know that mostly because of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and The Gulag Archipelago. Thank Heaven for that great author鈥檚 outrage, courage and unquenchable thirst for justice and truth. It was Solzhenitsyn who warned us that the catastrophes of the Soviet state were inextricably and causally linked to the deceitful blandishments of the Marxist utopian vision. It was Solzhenitsyn who documented the price paid in suffering for the dreadful communist experiment, and who distilled from that suffering the wisdom we must all heed so that such catastrophe does not visit us again.鈥�