Fascinating, detailed, brutal

I respect Anne Applebaum’s research a lot, this is a detailed account that can be a lot to comprehend in parts but is conclusive and well written. Well worth a read even if you only read the conclusion. Very insightful, thank you. The audio quality was clean and clear but some of the pronunciations seemed a little odd to me.

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A tragic history fantastically depicted

Russia is synonymous with the gulag, before listening to this book, the only thing I knew about Russia was the little I heard on the news "that place far away that you don't want to be", friends would joke about someone moving to middle of nowhere to live in "some gulag". I really didn't appreciate the true horror of that word before reading this book.

The book however is not just about the gulag, these places have defined Russia itself and its people. There is a saying that "the people get the government they deserve", and this book really brings that to life. These horrific things could not have occurred without the cooperation of the population, its as if a person woke up one day and suddenly decided that it would be a good idea to cut off their own hand for no good reason. The people colluded with the government to criminalize and commit unspeakable acts on themselves.

There is a lot of humor but of course very dark, how could it not be? All of human behavior is laid bare; the often graphically depicted debasing, grisly and degrading conditions that bring out different reactions. Mostly and naturally people will debase themselves and attempt to do that to others around them or commit suicide since these places are so terrible, some can be stoic and bear an extraordinarily frightful set of conditions with apparent nonchalance and indifference, others still are heroic either tragically or successfully. It also shows what happens in a situation with no controls and people start simply behaving with abject depravity.

This is a no-holds barred retelling of a tragic history and it is baffling that some Russians look back at the leaders during this period and put them on a pedestal; in terms of the number of people killed as a direct result it makes Hitler look like a bumbling amateur.

It could be argued that the gulag has had a greater effect in shaping the Russian people than the horrors of Hitler's concentration camps had on the Jews, in the west we just don't really hear much about it other than "its a dreadful place".

Why only four stars? I felt that the book was too long for the material it depicted, it was the laws of diminishing returns as you get towards the end and there was over repetition of themes but I can forgive this because it can be difficult to write a complete work on a topic so massive and yet relatively unknown. Also the value in terms of relieving one's ignorance is absolutely worth the time investment.

If you have any interest in politics, history, human behavior, or want to appreciate some of what has shaped Russia, YOU MUST READ OR LISTEN TO THIS BOOK!

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13 people found this helpful

Excellent, detailed history

Wonderfully in-depth historical account of the Gulag period, covering every perceivable aspect. Thoroughly researched with plenty of first-hand accounts. Interesting opinions from the author, altbough occassional generalisations did not sit wholly comfortably.

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Superb

Superb history of the Gulags, brilliantly written and researched. Essential history that everyone should read/listen to.

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Great book, awful narrator

very interesting but the performance would put you to sleep. disappointing.needs a rerecord to do it justice

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Incredible. Shocking.

I’ll admit that my initial knowledge of the Gulags was highly limited at best. This book hits hard. You won’t be able to walk away from reading this without a profound sense of gratitude for the luxuries and rights that we enjoy in the West and take for granted so badly.

Incredible historical document.

We must never forget the potential depths of human depravity and cruelty that occurred during the 20th century.

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5 people found this helpful

Long but interesting

Very long, with lots of names I lost track of, but really interesting and well read

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Narrator can't pronounce Russian names and words!!

Who engaged the narrator? She can't pronounce any of the Russian words or names in the book. It's embarrassingly bad.

As for the content, it is generally fascinating and well-researched. It makes the argument quite strongly that there is a continuity between Lenin's approach and Stalin's. However conversely it insists that there's very little continuity with the Tsarist regime practices. I feel 1) that certainly Lenin's regime was violent and authoritarian, and established a pattern that paved the way for the Stalinist Gulag, but that there was both a quantitative and qualitative difference between the early Bolshevik repression and the Stalinist system, and 2) the practice of the repressive state in Russia does have a continuity between the Tsarist, Leninist, Stalinist and the Post communist Putinist system, even though of course the Stalinist gulag was the apogee. This seems obvious to me and saying so doesn't whitewash Stalin or indeed any of the other really bad governments that Russians have had to endure.

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Autencity and life destiny's of all involved

This is a very important document of a dark time in Russia, not too far away in time. I was impressed od the research and the story itself. Well done!

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Fascinating

Worth the effort in every way. Long and sometimes hard to ploughing on but worthwhile because it paints such an amazing picture of such a recent past.

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