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.
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. "It is impossible to name a book that had a greater effect on the political and moral consciousness of the late twentieth century." -David Remnick, The New Yorkerĭrawing on his own experiences before, during and after his eleven 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. Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum. 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). "BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY" -Time And you will understand why the author was a hunted man, on the Soviet hit list for many years, who had to watch what he was doing and hide even though he was living in the USA.The official, one-volume edition, authorized by Solzhenitsyn You will be engrossed and eager to continue to the end. Nevertheless, the audible version is definitely an option. The audio version is OK, the reader is good although he sounds like a BBC newscaster. I can't emphasize enough that this is must reading for everyone. You will be surprised very quickly that you recognize some of the tactics and propaganda used then by the various Soviet government agencies and media that are being revived now in the USA by various organizations with bullying, in-your-face agenda of disruption and obfuscation and discord, not to mention plain lying and fraud. And that is described before you get to the Gulag! It therefore serves as a warning. It is heart-rending and heart-breaking and any who reads it will also gain wisdom and insight into the true nature of this Marxist experiment that was sheer hell for everyone on a daily basis. But, most importantly, it is an eye-opener to the horrors of living in that country after its supposed liberation of the proletariat.
However, because of the author's outstanding writing style, it is very readable, not dry or turgid prose at all. It is a masterpiece of non-fiction writing and a history book that starts out describing the events/culture/society/daily lives of those living there after the Russian Revolution/October,1917.
This book has been referred to as the book that took down the Soviet Union.
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