Solzhenitsyn's One Day: The book that shook the USSR
 

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The Gulag
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Fact:
Name derived from initials of body which ran camps - Glavnoye upravleniye ispravityelno-trudovykh lagerey i koloniy (Main directorate of corrective labour camps and colonies)
Estimated 14 million people were imprisoned from 1929-53, 1.6 million of whom died there
Camps began to be closed after Stalin's death in 1953 - the Gulag was officially liquidated in 1960

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20393894

Note: 20 November 2012 Last updated at 00:16 GMT

I remembered the book from school,:yep:

Most depressing book I ever read.:dead:

Well, not much humor in the book,:doh:

That is a true statement:dead:.

I had read parts of the "Gulag Archipeligo", most of the first two books as I recall, years ago. At the time, it was shocking and very interesting.

Since then, the Soviet Archives have opened and I have read many more books on Soviet history.

From my further reading, it is obvious that Solzhenitsyn had an ax to grind, understandibly, with the Soviet Regime. While the broad strokes of the story are true, I suspect he exaggerated a lot of stories for dramatic effect.

One of my favourite books, wot we dun at big skool:know:

The most depressing book I have ever read is "On The Beach" by Neville Shute:ahoy::lurk:

Cheers

Gary

Solzhenitsyn wrote MANY books
 

Ah, he's dead anyway. More Succinct.

I don't think Solzhenitsyn's personality discredits what he had to say about the Gulag - what he wrote is a pretty good reflection of the worst of Stalinist abuses, which were of course widespread, terrible and must be learned from. I agree with the comment that blames post-Soviet leaders for failing to have a proper de-Stalinization in Russia following the breakup of the USSR. It's true. To this day, with the exception of some brave researchers and activists, most of Russia has really failed to face up to the Red Terror's legacy.

So, Solzhenitsyn's work needs to be respected and credited - noone says you have to respect the man himself, though. What I've learned about his personality (his incredibly conservative social views, archaic nationalism and anti-Semitism) are reasons that I really rather dislike the man, but it does nothing to reduce the impact and general truthfulness of his writings about the Gulag.

@CCIP and the rest who read this book and also The Gulag Archipelago: Would you recommend to read "One Day in the Life" before "Archipelago"?
The latter is still on my "want-to-read-when-I-have-the-time"-shelf.

"one day in the life" is the superior book IMHO. I would read that one first.

"Gulag Archipelago" is non-fiction and a lot drier. Its a tough slog. As I recall, volume 1 is the most interesting.

Another novel of his which I read is "The first circle". Also very good, as I recall.

Another similar Russian novel which I would highly recommend is "Life and Fate" by Vasily Grossman, which is set in WW2.

I have not read,thanks for the tip :yep:

thanks for the tips :salute: I think I'll start with "One day". I've heard of Grossman, but never read stuff by him, looks interesting, too.
*sigh* man, even more Russian books who say "rrread me"...:)

There was a film made of the book in the 1970's.

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0067530/

Cheers

Gary

^That I have not seen, great tip :yep: