Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum

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Original Title: Gulag

ISBN: 0767900561
ISBN13: 9780767900560
Autor: Anne Applebaum
Rating: 4 of 5 stars (967) counts
Original Format: Hardcover, 610 pages
Download Format: PDF, TXT, ePub, iBook.
Published: April 29th 2003 / by Doubleday Publishing
Language: English
Genre(s):
History- 659 users
Nonfiction- 372 users
Cultural >Russia- 162 users
History >Russian History- 55 users
Politics- 47 users

Description:

The Gulag--a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal
prisoners--was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society,
embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. In this magisterial and acclaimed history,
Anne Applebaum offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the
Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost.
Applebaum intimately re-creates what life was like in the camps and links them to the larger
history of the Soviet Union. Immediately recognized as a landmark and long-overdue work of
scholarship, Gulag is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand the history of the
twentieth century.

About Author:

Journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has written extensively about communism and
the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2006, she is a columnist and
member of the editorial board of the Washington Post.
She is married to Radosaw Sikorski, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs. They have two children,
Alexander and Tadeusz.

Other Editions:
- Gulag: A History (Paperback)

- Gulag: A History (Paperback)

- Gulag: A History (Kindle Edition)

- Gulag: A History (Nook)

- Gulag: A History of the Soviet Concentration Camps (Hardcover)

Books By Author:

- Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956

 - Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe

- From a Polish Country House Kitchen: 90 Recipes for the Ultimate Comfort
Food

- Gulag Voices: An Anthology

- Putinism: The Ideology

Books In The Series:

Related Books On Our Site:

- The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia

- The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

- The Great Terror: A Reassessment

- Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

 - Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the
1930s

- Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag

- Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

- Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Extermination, 1939-1945

 - The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation,
books III-IV

- Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya

- Inside the Stalin Archives: Discovering the New Russia

- A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin

 - Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945

- Journey into the Whirlwind

- The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism

- Dancing Under the Red Star: The Extraordinary Story of Margaret Werner, the
Only American Woman to Survive Stalin's Gulag
 - Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

- Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

Rewiews:

Jul 29, 2008

K.
Rated it: really liked it
Shelves: history, russian
I have been reading some memoirs about the Soviet Gulags, and I discovered that I didn't have
enough knowledge of Russian history to process what I was reading about individual experiences.
Consequently, I picked up Applebaum's book.
Her book was precisely what I needed. She presents a very systematic explanation of the gulags
in three sections: 1) the historical precedents prior to Stalin's regime and the rise of their power
under Stalin; 2) Day-to-day life in the gulags; and 3) the dismantling
I have been reading some memoirs about the Soviet Gulags, and I discovered that I didn't have
enough knowledge of Russian history to process what I was reading about individual experiences.
Consequently, I picked up Applebaum's book.
Her book was precisely what I needed. She presents a very systematic explanation of the gulags
in three sections: 1) the historical precedents prior to Stalin's regime and the rise of their power
under Stalin; 2) Day-to-day life in the gulags; and 3) the dismantling of the Gulag's after Stalin's
death and their diminishing presence through several other Soviet leaders and into 21st century
Russia politics and judicial / penal system.
At times the amount of detail was close to overwhelming, but Applebaum places all the facts into
strong frameworks without losing the debates and ambiguity present in the field because of
incomplete and missing information. She blends data, history, politics, personal history, and even
a few exerpts from literary works to create her history.
I expected to see cruelty depicted, but what shocked me the most was the arbitrary manner in
which arrests, labor, torture and even releases were conducted. It would be maddening to live
under a regime that weilded so much power in ways that were incomprehensible to its people.
Anyone could be arrested and placed in labor / death camps: criminals, dissidents, and even
members of the Communist party.
Were the gulags so heavily populated because Stalin wanted cheap labor as a way to industrialize
the Soviet Union? They never were cost effective. Was he trying to brow beat people into
submission? They created strife between people and government. Was he trying to reform
criminals and political dissidents? Few if none of the gulag prisoners became better people
because of their time in the camps -- if they lived through it. The accounts made me wonder how
human beings could descend into such irrational mistreatment of one another and made me
wonder if such nonesense still persists in other countries - even in small ways (even in our own).
Before this summer, I could fit everything I knew about the gulags on a postage stamp.
Applebaum gave me a wealth of knowledge and much to ponder. I'm glad that I found this book --
even if her book was the antithesis of a "summer read."
25 likes
4 comments

Kahlil Ram
In North Korea they have camps like this.

Dec 22, 2015 08:46PM

Kahlil Ram
In North Korea they have camps like this.
Dec 22, 2015 08:46PM