The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3: An Experiment in Literary Investigation: 3 (P.S.)
by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
book data
1022 ratings, 4.21 average rating, 139 reviews
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published
August 1st 2007
by Harper Perennial Modern Classics
binding
Paperback, 608 pages
isbn
0061253731
(isbn13: 9780061253737)
description
Volume 3 of the gripping epic masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn's moving account of resistance within the Soviet labor camps and his own release after eight
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1799)
Read in January, 1975
recommends it for:
everyone
This might be the best book written in the twentieth century. It is, of course, an important historical document. Its six books one by one deal with the entire experience and history of the GULAG system; not just in terms of events but in the effect words and concepts have on reality. Here is where this book transcends history and rises to greatness. Solzhenitsyn uses the GULAG system to define the moral bankruptcy of the society and the philosophy that produced this nightmare, barbed-wire world...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Russion Lit/History buffs, with strong stomachs
Although this was really tough to slog through, by its end, I'm on the edge of my seat to read more. I hadn't known this was a seven part work, encapsuled in three volumes. I agree with another reviewer--it is hard to rate this (volume 1) with a certain number of stars, the implication being that everyone should read it--this is not your pollyanna bedtime story. But it is such an IMPORTANT work. Thank you to those who've translated it and distributed it. I hope all who value the first volum...more
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1 comment
Read in October, 2007
This is not an easy read, and nor was it ever meant to be. It was originally written in Russian for Russians, and the odd sensibilities and colloquialisms that irritate many of my fellow Anglophones reflect this fact. It's extremely dense, and I probably won't get to the other four parts in the near future. However, anyone with an interest in the history of Communism, the Soviet Union, or political repression in general should read it. Yes, it's tedious, and it is tough going if you've never...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Soviet history buffs, Russian literature fans
One of the most compelling non-fiction texts I've ever read. I naively picked this up after reading One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch thinking it would be a longer version of a similar concept. Instead, it turns out this mighty work is half well-researched investigation into the processing of Soviet political prisoners and half personal account of the author's own experience in the "sewage-waste disposal" that led to the gulag.
I'll concede that Solzhenitsyn's persona...more
I'll concede that Solzhenitsyn's persona...more
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Read in October, 2006
recommends it for:
everybody
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 unf...more
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Read in January, 1974
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 yo...more
If you feel any shadow of sympathy for Soviet Russia, read Solzhenitsyn and yo...more
A Harrowing account of the times in Russia under Stalin.. I had to attempt to read it twice not because of the penmanship but rather how desperately sad the book can be.
His literary ability to be able to recount such things without any bitterness and with such humour in places enabled me to struggle on and finish it.
Most definitely worth reading if even just to realise that things are not so different today...
His literary ability to be able to recount such things without any bitterness and with such humour in places enabled me to struggle on and finish it.
Most definitely worth reading if even just to realise that things are not so different today...
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Read in January, 1986
recommends it for:
The terminally dull
My wife got me volume I when it was first published in English in the 1980s. I had struggled through 700 of the 1000 or so repetitive, boring pages when my wife surprised me with the 1200 page volume II. I thanked her and put them both away, never to look at them again. It would have to be a very very long cold winter before I'd make another attempt.
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Read in October, 2008
recommends it for:
Todos
"Si la libertad tarda aún muchos años en llegar a nuestro país, la mera lectura y difusión de este libro entrañarán un gran peligro, de modo que también debo inclinarme agradecido ante los lectores futuros, en nombre de quienes dieron sus vidas". Este es un extracto del prefacio con el que Solzhenitzyn antecede su obra enciclopédica de tres tomos, Archipielago GULAG. Tras leer esto es virtualmente imposible no comprometerte a leer esta obra. Esta no es una simple historia de s...more
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Without doubt, this is the most intense book I have ever read. The Gulag Archipelago describes the tiny, land-locked Islands dotted throughout the vast interior of the USSR that make up the Soviet prison system. Isolated from both the world and the Soviet people, rivers and railroads are the Arteries connecting these Islands, with the Organ of the State pumping out fresh prisoners by the millions in a campaign of fear and forced submission for decades on end. As a former resident of the Archip...more
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Read in January, 1995
I read this book looking for the story of people who were tortured, who lost everything, and still resisted evil. I found them. What Solzinietzin did with this book was take the years of imprisonment, torture, and other misfortunes that made up his adult life under the Soviet Regime, and tell all the stories. It's a long read, full of anecdotes that will make it worth it.
Also, its is a very comprehensive look at totalitarianism. This is a man who spent years tortured, in labor ...more
Also, its is a very comprehensive look at totalitarianism. This is a man who spent years tortured, in labor ...more
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This is an absolute must-read. Part history, part literature, Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago catalogues the crushing horror of the Soviet gulag system under Josef Stalin, anecdote by anecdote. It is literally an attempt to record the entirity of the varied gulag experience, from arrest to release (or death), of both the prisoners and the guards. If you're easily depressed by human suffering, prepare to be depressed, but this book is not primarily a list of Soviet atrocities. It is a story abou...more
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Read in January, 2002
This is the most significant non-fiction book that has been written in human history. This is the most significant positive book that has been written in human history. A few books are more significant, but they stray toward fiction and negative impacts here and there. This book is highly entertaining and gripping. I don't think that entertaining is necessarily the wrong word. This is a book about the survival, triumph, and complexity of the human spirit against a crushing system. That is high u...more
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Well, I actually liked reading this book, but had trouble accepted the politics. Solzhenitsyn's liberal use of "facts" and "truth" is no real matter when considering the conditions and constraints of the political climate at the time. However, there are some justified criticisms that need to be addressed. There are a few points where Solzhenitsyn tends to glamorize life in Tsarist Russia as easy and free of oppression which tends to give one the feel that this is written by...more
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I read this when it first came out. I was 'way too young to understand it all--I think in 7th or 8th grade. However, it did give me a sense of balance and an understanding of the limits of socialism as I grew up and read other things that were more leftward leaning. So I guess I got the basic point. Totalitarian state = bad. Then I read it again, when I was in college, I think--the same battered silver copy I read when I was a kid, and I realized what a rich book it was. A.S. is one of those ra...more
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I have to write down some notes as I go here...
This book is a lot of things.
It is a memoir of his time and persecution while imprisoned.
It is a history of the Soviet prison system.
It is a study into the minds of the people that imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured him. He asks questions as to why they did the things they did and discusses notions of the difference between individuals being used by a system (from their own fears of persecution) a...more
This book is a lot of things.
It is a memoir of his time and persecution while imprisoned.
It is a history of the Soviet prison system.
It is a study into the minds of the people that imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured him. He asks questions as to why they did the things they did and discusses notions of the difference between individuals being used by a system (from their own fears of persecution) a...more
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Read in August, 2008
This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in Russian history. It is filled with fascinating and gruesome descriptions of mental and physical breakdown in the USSR's gulag system. Despite the utter hopelessness described, Solzhenitsyn's unfailing humor in the face of life's cruel ironies makes the reader feel as if he were talking to you, telling you his story over a couple of beers at a bar. I found this book truly stomach turning, and it takes a lot to shock me.
The long c...more
The long c...more
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I need to qualify my rating of three stars. Solzhenitsyn's writing is strong, detailed and justified considering much of what he writes about comes from personal experience. I understand, in fact, that this book could have easily never been discovered in the west had it not been smuggled out. All of this being said, the book is difficult.
It is long and painful to read. I believe that this period in Russia's history shows both the best and the worst that humanity is capable of. Each p...more
It is long and painful to read. I believe that this period in Russia's history shows both the best and the worst that humanity is capable of. Each p...more
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This is my third time now. What always strikes me most is the almost-cheery tone, the laughter you hear in the author's voice while he describes the scene. If you can laugh away your memories of the Gulag, you can laugh away the memory of everything.
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Read in December, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone
I love this book although it can get depressing at times...there is so much wisdom and depth of character and history we in the west all need to know...I'll probably take a lifetime to finish this but it'll be worth it.
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