The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The second main characteristic of our political courts is the lack of ambiguity in their work, which is to say predetermined verdicts.4 In other words, you, a judge, always know what the higher-ups expect of you (furthermore there’s a telephone if you still have any doubts). And, following the example of the OSO’s, sentences might even be typed out ahead of time, with only the prisoner’s name to be added later, by hand.