Alexander Dolgun's story : an American in the Gulag

This book is about survival at all costs. It is beautiful in it's haunting ways and sad beyond belief. But there is a thread of spirit that goes thru it that makes you admire Mr.Dolgun very very much. I was sorry to hear he died so young. Alexander Dolgun, from embassy employee, to prisoner, then falsely convicted of being a terrorist against Russia and sentenced to hard labor. Released after eight long years he is finally able to recount the experience of being transported to and between prisons, interactions and friendships with other prisoners, the day to day drudgery of trying to stay alive under horrendous conditions which involved trying to meet ridiculously high work quotas for extremely strenuous jobs while in a constant state of starvation and often, sickness. Alexander Dolgun is an American who was brought to the Soviet Union as a child when his father was a contractor there. During the war, he was trapped there, and was eventually arrested by the KGB in one of their mass arrests. After a long, brutal interrogation, he was sent to the camps for a number of years. His first hand account of his experiences is vivid and terrifying, and well worth reading for those who want to understand the reality of life and death under Stalin. Alexander Dolgun Compelled Himself To Reconstruct His Long Ordeal At The Hands Of The Soviet Secret Police. As A 22 Year Old Young American, Son Of One Of The American Engineers Who Took Jobs In Russia During The Depression, He Was Stopped By Secret Police, And Became Prisoner Of The Mgb For 18 Months Of Hell. By Alexander Dolgun With Patrick Watson.