The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 : an experiment in literary investigation

Drawing on his own incarceration and exile, as well as on evidence from more than 200 fellow prisoners and Soviet archives, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn reveals the entire apparatus of Soviet repression -- the state within the state that ruled all-powerfully. Through truly Shakespearean portraits of its victims -- men, women, and children -- we encounter secret police operations, labor camps and prisons; the uprooting or extermination of whole populations, the "welcome" that awaited Russian soldiers who had been German prisoners of war. Yet we also witness the astounding moral courage of the incorruptible, who, defenseless, endured great brutality and degradation. The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 -- a grisly indictment of a regime, fashioned here into a veritable literary miracle -- has now been updated with a new introduction that includes the fall of the Soviet Union and Solzhenitsyn's move back to Russia. Contents ...... ix Foreword to the Abridgment ...... xiii Introduction to the Perennial Classics Edition ...... xv Author's Note ...... xxiii PART I • The Prison Industry ...... 38 Chapter 1 • Arrest ...... 40 Chapter 2 • The History of Our Sewage Disposal System ...... 56 Chapter 3 • The Interrogation ...... 76 Chapter 4 • The Bluecaps ...... 103 Chapter 5 • First Cell, First Love ...... 119 Chapter 6 • That Spring ...... 133 Chapter 7 • In the Engine Room ...... 150 Chapter 8 • The Law as a Child ...... 157 Chapter 9 • The Law Becomes a Man ...... 159 Chapter 10 • The Law Matures ...... 160 Chapter 11 • The Supreme Measure ...... 166 Chapter 12 • Tyurzak ...... 174 PART II • Perpetual Motion ...... 184 Chapter 1 • The Ships of the Archipelago ...... 186 Chapter 2 • The Ports of the Archipelago ...... 196 Chapter 3 • The Slave Caravans ...... 203 Chapter 4 • From Is la1id to Is land ...... 210 PART III • The Destructive-Labor Camps ...... 212 Chapter 1 • The Fingers of Aurora ...... 214 Chapter 2 • The ArchipelagoRises from the Sea ...... 218 Chapter 3 • The Archipelago Metastasizes ...... 230 Chapter 4 • The Archipelago Hardens ...... 247 Chapter 5 • What the Archipelago Stands On ...... 251 Chapter 6 • "They've Brought the Fascists!" ...... 256 Chapter 7 • The Way of Life and Customs of the Natives ...... 257 Chapter 8 • Women in Camp ...... 268 Chapter 9 • The Trusties ...... 275 Chapter 10 • In Place of Politicals ...... 276 Chapter 11 • The Loyalists ...... 279 Chapter 12 • Knock, Knock, Knock... ...... 284 Chapter 13 • Hand Over Your Second Skin Too! ...... 286 Chapter 14 • Changing One's Fate! ...... 291 Chapter 15 • Punishments ...... 295 Chapter 16 • The Socially Friendly ...... 298 Chapter 17 • The Kids ...... 303 Chapter 18 • The Muses in Gulag ...... 316 Chapter 19 • The Zeks as a Nation ...... 317 Chapter 20 • The Dogs' Service ...... 318 Chapter 21 • Campside ...... 325 PART IV • The Soul and Barbed Wire ...... 334 Chapter 1 • The Ascent ...... 336 Chapter 2 • Or Corruption? ...... 351 Chapter 3 • Our Muzzled Freedom ...... 357 PART V • Katorga ...... 366 Chapter 1 • The Doomed ...... 368 Chapter 2 • The First Whiff of Revolution ...... 381 Chapter 3 • Chains, Chains... ...... 382 Chapter 4 • Why Did We Stand For It? ...... 385 Chapter 5 • Poetry Under a Tombstone, Truth Under a Stone ...... 392 Chapter 6 • The Committed Escaper ...... 398 Chapter 7 • The White Kitten (Georgi Tenno's Tale) ...... 415 Chapter 8 • Escapes - Morale and Mechanics ...... 416 Chapter 9 • The Kids with Tommy Guns ...... 420 Chapter 10 • Behind the Wire the Ground Is Burning ...... 423 Chapter 11 • Tearing at the Chains ...... 430 Chapter 12 • The Forty Days of Kengir ...... 440 PART VI • Exile ...... 456 Chapter 1 • Exile in the First Years of Freedom ...... 458 Chapter 2 • The Peasant Plague ...... 461 Chapter 3 • The Ranks of Exile Thicken ...... 470 Chapter 4 • Nations in Exile ...... 473 Chapter 5 • End of Sentence ...... 476 Chapter 6 • The Good Life in Exile ...... 480 Chapter 7 • Zeks at Liberty ...... 481 PART VII • Stalin Is No More ...... 486 Chapter 1 • Looking Back on It All ...... 488 Chapter 2 • Rulers Change, the Archipelago Remains ...... 491 Chapter 3 • The Law Today ...... 495 Afterword ...... 506 P.P.S. ...... 508 About Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ...... 510 None None None None The Prison Industry Arrest The History of Our Sewage Disposal System The Interrogation The Bluecaps First Cell, First Love That Spring In the Engine Room The Law as a Child The Law Becomes a Man The Law Matures The Supreme Measure Tyurzak Perpetual Motion The Ships of the Archipelago The Ports of the Archipelago The Slave Caravans From Is la1id to Is land The Destructive-Labor Camps The Fingers of Aurora The ArchipelagoRises from the Sea The Archipelago Metastasizes The Archipelago Hardens What the Archipelago Stands On "They've Brought the Fascists!" The Way of Life and Customs of the Natives Women in Camp The Trusties In Place of Politicals The Loyalists Knock, Knock, Knock... Hand Over Your Second Skin Too! Changing One's Fate! Punishments The Socially Friendly The Kids The Muses in Gulag The Zeks as a Nation The Dogs' Service Campside The Soul and Barbed Wire The Ascent Or Corruption? Our Muzzled Freedom Katorga The Doomed The First Whiff of Revolution Chains, Chains... Why Did We Stand For It? Poetry Under a Tombstone, Truth Under a Stone The Committed Escaper The White Kitten (Georgi Tenno's Tale) Escapes - Morale and Mechanics The Kids with Tommy Guns Behind the Wire the Ground Is Burning Tearing at the Chains The Forty Days of Kengir Exile Exile in the First Years of Freedom The Peasant Plague The Ranks of Exile Thicken Nations in Exile End of Sentence The Good Life in Exile Zeks at Liberty Stalin Is No More Looking Back on It All Rulers Change, the Archipelago Remains The Law Today None None None Drawing on his own experiences before, during, and after his 11 years of incarceration and exile, Solzhenitsyn reveals with torrential narrative and dramatic power the entire apparatus of Soviet repression. Through truly Shakespearean portraits of its victims, we encounter the secret police operations, the labor camps and prisons, the uprooting or extermination of whole populations. Yet we also witness astounding moral courage, the incorruptibility with which the occasional individual or a few scattered groups, all defenseless, endured brutality and degradation. Solzhenitsyn's genius has transmuted this grisly indictment into a literary miracle The Gulag Archipelago is Solzhenitsyn's masterwork, a vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators and also of heroism, a Stalinist anti-world at the heart of the Soviet Union where the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair. The work is based on the testimony of some two hundred survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile. It is both a thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power. This edition has been abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation. A compelling account of four decades of oppression describes individual escapes and attempted escapes from Stalin's camps, a disciplined, sustained resistance put down with tanks after forty days, and the forced removal and extermination of millions of peasants, in a special abridged edition of the classic by the Russian Nobel laureate. Reprint.