Customer Reviews

The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 Abridged in One Volume

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Most people in the world are unaffected by this book, as evidenced by the fact that most people now in 2011 continue to be socialists.

However, Gulag Archipelago remains a classic. Solzhenitsyn's warning about the end result of socialism is made conveniently accessible by this authorized abridgment.

John Christmas, author of "Democracy Society"

In this abridgment authorized by Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago has been made even more accessible to more readers (the complete work is 1300 plus pages). One of the most important books of the 20th Century, The Gulag Archipelago exposed the horrific, authoritarian state that was the Soviet Union. In this book, Solzhenitsyn revealed the failure of the utopian, socialist/communist experiment in Russia. Sadly, in order to perpetuate this experiment, the Soviets used mass imprisonment as a way to control its citizens. The Gulag Archipelago was that system of prison camps stretching to the outer reaches of the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn was a prisoner of the Gulag for 8 years and collected his and others' stories in this book. Before this book, much of the West was still under the illusion that the Soviet Union was a wonderful workers' paradise. Solzhenitsyn shattered that myth. For those with an interest in the Cold War, you must read this book.