Customer Reviews

Tomorrow You Go Home: One Man's Harrowing Imprisonment in a Modern-Day Russian Gulag

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An extremely interesting update to the apparently eternal theme of Russian prison camp Hell. But this one has a universal appeal that will grab you even if you know nothing and care less about Russia. I have read pretty much all the big famous prison memoirs of the 19th and 20th centuries, Russian and other. The story told here is by no stretch the most brutal or bloody among them, but it's a powerful riptide of reality that won't let you loose (I read it in a single sitting). This man's experience, more than any of the more outlandish specimens of the genre, will leave you with that churning feeling - This could happen to anybody. This could happen to me.

The statement (p 37) "...at every single turn I had made the wrong call" succinctly sums up the state of things for British guy Tig Hague, a 31-year-old derivatives broker, about the time realizes he's in much worse trouble than he thought he could ever be. In 2003, Hague was taken in for questioning at a Moscow airport after customs inspectors found a small quantity of post stag-party hash in his luggage. He ultimately served 20 months of a seven-year sentence (later reduced to 4.5) in Zone 22, a special prison for foreigners. Throughout his memoir of "imprisonment in a modern-day Gulag," Hague tells his story with plenty of profanity and colorful language that drips with disdain about every negative aspect of a situation that, truth be told, was his own darn fault. After getting caught with a small amount of drugs he accidently brought into Russia, he misunderstands an airport employee's request for a bribe (which may have remedied the situation), signs a statement (supposedly about his side of the story) written in Russian (under duress and without a lawyer present), and cavalierly (and foolishly!) discusses his recreational drug use with authorities.
In the midst of my Gulag-related-book reading frenzy, I found Hague's story unsettlingly familiar in many ways to the memoirs I'd been reading about life in Stalin's Gulag. Modern-day prisoners are required to work long hours (Hague initially chalked button locations for prison uniforms in a sewing factory); drink greyish-looking liquids; eat bread rations; live in a constant state of filth; bribe camp leaders in exchange for special privileges and favors (including having ones case considered for parole); and suffer serious illnesses (he almost lost his eye to infection). On the other hand, Hague was able to supplement his meals with parcels of foodstuffs provided by family and friends; keep a journal; have contact with the British Embassy in Russia; and even marry his girlfriend (though in a brief, primitive-seeming ceremony). Despite his family's best efforts (and a £100,000 in bribes all told, according to a related article in mirror.co.uk), he ended up serving almost two years of a sentence based on trumped up charges.

Although Hague's obnoxious personality, reflected in a plethora of profanity and more than a few choice words for Russian guards and officials, annoyed me at first, it eventually grew on me. The same type of behavior that got him in so much trouble in the first place probably also helped get him out early. Tomorrow You Go Home is a sobering look at a "modern day Russian Gulag" that seems not to have changed much over the years. Also good: 13 Years in Soviet Prison Camps by Elinor Lipper, Alexander Dolgun's Story, and The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia by Tim Tzouliadis.

Tig Hague's ordeal is compelling and harrowing. During many passages in this book you can almost feel the emotions you would have if put in the same situations. I liked that Hague is upfront with the mistakes he made that contributed to his ordeal.

But...there were too many instances where the writing lacked depth or insightfulness for me to fully recommend this book. Too many times, Hague decends into the easy description of his feelings of frustration with guards and prison authorities, wanting to "throttle" someone or "drive his head through a wall" is just a little too junior high school for me. Once or twice is not a problem, but it was frequent. Certainly his experience was horrifying, but failing to capture and communicate the emotions to a greater depth than that lessens the impact this book could have had. At times, I felt he was immature. maybe he was just not ready to write this book.

In the end, this isn't a bad book and I am not sorry I bought it. I just think there are more compelling choices out there.

Simply put, I could not put this book down. The story gets going from the first page. You feel the hopes, fear, cold, hunger, pain and humanity of the author and fellow prisoners. Heart breaking at times but also uplifting and humorous, it is written in the first person account and is a wonderful and eye opening story. As a fan of this genre, I cannot recommend it enough.

So what happens when you enter a foreign country like Russia and find yourself in possession of trace amounts of drugs? Tig Hague found out the hard way and chronicled his experience in the book Tomorrow You Go Home: One Man's Harrowing Imprisonment in a Modern-Day Russian Gulag. No matter how bad you think a western justice system might be, you haven't seen "bad" until you're thrown into Russia's gulags, with no way out but to play the game by ever-changing rules.

Tig Hague was a businessman working at the finance firm Garban Icap in London. His job involved international travel, and on this particular trip he was landing in Moscow for a three day trip to meet with clients. He came from a stag party on the weekend, where some hash was available and used by the partygoers. Hague had no qualms against using the drug, and in fact had left a very small amount in his jeans wrapped in paper, barely enough for a single joint. But he forgot about it as he packed his suitcase, only to remember it at the worst possible time, as Russian custom agents were conducting a random check of passengers exiting the airport. Looking like a well-off British traveler, the Russian agent was actually looking for a bribe from Hague to just keep things moving. Tired and irritable from his trip, Hague decided he didn't want to play that game, which led to a retaliatory search of every item in his suitcase. The hash showed up, and now Hague was labeled a drug smuggler and placed into the Russian "legal" system. Little did he expect that it would take two years before he saw his freedom again.

While the embassy made all the right sounds about helping him out, they were really just working within the system to let things move to trial, hoping for an acquittal or minor fine. Hague kept trying to explain that he wasn't smuggling, and that this was really being blown out of proportion. By the time the case went to trial a couple of months later (with bail being denied during that time), the stated amount he was carrying was highly inflated, his confession of recreational hash use back home painted him as a major drug user, and he was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. What follows is a two year nightmare of corrupt prison officials, horrid living conditions, illnesses that threatened his life, and emotional despair. The only thing that keeps him going is the undying love and efforts of his girlfriend (and future wife) Lucy, as she worked to keep pressure on the Russian legal system to release Hague.

Reading Tomorrow, you can feel the emotional turmoil that Hague went through as he realized that there was no one there to help him out. He was fortunate to be befriended by a number of prisoners along the way who taught him the rules of survival and helped him manage his own fate from inside the prisons. The most harrowing part of the story is when he's transferred to Zone 22, a prison camp in Mordovia that is as primitive and desolate as any gulag you've read about. But even in those brutal conditions, there was a code amongst the inmates that showed humanity when and where you'd least expect it.

It's somewhat hard not to think he brought some of this on himself by his initial actions. But even then, the punishment was very much out of proportion to the crime. Tomorrow You Go Home will leave an emotional mark on the reader. It'll also make you double-check everything you put in your luggage before you travel...

Book is pretty straightforward and non-eventful. Nothing really shocking except how screwed up Russia still is. The author gets busted for a tiny amt of hash and the Rooskies toss the book at him. He goes to a Gulag for foreign prisoners and tells a story of how he has to bribe the guards and other prisoners to help advance his parole date. I didn't learn anything worthwhile in the book other than the guards would rather you stay in as long as possible so that they can keep getting bribes from your family. Moral of the book is : Stay the hell away from Russia !!!!!
Its an OK read, but there are much better books such as The Long Walk, I found God in soviet Russia, As far as my feet will carry me.

I felt like I was there for every minute of Tig's ordeal. Very well written and compelling. I hated to put the book down.

Hague's account of his time in a Russian prison is a new perspective that simply isn't covered much elsewhere, but he wastes a great opportunity by putting out a poorly written and rambling book that skips around at a dizzying pace. If he had cut back on the slang, written coherent storylines that lasted more than two paragraphs, and generally pointed the book in the same direction the entire time I would have liked it much more. As is, the reader is left perpetually wondering where the book is going and honestly what he is trying to say.

very authentic, its unbelievable, this happened now in the country, which is a member of G-8.You must read this and give it to all your friends.

This review is a message for the publishers to get realistic about the pricing of their new books. $14.04 is too much to pay for an electronic edition of any book. I would have bought this book in a heartbeat at $9.99, but will not pay $14.04. i'll impatiently wait until the publisher drops the price.