Voices from the Gulag: Life and Death in Communist Bulgaria [Hardcover]

Tzvetan Todorov (Author, Editor), Robert Zaretsky (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1999

One of the most terrible legacies of our century is the concentration camp. Countless men and women have passed through camps in Nazi Germany, Communist China, and the Soviet bloc countries. In Voices from the Gulag, Tzvetan Todorov singles out the experience of one country where the concentration camps were particularly brutal and emblematic of the horrors of totalitarianism--communist Bulgaria. The voices we hear in this book are mostly from Lovech, a rock quarry in Bulgaria that became the final destination for several thousand men and women during its years of operation from 1959 to 1962. The inmates, though drawn from various social, professional, and economic backgrounds, shared a common fate: they were torn from their homes by secret police, brutally beaten, charged with fictitious crimes, and shipped to Lovech. Once there, they were forced to endure backbreaking labor, inadequate clothing, shelter, and food, systematic beatings, and institutionalized torture.We also hear from guards, commandants, and bureaucrats whose lives were bound together with the inmates in an absurd drama. Regardless of their grade and duties, all agree that those responsible for these "excesses" were above or below them, yet never they themselves. Accountability is thereby diffused through the many strata of the state apparatus, providing legal defenses and "clear" consciences. Yet, as the concluding section of interviews--with the children and wives of the victims--reminds us, accountability is a moral and historical imperative.The testimonies in Voices from the Gulag were written specifically for this volume or have been published in the Bulgarian press or on Bulgarian television. Todorov compiled them for this book and has written an introductory essay--a lucid and troubling analysis of totalitarianism and the role that terror and the concentration camp play in such a world. He reflects upon his own experience living in Bulgaria during the years when Lovech was in operation. It is through that experience that Todorov has sought to understand the totalitarian horrors of our century.Although Lovech and the other camps of Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe have been closed down, concentration camps still exist in the countries whose communist regimes remain in power--Vietnam, China, North Korea, and Cuba. The voices in this book remind us that we are never completely safe from the threat of totalitarianism, a threat that we all must face. As Todorov writes, "I cannot say that these stories do not concern me."

Editorial Reviews

Review

Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian-born French philosopher, studied the phenomenon of the concentration camps in totalitarian societies from the detached point of view of the historian and social scientist he is, with as much objectivity as is possible for a normal mind. Taking for example the death camp in Lovech, he used personal accounts by former prisoners and guards in books and interviews published soon after the fall of Communist dictator Zhivkov, or included in the overwhelming 1990 documentary film The Survivors (Stories from the Camps) by director Atanas Kiryakov. The value of Todorov's book is not so much as a sinister chronicle of atrocities by psychopaths empowered to dispose of their fellow men's lives. What is impressive is his analysis of the reasons for and nature of such abominable practices. His chilling conclusion is that they were not an exception, not an aberration, but an inherent part of the entire system, a conditio sine qua non institutionalized by the regime. --Stephane Groueff, Boston Book Review

Painful questions will keep disturbing the nation's conscience, begging for right solutions. But when the civilized world probes them in the future, our children and grandchildren will at least be able to turn to books such as this, as a proof that the martyrs were not totally forgotten. --Stephane Groueff, Boston Book Review

About the Author

Born in Sofia, Tzvetan Todorov left Bulgaria in the early 1960s and moved to Paris, where he established himself as a literary theorist, historian of ideas, and world-renowned essayist. He is a director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the author of numerous books. Several of these have been translated into English, including: Facing the Extreme (Holt, 1996), A French Tragedy (New England, 1996), On Human Diversity (Harvard, 1993), and The Conquest of America (HarperCollins, 1984). Robert D. Zaretsky is an Associate Professor at the University of Houston where he holds a joint appointment in the Honors College and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages. He is the author of Nimes at War: Religion, Politics, and Public Opinion in the Department of the Gard, 1938-94 (Penn State, 1995), which won the 1997 Hans Rosenhaupt Memorial Book Award of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 178 pages
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr (December 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271019611
• ISBN-13: 978-0271019611
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,185,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > History > Europe > Bulgaria

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Forgotten Gulag, June 7, 2000

By 

Leon Lowder (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Voices from the Gulag: Life and Death in Communist Bulgaria (Hardcover)

Todorov's book is a great read for both students of East European history and political violence. The book is a careful compilation and editing of recently published memoirs and TV documentaries that reveal the brutality of the Communist concentration camps. The book catalogues the senseless suffering of many of the victims of Communism, not because they were dissidents, but because they knew a Western language or liked rock and roll. Todorov also gives us the views of the prison guards and party functionaries and carefully details their duplicity and self-justification. Overall, it is a powerful book that fills an important gap in our knowledge about gulags in other countries besides the ex-USSR as well as reminds us of the brutality of the Communist system.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gruesome and sickening, August 23, 2001

By 

Blah (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Voices from the Gulag: Life and Death in Communist Bulgaria (Hardcover)

This book contains the first hand accounts of many of the people involved in the work camps of Belene and Lovech. Belene is an island located on the Danube where one of the first work camps began. It still functions as a prison today. Lovech was started when 160 men went on hunger strike in Belene. Many of the prisoners were tortured and beaten to death. After death, their bodies were fed to pigs.

The horrific first hand accounts contained in this work documents not only the victims but also their families and the directors and guards at the camp (almost all of which are still deny their involvement and none of which have been brought to justice)

What is most disturbing is not so much that something similiar to the Nazi camps occured in Bulgaria but the fact that noone has had to pay for what they did. This book serves notice to the world that not only did atrocities such as this occur after WWII but that they are still occcuring in Vietnam and other places and will continue to occur as long as we allow it.

The only real deficiency in this book is that it doesn't have any accounts from any gypsies or Turks who undoubtly recieved worse treatment at the hands of the Bulgarian communist party. Also many of the accounts were right after the fall of communism. Having personally talked with some former inmates of Belene and Lovech I cannot help to think that many were still scared to speak out and that many equally horrible events remain uncovered. As one inmate put it "Even now there are very few people willing to talk about their experiences in the campss. They're still afraid! I am too. Yes I'm afraid, but my sons are now grown up and can fend for themselves. So why should I be afraid? Because the gun is still loaded in the hands of old men who won't hesitate to fire. Thus it was and still is in Bulgaria.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to be scared out of your wits...read this book!, March 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Voices from the Gulag: Life and Death in Communist Bulgaria (Hardcover)

This book terrified me in its magnification of horrors and atrocities suffered by those in the Communist gulag. What evil was perpetrated on millions of innocent lives during this time. Read this book and you will never forget the gruesome images, the agonizing despair felt by the inmates of these bloody camps. Anyone who thinks that Communism and Socialism are beautiful ideologies should read the accounts of those who lived under such glorious regimes as Stalin and Hitler!