Within the Whirlwind [Paperback]

Eugenia Ginzburg (Author), Ian Boland (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 1982

This book continues the narrative of Ginzburg's nightmarish eighteen-year survival of Soviet prisons and labor camps, following the Stalinist purges of 1937. Introduction by Heinrich Böll. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

At the time of Kirov's murder, Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg was 27 years old, a happily married mother of three children, a loyal party member, and a schoolteacher and journalist in Kazan in eastern Russia. At that time, also, there was published a four-volume History of the All-Union Communist Party, which, in its coverage of the 1905 Czarist terrors, displeased Stalin; it contained certain "errors" in connection with the theory of permanent revolution. Professor Nikolai Naumovich Elvov, who had written the offending passage, also happened to be the author of a source book on Tartar history. Incredibly, Mrs. Ginzburg was arrested and denounced as a Trotskyite and counter-revolutionary because she had failed to write a review for her publication denouncing Elvov's Tartar book. In short, the masters of a Brechtian netherworld of logical non-reason accused her of not doing something she had not done—and of course she could not deny not doing it.

Ian Boland is a contributor for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt titles including: "Within the Whirlwind".

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 20, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156976498
• ISBN-13: 978-0156976497
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #488,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most harrowing descriptions of the Stalin purges, June 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Within the Whirlwind (Paperback)

Eugenia Ginsburg was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 1937 on a false charge of terrorism at the height of the Stalin purges. In her first book 'Into the whirlwind' she describes her arrest, her interrogation, her mockery of a trial and two years in solitary confinement in prison. She was then transported to Magadan in the far East of Russia to a labour camp, and the first volume ends as she is beginning to cope with the undescribably harsh conditions in the camp.

'Within the whirlwind' describes the next fifteen years until her return and rehabilitation. She describes how her life was saved by gaining work as a nurse in the camp hospital where she met her second husband.

This book leaves the reader astonished how Evgenia could describe her life with such humour and at the same time with such human understanding. All the time, however, the reader is reminded of the inhumanity, lying and deception of the Stalin regime.

At one stage, the vice president of the USA, Henry Wallace, visits the camps, and the prisoners are removed and the guards temporarily take their place and manage to convince the gullible American that the camps are manned by well fed and enthusiastic pioneers.

Eugenia returns to Moscow, her life destroyed, having lost one of her sons. She ends on a note of optimism, that the truth will be told in her native land. She died however in 1977 and never saw her books published in her native land nor the destruction of the communist regime.

This book is now out of print, which is a pity. Everybody interested in Russia should try to get hold of a copy and read it and ponder on the demons that helped produce the country as it is today.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Memoir of the Gulag!!!, March 17, 2004

By 

Christiana Washington (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Within the Whirlwind (Paperback)

This book shocked, sickened, and inspired me. I never realized how terrible Stalin's purges were until I read Ginzburg's historically accurate and emotionally compelling memoir. Unforgettable characters, disturbing mental images, and harrowing brutality made up the Soviet Gulag and Ginzburg's book showcases them beautifully! Outstanding memoir!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read - Better than the first book, April 18, 2011

By 

chrisdd (southside of Chicago, IL US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Within the Whirlwind (Paperback)

It is a long book but I read it in about 3 days. Compelling. Heartwrenching. Suspenseful. And ultimately hopeful. This is an older book that I happened upon and I will be recommending it to everyone.