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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

In the First Circle Paperback – Deckle Edge, October 13, 2009

by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (Author), Harry Willets (Translator)

4.7 774 ratings

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The thrilling Cold War masterwork by the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Gulag Archipelago, published in full for the first time.

"Solzhenitsyn's best novel. . . . A great and important book, whose qualities are finally fully available to English-speaking readers.” —Washington Post

Moscow, Christmas Eve, 1949.The Soviet secret police intercept a call made to the American embassy by a Russian diplomat who promises to deliver secrets about the nascent Soviet Atomic Bomb program. On that same day, a brilliant mathematician is locked away inside a Moscow prison that houses the country's brightest minds. He and his fellow prisoners are charged with using their abilities to sleuth out the caller's identity, and they must choose whether to aid Joseph Stalin's repressive state—or refuse and accept transfer to the Siberian Gulag camps . . . and almost certain death.

First written between 1955 and 1958, In the First Circle is Solzhenitsyn's fiction masterpiece. In order to pass through Soviet censors, many essential scenes—including nine full chapters—were cut or altered before it was published in a hastily translated English edition in 1968. Now with the help of the author's most trusted translator, Harry T. Willetts, here for the first time is the complete, definitive English edition of Solzhenitsyn's powerful and magnificent classic.

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Print length

784 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

October 13, 2009
Dimensions

6 x 1.57 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0061479012
ISBN-13

978-0061479014
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Customer reviews

774 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Customers say

Customers find the characters compelling and the storyline engaging and engrossing. They appreciate the literary merit and readability. Opinions are mixed on the plot, with some finding it timeless and others saying it's irrelevant.

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Storyline Readability Literary merit Characters Plot

22 customers mention "Storyline"22 positive0 negative

Customers find the storyline engaging, engrossing, and loaded with amazing insights. They also describe the book as a fascinating story, challenging to read, and multi-layered. Readers appreciate the luxuries we have in America. They say the book comes with a very helpful introduction by Edward Ericson that outlines the history.

"This edition came with a very helpful Introduction by Edward Ericson that outlined the history of the novel's first publication in 1968 as The First..." Read more

"...It is superbly plotted. Its characterizations of about two dozen zeks (and their wives) are sensitive and endearing...." Read more

"...realize that this is not a journalistic novel but a profoundly stirring masterpiece...." Read more

"...writes of relationships, among friends and lovers alike, with a startling honesty; he also differentiates his characters through their histories and..." Read more

21 customers mention "Readability"21 positive0 negative

Customers find the book very good, interesting, and fun to read. They also say the work is worth it and the book does not disappoint.

"...to get through (I mean that in a good way), and ultimately a very rewarding read...." Read more

"...like hard work, but for those interested in this subject, the work is worth it." Read more

"...the reader to understand the bad and the good, this will be an excellent read." Read more

"...It is on a par with Solzhenitsyn's other writings, well worth reading." Read more

16 customers mention "Literary merit"16 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's literary merit to be brilliantly translated. They also say the book reads smoothly and that Solzhenitsyn displays his artistry as a wordsmith, storyteller, and philosopher.

"...Excellent translation by Harry Willetts." Read more

"...It has been brilliantly translated by Harry T. Willetts, who worked closely with Solzhenitsyn...." Read more

"I agree that this is and will remain one of the great, classical novels of Russian literature and am writing this review primarily to protest the..." Read more

"...Great read." Read more

10 customers mention "Characters"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the characters compelling and eye-catching.

"...Very intricate plot over a brief four day period, and a huge cast of characters..." Read more

"...Nevertheless, Solzhenitsyn populates this novel with compelling characters and provides a truly eye-opening look at life under Stalin...." Read more

"...Yes, this novel presents a mosaic of many different characters, even Stalin is included...." Read more

"...A very helpful cast of characters at the front of the novel helps the reader keep the characters straight, but the names, often complete with..." Read more

9 customers mention "Plot"4 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the plot. Some find it timeless, while others say it's irrelevant.

"...n’t make it bad, but lengthiness is unjustified when the narrative becomes repetitive and tedious...." Read more

"Still important in Putin’s regime. Timeless and thought provoking for the twenty first century. Must read for those who care" Read more

"...The plot itself is a little thin- deputies are on the lookout for a man who is calling in their atomic secrets into an American embassy- and mostly..." Read more

"First Solzhenitsyn book I have ever read. Great history and great literature. I can’t wait to read more of him." Read more

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Ambrose Rankin

Solzhenitsyn's Finest Novel

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024

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This edition came with a very helpful Introduction by Edward Ericson that outlined the history of the novel's first publication in 1968 as The First Circle and then re-issuance in the present form in 2008. Very intricate plot over a brief four day period, and a huge cast of characters (I found myself referring back to the "Cast of Characters" with every plot twist). Solzhenitsyn draws from personal experience as well as the traditions of Russian literature (many conscious echos of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky - with the mix of real and fictional characters and the way the characters interact). A challenging novel to get through (I mean that in a good way), and ultimately a very rewarding read. I have seen this described as Solzhenitsyn's finest novel - and have to agree. Excellent translation by Harry Willetts.

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R. M. Peterson

"We are given only one life . . . but we are given only one conscience, too."

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2017

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn burst on the literary scene in 1962 with his short novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich". It depicted an ordinary day in the life of an ordinary inmate in one of the Siberian labor-camps of the Soviet Gulag. Solzhenitsyn's next major novel was published in 1968 under the title "The First Circle". It was a depiction of life in a "sharashka", which stood at the other end of the spectrum of Gulag prisons. A "sharashka" was the slang name by which inmates referred to the research and development laboratories of the Soviet Gulag labor camp system. Scientists, engineers, and mathematicians sent to the Gulag were, if they were lucky, assigned to a sharashka to work on projects that might prove useful to Stalin in his quest for ironclad security and his war with capitalist imperialism. Compared to the Siberian labor-camp of Ivan Denisovich, a sharashka was cushy; to be sure, it too was part of the Gulag, and the Gulag was hell, but a sharashka was, in Dantean terms, "the first circle of hell".

This 741-page novel covers four days (Dec. 24-27, 1949) in a sharashka in Moscow known as Marfino -- 300 prisoners and 50 guards. The novel begins with a Soviet diplomat making an anonymous phone call to the American embassy to alert it of Soviet espionage focused on the atomic bomb. The embassy's phones are bugged and the phone call is recorded, but the Soviet security service doesn't know who the caller was. So inmate engineers and scientists at the Marfino sharashka are assigned the task of identifying the traitor, as quickly as possible.

In the novel, Solzhenitsyn adds considerable depth and detail to the portrayal of the life of zeks (Gulag inmates) furnished in "Ivan Denisovich". He also uses the book to deliver a scathing critique of the Soviet system -- its ideological absurdities, its bureaucratic infighting and inefficiencies, its dishonesty and hypocrisy, and its cruelty. To top it off, the novel contains a devastatingly mocking and chilling portrait of Josef Stalin (see Chapters 19-23). Solzhenitsyn realized that as originally written, the novel was far too critical of the Soviet Union for it to see the light of day (this was in the mid-60's), so he "self-censored" it, excising nine chapters altogether and revising, or softening, those details sure to be most offensive to Soviet sensibilities. That self-censored version was published in 1968 under the English title "The First Circle", but even as expurgated it was not deemed fit for publication within the Soviet Union (and, indeed, that expurgated version contributed to the decision to expel Solzhenitsyn from the Soviet Union in 1974).

This is the original, unexpurgated novel, in a form that Solzhenitsyn continued to tweak and revise. It has been brilliantly translated by Harry T. Willetts, who worked closely with Solzhenitsyn. Distinguishing it from the truncated version is the initial word "in" in the title. IN THE FIRST CIRCLE is the best Russian novel from the twentieth century that I have so far encountered in my ongoing survey of Russian literature in translation. It is a masterpiece.

Though nominally covering only four days in late 1949, the novel contains the back stories of dozens of characters, stretching back to the days of the Bolshevik Revolution. It is superbly plotted. Its characterizations of about two dozen zeks (and their wives) are sensitive and endearing. In addition to the penetrating critique of the Soviet system and the detailed portrayal of the Gulag, the novel also contains many perceptive observations about human beings in general. It is rich in historical detail. And, in the best tradition of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, it is rich in its exploration of moral and philosophical matters.

For the title to this review, I have appropriated lines relating to the diplomat who made the anonymous phone call to the American embassy that triggered the four days of the novel. Heretofore, he had conducted himself according to the law that "we are given only one life", and thus he married well, accumulated the nicest material objects available on his side of the Iron Curtain, and even travelled abroad. He is soon to be posted to New York as part of the Soviet Union's delegation to the United Nations. But he has a spiritual and moral crisis of sorts, as a result of which he becomes aware of another law -- "that we are given only one conscience, too." "A life laid down cannot be reclaimed, nor can a ruined conscience." That's just one of the moral/philosophical conundrums Solzhenitsyn explores in this great novel.

178 people found this helpful

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Kallista Rockne-Semkow

The First Circle

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2024

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Alexander Solzhenitzen is a crucial author who wrote from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. He was imprisoned in Russia under Stalin, and his books were banned. He was a political prisoner who wrote about the incredibly grim circumstances in Communist Russia, and his books are classic and vital real-time accounts of a world that we pray and fight worldwide that it does not exist. Unfortunately, it is a historical reminder of some of the darkest times in the 20th century, and it's a crucial account of a part of history we would dare not have repeated.

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Karl Janssen

An eye-opening look inside Stalin’s think-tank prisons

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023

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Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, might be best known for his nonfiction opus The Gulag Archipelago, a history of the system of forced labor camps scattered across the Soviet Union during the reign of Joseph Stalin. Less well-known is his earlier novel In the First Circle, published in 1968, a fictional narrative set within a Soviet prison. The prison in this case is a specific kind of gulag called a sharashka, a research and development facility staffed by prisoners with science and engineering backgrounds. Solzhenitsyn had first-hand experience serving time in both a hard-labor gulag and a sharashka. His personal insight lends credence and authenticity to this brutally frank exposé of the Soviet prison system.

Marfino is a sharashka located just outside of Moscow. The inmates there are primarily working on projects of an auditory nature. Stalin has ordered a coding device to scramble top secret telephone conversations that can only be unscrambled by the listener. (This takes place in 1949, so they are trying to accomplish this with pre-digital technology.) Another zek (prisoner) is working on using sonographs of human speech to identify the speaker in a treasonous phone call intercepted by the MGB (a precursor to the KGB). The zeks work side by side with “free workers,” non-prisoners who act as guards while also collaborating on research projects. Though deprived of their freedom, separated from their loved ones, and denied anything approaching the luxuries of life, the prisoners in this sharashka know they are better off than those sentenced to a Siberian gulag. In Solzhenitsyn’s depiction of Marfino, there is no violence, but all the prisoners know that if they don’t cooperate they may at any time be shipped off to a gulag where they may be frozen, starved, or shot.

Despite such depressing subject matter, Solzhenitsyn injects a gallows humor throughout. The absurd excesses of injustice under Stalin’s regime is frequently discussed in a sarcastic tone, likely the only defense mechanism available to those inevitably forced to resign themselves to having their lives taken away. Solzhenitsyn often shows the zeks’ trying to circumvent rules and get away with whatever they can. Such transgressions are not depicted with the goofiness of Hogan’s Heroes’ capers, but rather with a mixture of humor and poignancy reminiscent of M*A*S*H. The narrative of the novel is not confined to the prison, but also covers the lives of prisoner’s wives, free workers, and prison officials outside the walls of Marfino.

The main problem with In the First Circle is its inordinate length, 96 chapters in all. The fact that a book is long doesn’t make it bad, but lengthiness is unjustified when the narrative becomes repetitive and tedious. After a while it feels like you’re reading the same cell-block debates on the pros and cons of Communism over and over again. (Some zeks still believe wholeheartedly in Communism, despite their treatment by the government.) At first it seems as if the novel will focus on a few prisoners, but the cast quickly expands to the point at which it’s difficult to tell all the minor characters apart. Even after the 80th chapter, Solzhenitsyn keeps introducing new characters, whose stories aren’t that much different from those he’s already profiled. When one zek has an affair with a female free worker, it feels realistic; when two or three risk such romances, it feels like overkill.

Nevertheless, Solzhenitsyn populates this novel with compelling characters and provides a truly eye-opening look at life under Stalin. Westerners will come away from this novel with a much more informed and vivid understanding of Soviet society. After dozens of chapters, the book starts to feel like hard work, but for those interested in this subject, the work is worth it.

2 people found this helpful

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DAMINI SINGH

Pleasant surprise !!!

Reviewed in India on June 8, 2021

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This book came in a very good condition which I was not expecting. Original uncensored version plus the edges were deckled. Deckled edges were the least expecting one.

One person found this helpful

Hugo

Empfehlung

Reviewed in Germany on February 23, 2021

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Ein wirklich genialer Schriftsteller

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Amitabha Sanyal

Book review

Reviewed in India on August 28, 2019

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Good

John D Phipps

A Masterpiece

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2018

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One of the best books I have read recently. Particularly enjoyed the discussions between the scientists after work in the freedom of their dormitories, religion, political systems are coherently discussed. The sad thing, so near too, but far apart from their friends and family, just a wall between them and the very limited visiting opportunities. A masterpiece.

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Very bad condition of the book

Reviewed in India on September 21, 2023

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The book was delivered in a bad condition, the paper quality left much to b desired.. seems that it was a pirated version

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