The GULAG Archipelago
Архипелаг ГУЛАГ
by Александр Солженицын
Back when this non-fiction book was banned, it used to be read by almost everyone. Now that it is no longer banned, it seems to have been forgotten. A pity, because things have been rolling the GULAG way for quite some time now, and not only in Russia, where the manifestation is the most eloquent. So you’d better read the book before it is banned again.
It is no easy read. Not just because of the atrocities described, either. There are too many footnotes. There`s the criminal and not-quite-criminal slang, and numerous red-tape terms to boot. Last not least, the author seems to use a language of his own, which is certainly Russian but not the usual Russian. It`s not ungrammatical, still weirdish, somehow. How did the translators translating the book cope with that, I wonder (I have only read the source)…
But if you want to really understand what authorities can do to humans, and what humans are capable of doing to other humans, and how ordinary people turn / are made ghoulish, you must read this book. It is by no means entertaining, but it is very informative. Maybe (just maybe) it could help you to not turn a ghoul yourself, if / when the shit hits the fan…
More likely, you will start asking indignant questions. Like, How could they suffer that? Why didn`t they resist? Why didn`t they try to escape? Well, when the entire population is brainwashed (those resisting brainwashing liquidated first) into believing things should be precisely like that, where to can one escape? You might also ask the relevant question, namely, Why wouldn`t they kill themselves, seeing that the life of the prisoners was worse than death? Some did, but not all. For some weird reason, people crave to live, even when only death can set them free.
You may also wonder whether they were all criminals deserving punishment, which would lead us to the core. While sadism typical of Stalin and his likes did have a lot to do with GULAG, the important thing was Economy. Stalin needed cheap, preferably free workforce to do harassing labour no free person would undertake unless paid extremely well. And Criminals Proper simply refuse to work, as, from their point of view, work equals abasement. Thence the thousands and millions of political prisoners had to be had (in all senses). No questions asked if they die. Enemies Of The People, them all. Besides, trying to escape made non-criminals true criminals. Runaways with no money still must eat, so they have to steal, most probably rob, eventually murder…
Did you know it was not Hitlerist Germany but Stalinist USSR that first invented concentration camps? More than a decade had to pass before Hitler borrowed the nice idea. He polished that up, though. The GULAG seemed to lack a Doctor Mengele… And of course tidy Germans could not bear stinking bodies dumped into pits or gullies and barely sprinkled with earth. So they used crematoria, which, for the GULAG Masters, could only mean superfluous expenses.
As usual, the wiseacres overlooked something. The GULAG economy was not all that economical. While the starved poorly clothed convicts could sleep on bare ground, the numerous guards and warders and such could not. They expected good wages. Fences, watch-towers and similar necessities must have cost a pretty penny, too. What with the quality of jobs done by the unpaid labour force, plus plunder and misappropriation and embezzlement done by the bosses, maybe wage labour would have been cheaper, after all?
© Dodo