Gulag : A History

Rating:
Summary: Great and well researched account of a tragic era!
Review: This book is a must for readers that like a no-non sense approach to history.Ms Applebaum tells the story of the russian Gulags with integrity and without masquerading the truth.She presents what happens in those Gulags without being to cruel in details.Her book give us a fantastic voyage thru the labor camps in a way that you feel inside the camp. She doesnt leave any stone unturned.You can read about the prisoners,the guards and people in positions of authority.You read what was the sentiment and feelings of those who were captured and sent to these camps.I especially enjoyed the last three chapters which talks about the reaction of the prsioners when they were released and how the russian society received those former prisioners...Kudos to Ms Applebaum for a phenomenal work

Rating:
Summary: A well-deserved Pulitzer Prize.
Review: The stories of camp survivors that Gulag presents bits and pieces of will stay in my memory for a very long time. This should tell you something of the impact of those stories.

But it is not just the bits and pieces of the memoirs of survivors that make this one a truly worthwhile read. That's just the icing on the cake. What sets Gulag apart is that it is such a well-balanced presentation of everything that had and still has to do with the Gulag prison system. Yes, present sense -- in North Korea the Gulags are still very much in use.

Anne Applebaum will take you from the very beginning of the Gulag to the present. Explain the origins of the Gulag, how people ended up there, and what happened to them if they were lucky enough to get out. Many found out that being released wasn't all that it should be. Often it meant being banned from the major cities and shunned by the citizens who feared associating with a former political prisoner, sometimes this included being shunned by your own children. She will tell you the difference between a political and a criminal prisoner. Show how men and women had quite different ways of dealing with the reality of the Gulag. Tell of harrowing facts concerning children born in the Gulag, but also of hope derived from planning an escape. She will tell you about the guards, who sometimes feared the prisoners more then the prisoners feared them, and the politics that allowed the Gulag to exist. And she'll tell you much and much more. And her writing is such that you are drawn along, page after page.

I found it virtually impossible at times to put the book aside, staying up till deep into the night reading. So, it doesn't surprise me that Gulag won the Pulitzer Prize. It is well deserved. And all I can say is that if you pass up on this one, the loss will be on you.


Rating:
Summary: More than I ever wanted to know
Review: I purchased this book to fill in the huge gaps in my understanding of the soviet union, the gulag, it's history. I thought it was a fantastic book, well written, thorough. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the incompetence of bureacracies, the delusionary plans of stalin and man's inhumanity to man. The book detailed the horror, the irony and even some inspiring experiences of the prisoners. I recommend this book to anyone with even the slightest interest in this topic. I do suggest that perhaps a reader might want to read something a little more light hearted when finished with this book. This is a book that STAYS with you.

Rating:
Summary: A Superb Study, BUT....
Review: I cannot possibly add to the dozens of positive reviews already posted here. Applebaum deserves to be commended for her comprehensive and eye-opening study. However, I would like to make one comment about the book: Its greatest strength is, ironically, its greatest weakness. In other words, so thorough and detailed is The Gulag that it frequently leaves the reader feeling exhausted -- literally. Chapter by chapter, we are taken through virtually every conceivable aspect of the Soviet concentration camp system -- prison life, administration, logistics, et al. Quite frankly, Applebaum could have cut the text by 30%, distilled the essence/significance of the deleted sections, and still produced a significant contribution to the literature. Unfortunately, the book's often suffocating verbosity ensures that I do NOT want to read any more on the subject, my curiosity being utterly satiated. The smallest of topics are routinely taken apart ad infinitum. In the end, I cannot say whether the tome would have been better heavily abridged -- or slightly expanded and turned into a definitive, multi-volume study....