The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1

An Experiment in Literary Investigation

By: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

“BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY.” —Time

Volume 1 of the gripping epic masterpiece, Solzhenitsyn's chilling report of his arrest and interrogation, which exposed to the world the vast bureaucracy of secret police that haunted Soviet society. Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.

“The greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever leveled in modern times.” —George F. Kennan

“It is impossible to name a book that had a greater effect on the political and moral consciousness of the late twentieth century.” —David Remnick, The New Yorker

“Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece. . . . The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today.” —Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag: A History, from the foreword

Eye opening!

What an amazing firsthand account of a communistic society. How quickly we forget the lessons of the past.

Terrible choice of narrator - decided to read instead

Why on earth would the choice be made to have this shattering epic read in the King’s English? A posh accent would have worked, but this brings the listener all the way into Buckingham Palace. I suspect someone hoped that a wry, intellectual voice might add a note of humor for buoyancy, but to me it sounds inappropriate, and tone normally forms in the mind of the reader.

A Lesson in Evil, Philosophy and Psychology

Hitler's evil came at the world in a blitzkrieg that the west could not contain, Stalin's evil was a way of life for mostly Eastern Europe alone, and so the west chose to contain it.

An important window into a history

This is an astounding window into a part of history that we cannot be allowed to forget.

Profound!

There are no words, to which can properly express the turmoil and violence experienced by the victimes of the Gulags and the Soviet Union. As well as that of the dangers of Marxism. The Author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, tells a compelling story. Not only his own, but those he had heard about as well as met. Faces that burned into his memory untill his passing. The atrocities of Stalin will forever hold in history, to never be forgotten, in part thanks to this Author. Aleksandr not only paints a vivid picture of these historical events but also but also causes one to question thier own humanity and morality in such events. This book not only holds first hand accounts but details the explanations pertaining to the laws of that time. This gives its reader a deeper and more accurate understanding of such times. The Gulag Archipelago serves as a warning to the generations of today. A book everyone should read.