Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Gulag Archipelago, Two: 1918-1956, An Experiment in Literary Investigation Parts 3 and 4

The Gulag Archipelago, Two: 1918-1956, An Experiment in Literary Investigation Parts 3 and 4
reviewed on + 625 more book reviews


What more can be said about the dread apparatus of Soviet repression than was said in the first volume of "The Gulag Archipelago?" There is much, much more.

Part III: The Destructive Labor Camps. Part IV: The Soul and Barbed Wire. Translated by Thomas P. Whitney. In this masterpiece, the author has orchestrated thousands of incidents and individual histories into one narrative of unflagging power and momentum. Written in a tone that encompasses Olympian wrath, bitter calm, savage irony and sheer comedy, it combines history, autobiography, documentary and political analysis as it examines in its totality the Soviet apparatus of repression from its inception following the October Revolution of 1917.