Essay
The Gulag Archipelago
Архипелаг ГУЛАГ
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 1973
Synopsis
Subtitled “an experiment in literary investigation”, the book surveys in seven parts the Soviet camp system from 1918 to 1956. It begins with arrest, interrogation and prisons, describes the organization of the camps, then the life of the prisoners. The author, himself a former prisoner, draws on his own experience and on the accounts, letters and documents entrusted to him by hundreds of former prisoners, warning that he does not dare to write the history of the Archipelago, having been unable to read the archives.
Context
Written in secret, at a time when such work was forbidden, the book was published abroad. The first volume came out in Paris, from Ymca Press, on 28 December 1973; the next two appeared in 1974 and 1975. In February 1974, shortly after the first publication, the author had to leave his country. The English translation by Thomas P. Whitney appeared as early as spring 1974. In the Soviet Union, a third of the book was published in the journal Novy mir in 1989.
Who it is for
A very long work, in three volumes, which can be read part by part, in the order of its seven sections.
Prizes and reception
Abridged editions have been drawn from it, in French from Points and in English from Vintage Classics.