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

Hard to explain...

Just finished Volume 1 and it’s difficult imagine what Solzhenitsyn wrote is what actually took place. This is not to say I don’t believe it... on the contrary. It must be believed and it must never be forgotten.

The narrator does an exceptional job with his cadence and tone. His cheeky and at times humorous tone captures the good nature of Solzhenitsyn, as he endeavors to recount the most depressing atrocities of known to man. 5 stars to Davidson.

I will not venture to describe or review the story. It is what it is and it deserves to be read (or heard) by all who value liberty, believe in the dignity of the individual, and care for democratic principles. This is the story of what happens when those things are replaced with the tyranny of communism.

A must read!

This book should be required reading, for every high school kid in America! Hopefully then they would wake up to the shenanigans that our woke government is playing on them! Just like the citizens of the Soviet union, if we do not change the path, our children will wake up one day and be herded like cattle into the meat grinder!

A somber reading of brutal fascism.

I found it a bit dry for nearly 30 hours. But what time it took me to listen was far more pleasant than the time experienced by the people in the story. It reminds me to stay sharp & keep a look out for tyranny.

Powerful and Disturbing

a terrifying glimpse into the darker parts of the human soul that will leave you scarred and, hopefully, grateful to be in better circumstances.

GRIPPING. DARK. TERRIBLE*

Like an ocean- or perhaps like the leviathan that is Soviet Russia, this is a literary work that defies summarization. In any case, I am attempting to deliver a distillation which may have the terroir and notes of its flavors and a sample of its texture.

Akin to Shirer's anthology on the Third Reich, Solzenhitsyn has written a story that MUST be read by everyone yet CANNOT be read by everyone. This is a painful read, not because it is poorly written or badly narrated (quite to the contrary) but in that the atrocities therein wound the reader. This is not a book you will be able to boast about, but this book will stretch you.

In many respects this story is a miracle. That it exists at all, took the monumental effort of brave souls buried beneath the behemoth that was the Gulag Archipelago. Soviet communism did its best to erase it, we are lucky to have it.

I am an English speaker, and will most likely never learn the Russian language. I cannot speak to the translation directly, to compare this to the original. I can say that despite this gulf I earnestly believe the efforts of the translator and the narrator leave you with a feeling of having sat across a table from the author and listened to his story first hand.

*Do not be afraid of this book, you need to hear what it has to say.