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Gulag
- A History
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 27 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2004
The Gulag - a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners - was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. In this magisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost.
Applebaum intimately recreates what life was like in the camps and links them to the larger history of the Soviet Union. Immediately recognized as a landmark and long-overdue work of scholarship, Gulag is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand the history of the 20th century.
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In the tradition of John Reed's classic Ten Days That Shook the World, this best-selling account of the collapse of the Soviet Union combines the global vision of the best historical scholarship with the immediacy of eyewitness journalism.
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The moral complexity of a comic book
- By Tot on 02-22-19
By: David Remnick
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Holodomor Famine
- A History from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The word "holodomor" derives from a combination of two Ukrainian words: holod (hunger) and mor (extermination). This term is used to describe one of the least-known events of state-sponsored mass starvation: the Great Famine of Soviet Ukraine in 1932-1933. Around four million Ukrainians died during the famine, and yet, the extent of this human catastrophe was virtually unknown in the West. Up to 1991, the Soviet Union refused to acknowledge that any famine had taken place in Ukraine at all.
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Please, give this a listen
- By Charlotte on 07-25-23
By: Hourly History
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The Swerve
- How the World Became Modern
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles.
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Very compelling history, a less compelling thesis
- By A reader on 05-01-12
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Stalin
- The Court of the Red Tsar
- By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Narrated by: Jonathan Aris
- Length: 27 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In a seamless meshing of exhaustive research, brilliant synthesis and narrative élan, Simon Sebag Montefiore chronicles the life and lives of Stalin’s court from the time of his acclamation as “leader” in 1929, five years after Lenin’s death, until his own death in 1953 at the age of 73. Through the lens of personality - Stalin’s as well as those of his most notorious henchmen, Molotov, Beria and Yezhov among them - the author sheds new light on the oligarchy that attempted to create a new world by exterminating the old.
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Stalinist Tyranny
- By Kindle Customer on 12-28-19
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Black Earth
- The Holocaust as History and Warning
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the twentieth century, and reveals the risks that we face in the twenty-first. Based on untapped sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think and thus all the more terrifying.
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Tough book but worth it!
- By Amazon customer on 11-20-15
By: Timothy Snyder
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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
- By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn’s startling book led, almost 30 years later, to Glasnost, Perestroika, and the "Fall of the Wall". One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich brilliantly portrays a single day, any day, in the life of a single Russian soldier who was captured by the Germans in 1945 and who managed to escape a few days later. Along with millions of others, this soldier was charged with some sort of political crime, and since it was easier to confess than deny it and die, Ivan Denisovich "confessed" to "high treason" and received a sentence of 10 years in a Siberian labor camp.
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Non Soviet Citizens, You Need To Know This!
- By MyKidsMom on 08-23-18
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How Tyrants Fall
- And How Nations Survive
- By: Marcel Dirsus
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Meeting with a revolutionary (codename 'Satan') who risked Stasi capture to undermine an oppressive regime, an American-Gambian activist who plotted to liberate his homeland on breaks during his construction job and the unapologetic former leader of a Burundian rebel group which carried out a massacre, internationally renowned security expert and political scientist Dr Marcel Dirsus draws on extensive field research and personal interviews with coup leaders, rebels and soldiers to examine the workings and malfunctions of tyrants.
By: Marcel Dirsus
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Stalin, Volume I
- Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928
- By: Stephen Kotkin
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 38 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Volume One of Stalin begins and ends in January 1928 as Stalin boards a train bound for Siberia, about to embark upon the greatest gamble of his political life. He is now the ruler of the largest country in the world, but a poor and backward one, far behind the great capitalist countries in industrial and military power, encircled on all sides. In Siberia, Stalin conceives of the largest program of social reengineering ever attempted.
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Excellent Book But First Time Listener Beware
- By Nostromo on 03-23-15
By: Stephen Kotkin
What listeners say about Gulag
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- M. Barker
- 11-12-18
Deep, disturbing, and very important.
This study is a must not just for students of history. Sadly the study if inhumanity seems more than necessary to preserve the limited hkmanity that remains.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-08-19
Both fascinating and repetitive
Great information and insight into the Russian cutural memory. However, as an audiobook it is too repetitive. The narrator made a few distracting errors.
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- Privet
- 04-30-18
People should want to know! Possible required read
Before Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and its people became wonderfully important to me, I was proud to at least be able to say in conversion that Stalin was likely worse than Hitler. I did not know enough.
I've spent over five years finding and investigating stories of wonderful people from these wonderful places. These people went through (and sometimes perpetrated) unimaginable horror. Many good people made mistakes. However, the most important thing to know is how these people went through these experiences, were able to be good people and raise good people.
I won't say it's only important to see how some people overcame these trials, though that has extreme value. It is also necessary to see how some people didn't make it through these trials. It's all part of history, and if we claim to value human life, we must see how many people in many places lived.
This book was a valuable addition to my knowledge. I appreciated the fact that people in the past were not judged according to today's standards, morals, and knowledge. I also appreciated that today's knowledge, morals, and standards were discussed in relation to these people.
The most important thing I can say about this book is not that it was able to add to my knowledge, but rather that its conclusion was a beautiful exposition of why what I have learned is important. A thorough and honest exploration of the past - one's personal past, one's family past, one's cultural past, one's national past - is necessary. Neither good nor bad must be ignored as we look at our reflection.
Most of all, we must remember!
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- KMW
- 10-18-21
Well narrated and good insight in to USSR Gulags
This book opened my mind to the atrocities of the USSR and the struggle of it's victims. Most memorable for me was understanding how the vast harsh uninhabited lands were conquered by force labor. Lots of statistics and names but you can feel the cold. well narrated and easy to follow.
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- Chris Bone
- 04-14-22
Wow
I’m a bit at a loss of words after having listened through this book. I am so glad I decided to dive into the history of the soviet labor and concentration camps. It is by no means an easy book to listen through. The stories are brutal and harrowing. Scenes that were described will doubtful be erased from my memory. This is an important history to know for many reasons. The current situation going on in Ukraine sparked my interest in 20th century history and more specifically Russian history. You will most certainly understand everything you’d ever want to know about the gulags and more upon completion. But you will learn much more than that. It helped me understand why communism doesn’t work and how Russia’s history still weighs upon its people today. Worth every minute of the read.
I also had zero qualms with the narrator. I do not speak Russian and I thought her pronunciation was fine. I listened at 1.7 speed for most of the book. I highly recommend this book if you are an avid historian or a human who wants to understand and appreciate further the freedoms we get to enjoy.
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- Maria
- 09-25-22
Great research butchered by narrator
This is a very important and very powerful book.
It’s completely butchered by the narrator, as plenty of other reviews mention. The differences in how different words and names are pronounced make is difficult to follow. i speak Russian and know the words, and even with that sometimes i had to guess through the context. All the zek / zhek (which is a different abbreviation that comes from that time so you can’t immediately discard it), kartuga instead of katorga (they are not pirates, no matter how much you want it to be Tortuga), daka / dacha and plenty of other things like that will probably make it much more difficult experience for someone who doesn’t speak/know/understand Russian. It’s unfortunate
As to the book itself - it’s mighty powerful. Well researched, interestingly structured (history of the start and “best times”, general description of life and habits, history of downfall) and executed with plenty of understanding of why it’s necessary to learn from history (the statement in prologue saying how this book is written not so that it can never happen again but because it will most likely happen again brought me to tears as i watch what is happening in Ukraine right now), it’s definitely a top 5 reads of the year for me.
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- Devin Derstine
- 01-07-16
This book was a masterpiece and should be studied as part of curriculums globally
What a master work. Should be mandatory reading globally. I highly recommend and am both amazed and horrified by the stories.
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- Faycal Ikhouane
- 07-09-24
Extensive and detailed
The book provides a detailed history of the Gulag system in the USSR until its dismantelment when the Soviet Union collapsed. The author presents statistical data along with personal stories of jailed people whom she interviewed. She also used documental evidence (at least the one available) from archives. She explains the development of the Gulag system in parallel with the political developments in the Soviet Union. The epilogue is interesting and, in my view, should be a reading in the program of high school.
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- James A. Bretney
- 05-11-15
informative to a degree
Anne Applebaum's books are always informative. She is very smug and thin skinned on Twitter. She has a pro-Polish bias. She has a tendency to over hype lesser known Gulag writers at the expense of Solzhenitsyn. That said I will buy every single book she writes.
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15 people found this helpful
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- J.Brock
- 08-24-18
Horrifying but a Must Read
This is a book that cannot be missed or ignored. For As many people died in the Soviet gulags as were slaughtered in WWII. The numbers are incalculable. And yet this history is not given a mention in school history books or elsewhere. It’s like they didn’t exist. And all the while, communism is touted as a worldwide solution to inequality. Applebaum’s book is as impressive as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago.” A dire must read for any history buff and for anyone with a fear that history will most assuredly repeat itself.
Laura Merlington’s narration is spectacular. So even and so tempered is her voice. #RussianHistory #gulag #Communism #survival #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes
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1 person found this helpful