Book Review: The Gulag Archipelago - part 1

Date - 11/14/2021

Author: Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Themes: Non-Fiction, Historical, Russia, Classics

A district Party conference was under way in Moscow Province. It was presided over by a new secretary of the District Party Committee, replacing one recently arrested. At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up (just as everyone had leaped to his feet during the conference at every mention of his name). The small hall echoed with “stormy applause, rising to an ovation.” For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the “stormy applause, rising to an ovation,” continued.

It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who really adored Stalin. However, who would dare be the first to stop? The director of the local paper factory, an independent and strong-minded man, stood with the presidium. Aware of all the falsity and all the impossibility of the situation, he still kept on applauding! Nine minutes! Ten!

Then, after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat.

That, however, was how they discovered who the independent people were. And that was how they went about eliminating them. That same night the factory director was arrested. They easily pasted ten years on him on the pretext of something quite different. But after he had signed Form 206, the final document of the interrogation, his interrogator reminded him:

“Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding!”

INTRODUCTION

“The Gulag Archipelago” was published in 1973 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It’s importance in literature is owed to the fact that it is the first book that discussed in detail, oppression by Soviet Russia.

Based on the testimony of the survivors and the author’s own time spent in prison (approx 8 years), it tells the story of Russia from 1918 to 1956 when it witnessed one of the biggest genocide ever. (unofficial figures - 60 million)

Solzhenitsyn is a Nobel winning author credited with bringing to light Soviet Russia . This book is a combination of auto-biography, memoirs of survivors and a detailed investigation into the psychology of people, prisoners and prison officials.

BACKGROUND

Russia was a poor country in the 19th century with wide economic divide in the country. Corrupt government, World war 1 made the matters worse.

Lenin and Stalin were leading a communist group, revolting against the present government and the rich classes of the country using violent means if needed.

PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND THE ARRESTS

After the Bolshevik revolution Stalin and Lenin came to power they overthrew the previous oppressive government to establish a communist government. They took advantage of the anger of the Russian people after a difficult world war 1 and the Tsar rule.

Quoting the newspaper Red Terror from 1918 “We are not fighting against single individuals. We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class. It is not necessary during the interrogation to look for evidence proving that the accused opposed the Soviets by word or action. The first question you should ask him is what class does he belong to, what is his origin, his education and his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. Such is the sense and essence of red terror.”

Instead of killing the culprits by setting up legal authority, they planned to kill all the members belong to this class. They ended up killing the children, just because they belonged to a specific class. Punishing the culprits is important but categorising the complete class as culprits and killing them without any due process is insanity. It started with the religious believers, kulaks (the rich peasants at that time) and soon followed by anyone who oppose the Soviet state or its supreme leader Stalin. [Animal farm must read].

ARRESTS

Golden Rule - The reason for arrest was not important.

Arrest could be made on smallest of the suspicion, false information. Once the arrest was made, the camp administrator were the judge, jury and executioner. To get the confession prison officials would go to any extent. Prison torture was normal.

Ex1 - In 1937 a woman came to the reception room of the Novocherkassk NKVD to ask what she should do about the unfed unweaned infant of a neighbor who had been arrested. They said: “Sit down, we’ll find out.” She sat there for two hours —whereupon they took her and tossed her into a cell. They had a total plan which had to be fulfilled in a hurry, and there was no one available to send out into the city—and here was this woman already in their hands!

Ex2 - Any soldier that returned to russia from captivity after world war 2 was also sent to jail. The soldiers had only 2 options - win or die. Returning back after captivity was dishonourable to the country.

PRISON LIFE

After confession, prisoners were either sentenced to death or sent to prison/labour camps for a long duration. Life in the prison was hard, full of torture, lacking food but people found comfort in each others company. One interesting point the author mentions is that, during “The Great Purge” - when most of Stalin’s party members / communists went to jail , they were the hardest hit. They were mentally devastated that the supreme leader they supported all their lives had sentenced them to death.

CONCLUSION

Ideological mindset that is not open to scepticism , always leads to such atrocities. We believe that only Hitler, Stalin had such mindsets. Unfortunately each one of us has this trait. Such Archipelago’s exist everywhere.

Caste based oppression
Colour, Clothes, Name based oppression
- In Urban India, we believe anyone wearing western clothes is modern and traditional clothes is backward.
- The idea that someone whose name is Ananya is modern instead of someone whose name is Kausalya.
Language
- English is considered superior whereas Hindi or Sanskrit are considered inferior (although )
Westernisation vs Traditions
- Not talking about superstitious beliefs which are wrong, but there are many traditions in India with scientific basis. Having contempt against traditions is stupidity. Being sceptical is always healthy.

Communism believed in using physical violence to bring it’s ideology to reality. Often we use mental violence and in some cases physical violence to implement above ideologies. These issues seem very small when compared to the 60 million killed in Russia. But these points show us that even we are ideological oppressors and victims in many cases. It is thus important to identify such shortcomings in ourselves and become better as humans.