The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (1918-1956)

By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Published: 1973 608 Pages

Briefly, what is this book about?

The final piece of Solzhenitsyn's amazing, depressing, baffling, chilling, frightening, absurd, terrible, cold, weighty chronicle of the Soviet gulags. This part includes the period after his release which, by itself, could be a fantastic guide to simple contentment.

What's the author's angle?

I found it interesting how much of this book concerned just preserving the notes he's made and all of the material which will eventually be turned into the book—the angle of making sure the story gets told.

Who should read this book?

I have not talked about the fact that there are actually two versions of the Gulag, this three volume behemoth, and an authorized abridgement. Here, at the end, it's worth considering whether I would recommend this three volume set, or the abridgement. I haven't read the abridgement, so I'm not in the ideal position to answer, but given that most people have only read the abridgement, getting the perspective of someone who's read all three volumes should be a contrast.

I'm glad I read the full three volume set first. Should I go back and read the abridged version (I plan to, but I plan to do a lot of things) it will be interesting to see what was deemed critical, and what was cut. But also there's a weight to the gulags, a massiveness, an ominous ponderousness which comes through best in the stories, upon stories, upon stories you get in the full set.

Specific thoughts: Cloaking power in ideology