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Gulag cover art

Gulag

By: Anne Applebaum
Narrated by: Laural Merlington
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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.

©2007 Anne Applebaum (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Gulag

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Worthy but not riveting

This book came very well reviewed and won prizes, but I found 27 hours about the Gulags a bit of a slog.  It did say this on the tin so I only have myself to blame.



The history  of the gulags has been neglected compared to all the literature on the unique event that is the Holocaust, so there is a need for this book.  It will be valuable to future authors, but it is not an easy listen.  I tended to chip away at it in small bits which worked OK, but it didn't work for me for longer sessions.  

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A tragic history fantastically depicted

Russia is synonymous with the gulag, before listening to this book, the only thing I knew about Russia was the little I heard on the news "that place far away that you don't want to be", friends would joke about someone moving to middle of nowhere to live in "some gulag". I really didn't appreciate the true horror of that word before reading this book.

The book however is not just about the gulag, these places have defined Russia itself and its people. There is a saying that "the people get the government they deserve", and this book really brings that to life. These horrific things could not have occurred without the cooperation of the population, its as if a person woke up one day and suddenly decided that it would be a good idea to cut off their own hand for no good reason. The people colluded with the government to criminalize and commit unspeakable acts on themselves.

There is a lot of humor but of course very dark, how could it not be? All of human behavior is laid bare; the often graphically depicted debasing, grisly and degrading conditions that bring out different reactions. Mostly and naturally people will debase themselves and attempt to do that to others around them or commit suicide since these places are so terrible, some can be stoic and bear an extraordinarily frightful set of conditions with apparent nonchalance and indifference, others still are heroic either tragically or successfully. It also shows what happens in a situation with no controls and people start simply behaving with abject depravity.

This is a no-holds barred retelling of a tragic history and it is baffling that some Russians look back at the leaders during this period and put them on a pedestal; in terms of the number of people killed as a direct result it makes Hitler look like a bumbling amateur.

It could be argued that the gulag has had a greater effect in shaping the Russian people than the horrors of Hitler's concentration camps had on the Jews, in the west we just don't really hear much about it other than "its a dreadful place".

Why only four stars? I felt that the book was too long for the material it depicted, it was the laws of diminishing returns as you get towards the end and there was over repetition of themes but I can forgive this because it can be difficult to write a complete work on a topic so massive and yet relatively unknown. Also the value in terms of relieving one's ignorance is absolutely worth the time investment.

If you have any interest in politics, history, human behavior, or want to appreciate some of what has shaped Russia, YOU MUST READ OR LISTEN TO THIS BOOK!

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • B
  • 17-05-19

Incredible. Shocking.

I’ll admit that my initial knowledge of the Gulags was highly limited at best. This book hits hard. You won’t be able to walk away from reading this without a profound sense of gratitude for the luxuries and rights that we enjoy in the West and take for granted so badly.

Incredible historical document.

We must never forget the potential depths of human depravity and cruelty that occurred during the 20th century.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very comprehensive and well written

A very depressing and yet fascinating book. Very well written, and well read - it didn't feel like a 20+ hours book. Although shame that the lector struggles with the Slavic surnames. There seems to be a small mistake in my version - the Soviet invasion of Poland took place 17th of September, not 7th.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Heavy going, but such an important book

It took a while for me to get into this, but, once I understood the rhythm it took it was fine. I stopped every so often because it gives you much to absorb and ponder and if nothing else is a warning from history about how easily we can be controlled and our lives destroyed. It will haunt me for a while yet, the epilogue on it own is superbly written and stands a testament of why these books need to be written and why we need to learn what they have to teach us .

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

welcome to the Soviet Gulag

This is a very informative listen, particularly if you are looking for an introduction to the gulag network.


Anne Applebaum's book is a detailed history of the Soviet gulag system. Stalin in particular used gulag's as a form of slave labour which covered most areas of the economy ranging from logging to coal mining and everything in between.


Although the gulag system reached it's peak in the late 40's to early 50's it did not end until the late eighties. It should be said the over decades that gulags operated many thousands of Soviet citizens were affected by the gulag either as an inmate or a relative of one.


This book is a great introduction to the subject and could open the door to other authors who write on the gulag 

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very long

Although, i enjoy rather longer books this one was a struggle to finish. It is not bad per se however, it could have been shorter as i found myself often drifting away. All in all, i appreciate amount of work author had to put in and if you are interested in subject this book have a lot of information.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating, detailed, brutal

I respect Anne Applebaum’s research a lot, this is a detailed account that can be a lot to comprehend in parts but is conclusive and well written. Well worth a read even if you only read the conclusion. Very insightful, thank you. The audio quality was clean and clear but some of the pronunciations seemed a little odd to me.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

Worth the effort in every way. Long and sometimes hard to ploughing on but worthwhile because it paints such an amazing picture of such a recent past.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Dreadful reading

I read this book when my vision was ok. This reading is awful- wrecks a very important book.

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