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The Gulag Archipelago

By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Narrated by: Jordan B. Peterson, Ignat Solzhenitsyn
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

The audiobook edition of
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, read by the author's son, Ignat Solzhenitsyn.

With a new foreword written and read by Jordan B. Peterson, and an exclusive Q&A between Jordan B. Peterson and Ignat Solzhenitsyn.


The officially approved abridgement of The Gulag Archipelago Volumes I, II & III.

A vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own 11 years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair.

A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation.

©2019 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece.... The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today." (Anne Applebaum) 

"[The Gulag Archipelago] helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated." (Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph)

What listeners say about The Gulag Archipelago

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necessary reading for everyone ever.

Just a warning - the book starts with quite a grating intro speaker - not the main voice. Ignat tells the actual book, and we are lucky for Aleksandr's son not only has a resonant, emotive voice but can represent his father's words in their intended tone.

this book is one of the best I've ever read. Solzhenitsyn wrote not just about the atrocities of the time, but the reason people were able to commit those acts and reflects of the effect the Soviet years had on it's people both inside and outside the gulag, also reflecting on fundamental good and bad and doesn't pull any punches. it can be unremittingly harrowing to listen to sometimes, but I think it is such an important read. The unpretentious simplicity of the writing and personal stories throughout make it accessible to anyone, not just the more academically/ historically inclined.

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Life Changing!

An amazing detailed journey throughout the Gulags.
In which you are transported into the skin and eyes of the author, seeing the devastating effects that the Totalitarian Soviet Regimen had on the ones it was suppose to serve and protect.

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1 person found this helpful

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A grueling listen - but well worth doing so

A horrifying series of accounts of the Soviet Gulag prison system recounted by the people who lived through it as told by Solzhenitsyn

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A book EVERYONE should read.

Great quality narration. Well contextualised and keeps the reader engaged.
It does an amazing job at bringing a very difficult but equally relevant psychosociological phenomenon to better understanding.

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Eye opening and mind changing book

A book that goes into the depth of how low can people fall when they reject the burden of their individual actions and decisions and replace them with group mentality.
A great story about the evil deeds of the Communist totalitarian regime, how it turned onto its own people and destroyed millions of people in Russia.
It fully brings the truth of what happens when people are treated as if they are not made in God's image.

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Utterly life-changing and profound

One finishes this book with a vastly enhanced grasp of human's capabilities, evil and good.

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Classic

Should perhaps be on the reading list for every thinking person on the planet ...

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Terribly Great

Not since reading Orwell's 1984 has a book made such an impact on myself such as this one! I think everyone should read it, as it contains history not known to many

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Not a novel

I was expecting an autobiographical novel .. more like “Man search for meaning “ V Frankl but instead you get more like a document of sorts.
It is a shocking account of communist crimes and Modus operandi and some stories will stop you in your track..

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Arguably the best literary work of the 20th centur

Simply masterful. What starts as a seeming history of the Russian camp system turns into a deeply philosophical journey on both the deep evil and the resistant good human beings are capable of.

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