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Anne Applebaum has become one of the few indispensable historians (though that term doesn't quite catch the range of her thought and research) of the twentieth century's deep-seated genocidal soul. Like few others, she is able to maintain her scholarly integrity in the face of circumstances that others would likely resort to hyperbole and excess.
I will mention the obvious reason for this further along.Odd, too, that all in the way of history in U.S. At times one thinks he is reading about Germans rather than Soviets; or a comparative study of German and Soviet concentration camps. secondary education is not Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago" but Anne Applebaum's "Gulag," a work that attempts to show how evil are Russians but failing to mention that Bolshevism and operators of the Soviet Gulags were predominantly Jewish.For some mysterious reason, Applebaum also whitewashes certain Soviet criminals while glorifying selective elements.It seems Applebaum is spending a great deal of effort to denounce Nobel author and historian Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a person long imprisoned in the gulags. Applebaum keeps comparing Germans with the Soviets, i.e. Soviets could be bad but not as terrible as Germans.Applebaum indicates she does not seek to correlate the gulags with aspects of the Hebrew Holocaust; however, she brings Germans into her dissertation on numerous occasions. One wonders if Anne ever spoke with him.Applebaum also wants readers to realize what kind of a man is Vladimir Putin; as though Putin is the new shadow of evil.Applebaum deserves credit for the professional way the work was put together; yet, I would not consider the book's content as being scholarly in any sense of the word.It is also astounding that this book found its way so quickly into libraries and schools of higher education around the world, an obvious propaganda mechanism in the toolbox of Marxist communist apologists -- again, mostly Jewish -- who desire to obscure their massive crimes against humanity. The Hebrew Holocaust is a trifling event once compared to the 66 million ethnic Orthodox Russians and Ukranians murdered by the Marxist communists; and therein lies the reason for Applebaum's considerable effort to produce this work.
The notes, bibliography, and text and illustration permissions is a small novel in itself, covering a dizzying array of informational sources (there is even a glossary of terms, so as you read the book, you understand the terms and slang that was in everyday use by those unfortunate enough to have been "caught up" by the system).She also covers the lasting impressions made upon Soviet (now Russian) society by the draconian system that imprisoned millions of people for "violations", whether real or imagined. While I don't normally do book reviews (I'm a film fan first and foremost), this one is probably the best on this particular subject. Applebaum went to great lengths-even going to some of the locations mentioned in the book."Gulag" covers the history of the Gulag system from it's inception, to the remnants of the system after Glasnost and beyond. That Russia doesn't want to bring discussions on the system that nearly caused economic disaster during both world wars, just adds to the curiosity factor. that the Soviet "elite" did this sort of thing, that could be best described as xenophobia, is not surprising, as it probably seemed natural to the state, their history being one of fear of invasion (which happened at least four times in their history)for quite some time.For anyone who is curious about the gulag, or any student of Soviet/Russian history, this tome just can't be surpassed.
Similarly fact-filled: The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Russia. Lastly, (and most uncharitably) she implies that he was nothing more than another Gulag memoirist, though a lucky one, with these words: (p 521) "the many hundreds of Gulag memoirs that have been published since the 1980s are ample testimony to the eloquence and talent of Soviet ex-prisoners, many of them of whom wrote in secret for years.
It is absolutely stuffed with facts about the Main Camp Administration and bits about camp life taken from many memoirs. Journalist Anne Applebaum won the Pulitzer prize (for non-fiction in 2004) for this ultra-comprehensive, well-researched and written book about all things Gulag.
writes that he (p 521):"served as an informer before seeing the light"implying that he actually informed. My only beef with the book is the handful of negative statements Applebaum makes about two of the most famous Gulag memoirists, Varlam Shalamov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Of Shalamov, author of (the semi-autobiographical) Kolyma Tales, she writes stuff like: (p 203) "Technically, Shalamov was wrong" (about his criticism of the prisoner delousing procedure) and that he was (p 206) "ever-obsessive on the issue of underwear." Additionally, of his contention that most prison escape attempts were endeavored by "newcomers" she claims he did so (p 390) "with characteristic gloom." She treats Solzhenitsyn even worse, claiming because he chose to refer to communists as "Goodthinkers" in The Gulag Archipelago that he did so (p 304) "not very charitably;" and of his positive words about camp marriages, she says he (p 317) "momentarily drops the cynicism." Furthermore, although she initially states just the fact about AS signing up to become an informant (p 367): "He signed a pledge, promising to report news of any escapes to the authorities, and chose a conspiratorial pseudonym: Vetrov," of which he was admittedly ashamed but "By his own account, Solzhenitsyn never did actually report on anything."Later, she (uncharitably). What made Solzhenitsyn truly unique, in the end, was the simple fact that his work appeared in print, in the Soviet Union, while Krushchev was still in power." Great Gulag-related information, but the negatives on Shalamov and Solzhenitsyn bugged me.
Better: The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov.
This is just a rehash of the Gulag Archipelago, with a few new bits of information that have come since Solzhenitsyn published his great work. Applebaum even borrows the structure of her book from Solzhenitsyn. And somehow, she manages to make the subject boring. It's a really lackluster, half-baked stab at a monumental subject.
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