Scan barcode
A review by tittypete
The Gulag Archipelago Volume III by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4.0
So this is the third 600 pager in a set of three 600 pagers. So I gotta be upfront and say I probably suffer from significant “gulag musings” fatigue. Book three carries on the literary snark of the first two and tells us a about a bunch more horrible shit the Russians did to each other. Things like Katorga. Katorga was when people didn’t like you so much that they were positive you were unfixable by normal prison stuff and had to be worked all the way to death. So that what they did. Made you dig gold or cut trees or dig a pointless canal till you died. Lesson learned.
There’s a section titled “Why did we stand for it?” To which AS says, ‘we didn’t! That’s why there were so many of us in the damn thing.’ He talks at length about escape attempts. Dudes running around in the freezing cold trying to get different clothes and fake papers but then getting caught and having to go back to shitsville. Evidently after you arrest everyone it’s hard to find guards for the camps so they had kids do it. And this turned the kids into amoral sadists. Another reason Russians are terrifying.
Solz digs into the Kengir uprising. This was a supposedly meaningful bit of ‘tude sporting that changed the scene. Meanfulness part one: there was an unusual alliance between normal criminals and political criminals. Usually the normal Russian criminals were people that preyed on the more bookish political and tried to sex them up the buns and stuff but this time they both decided it sucked to be slave laborers in Kazakhstan. Meaningfulness part two: The Kengir uprising was ‘noted for its pragmatism and thoughtful propaganda.’ For a prison revolt, it was sort of a humble request. Rather than going all in on “damn the man” rhetoric the prisoners were more like “hey we’re cool with the man but could we just get back the rights the man wrote in the constitution a while back?” Meaningfulness part three: The heavy handed response of the state. So these poor fuckers lived it up for 40 days of freedom till the goddamn Red Army came in with tanks and killed the shit out of everyone. Like 500-700 people according to the people that didn’t get killed. Of course the authorities said it was only a couple dozen, no biggie. Therefore his became an event that help show the Soviets that Stalinism wasn’t super functional.
A few more snarky asides and we hear about exile and how awkward it is. And how life is not a whole bunch better on the outside because people are so scarred and their families didn’t even know they were alive. Soviet life seems to suck on both ends.
Then … Stalin is dead and everybody reflects back is like, shit that was fucked. But in a more literary style.
This was an exhausting push. But when I finally got the turd out, I nearly had an orgasm. It’s a lot to digest but the style and the subject manner keep it worthwhile.
Bear down and get splashy with snarky Russian history.
Yours in Christ,
Mitch
There’s a section titled “Why did we stand for it?” To which AS says, ‘we didn’t! That’s why there were so many of us in the damn thing.’ He talks at length about escape attempts. Dudes running around in the freezing cold trying to get different clothes and fake papers but then getting caught and having to go back to shitsville. Evidently after you arrest everyone it’s hard to find guards for the camps so they had kids do it. And this turned the kids into amoral sadists. Another reason Russians are terrifying.
Solz digs into the Kengir uprising. This was a supposedly meaningful bit of ‘tude sporting that changed the scene. Meanfulness part one: there was an unusual alliance between normal criminals and political criminals. Usually the normal Russian criminals were people that preyed on the more bookish political and tried to sex them up the buns and stuff but this time they both decided it sucked to be slave laborers in Kazakhstan. Meaningfulness part two: The Kengir uprising was ‘noted for its pragmatism and thoughtful propaganda.’ For a prison revolt, it was sort of a humble request. Rather than going all in on “damn the man” rhetoric the prisoners were more like “hey we’re cool with the man but could we just get back the rights the man wrote in the constitution a while back?” Meaningfulness part three: The heavy handed response of the state. So these poor fuckers lived it up for 40 days of freedom till the goddamn Red Army came in with tanks and killed the shit out of everyone. Like 500-700 people according to the people that didn’t get killed. Of course the authorities said it was only a couple dozen, no biggie. Therefore his became an event that help show the Soviets that Stalinism wasn’t super functional.
A few more snarky asides and we hear about exile and how awkward it is. And how life is not a whole bunch better on the outside because people are so scarred and their families didn’t even know they were alive. Soviet life seems to suck on both ends.
Then … Stalin is dead and everybody reflects back is like, shit that was fucked. But in a more literary style.
This was an exhausting push. But when I finally got the turd out, I nearly had an orgasm. It’s a lot to digest but the style and the subject manner keep it worthwhile.
Bear down and get splashy with snarky Russian history.
Yours in Christ,
Mitch