A review by spacestationtrustfund
The Gulag Archipelago, Volume I, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

4.0

An essential read for anyone interested in Soviet history, economic theory, or communism.
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3

"Own only what you can carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag."

"It is clear enough that those men who turned the handle of the meat grinder even as late as 1937 are no longer young. They are fifty to eighty years old. They have lived the best years of their lives prosperously, well nourished, and comfortable, so that it is too late for any kind of equal retribution as far as they are concerned. But let us be generous. We will not shoot them. We will not pour salt water on them, nor bury them in bedbugs, nor bridle them in a “swan dive,” nor keep them on sleepless “stand up” for a week, nor kick them with jackboots, not beat them with rubber truncheons, not squeeze their skulls in iron rings, nor push them into a cell so that they lie atop one another like pieces of baggage—we will not do any of the things they did! But for the sake of our country and our children we have the duty to seek them out and bring them all to trial. Not to put them on trial so much as their crimes. And to compel each one of them to announce loudly: “Yes, I was an executioner, and a murderer.”"