The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–1956, Vol. 1: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, I–II Audiobook

Quotes

• “The greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be leveled in modern times.”

  — New York Review of Books

• “An extraordinary achievement…Solzhenitsyn’s reconstruction of this secret ‘country’ within the country is itself a heroic accomplishment under Soviet conditions. The main sources are his own prison experiences from 1945 to 1953 and those related to him by 227 other survivors. Their testimonies are supplemented by information from official, samizdat, and even several Western publications. They are assembled in a powerful narrative which combines the prose styles of epic novelist, partisan historian, and outraged moralist, interspersed with Russian proverbs, black humor, prison camp language, and parodies of Soviet bureaucratese.”

  — New York Times Book Review

• “Written by a man whose courage, whose integrity, and whose experience will give it overwhelming authority throughout the world. It is a truly exceptional work: for in it literature transcends history, without distorting it.”

  — Saturday Review

• “What distinguishes this account is its particular quality of moral outrage. Precisely because of his moral vision [Solzhenitsyn] has been able to probe the underbelly of totalitarian society and he has limned it perfectly.”

  — Christian Science Monitor