--- product_id: 48089755 title: "The Gulag Archipelago [Abridged] (Harvill Press Editions)" price: "¥32879" currency: JPY in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.jp/products/48089755-the-gulag-archipelago-abridged-harvill-press-editions store_origin: JP region: Japan --- # The Gulag Archipelago [Abridged] (Harvill Press Editions) **Price:** ¥32879 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Gulag Archipelago [Abridged] (Harvill Press Editions) - **How much does it cost?** ¥32879 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.jp](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/48089755-the-gulag-archipelago-abridged-harvill-press-editions) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Gulag Archipelago is Solzhenitsyn's masterwork, a vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators and also of heroism, a Stalinist anti-world at the heart of the Soviet Union where the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair. The work is based on the testimony of some two hundred survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile. It is both a thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power. This edition has been abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation. Review: A 20TH CENTURY LITERARY MASTERPIECE STILL RELEVANT IN THE 21ST CENTURY – BUT NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH - If you’re prone to retching on hearing stories of gruel being served up in washbasins, human corpses being shoved under beds, prisoners eating the remains of a dead horse and 80 prisoners crammed into a transit train being left to wet themselves because visits to the toilet took too long to supervise, THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO is not for you. But if your stomach can stand such tales, and many far worse, the book is quite simply a masterpiece. Written in the spirit of the Star Trekkers, its Nobel Prize-winning author boldly going, like Captain Kirk and his crew, where no man had gone before, it was the first-ever true exposé of the brutality that occurred in the Stalin-era labour camps, or GULAGs as they were known. Predictably its publication in the West resulted in serious consequences for Solzhenitsyn – he was deported to the USA in 1974 – but thank God it was published. I first became acquainted with Solzhenitsyn’s writings whilst a pupil at a well-regarded grammar school in the Home Counties in the 1970s. My third-year class studied ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, which documents a typical day in the life of a prisoner in the “special” camps in which Solzhenitsyn served eight years as an “Article 58er” (basically an anti-Soviet agitator). It interested me sufficiently follow it up with GULAG, to which IVAN DENISOVICH is effectively a prequel. So I purchased a copy in Foyles Bookshop back in late 1976 and read it over the subsequent six months. It really does make IVAN DENISOVICH seem rather tame. Unfortunately, I gave the book away some years after reading it, but the invention of e-books and my recent retirement gave me the money and time to purchase it and re-read it. What struck me in the ‘70s, and now, were the similarities between the attitudes and mindsets of the GULAGs and those which I encountered daily at my school. Was this surprising? Not really, when you consider that many of the parents and teachers of the time had served in prisoner of war camps, albeit more likely German rather than Russian ones. Let’s look at just two examples. The main weapon of torture against GULAG prisoners was the cold. Prisoners working in mine shafts had to strip naked, have cold water poured over them and run naked to their compound. This evokes memories of the compulsory showers that pupils had to endure after compulsory games three days a week, even in midwinter. Not only was the water freezing, the teachers would walk round the changing rooms, obviously “checking out” the naked teenage bodies of their pupils. In Stalinist Russia, the state was always right and its subjects always wrong. Every complaint ever made to a camp chief was somehow proven wrong. This sounds like a parallel to my school experience, where a succession of complaints about sex abuse by a “Jimmy Saville” teacher were dismissed for alleged “lack of evidence” even though they had been well documented with dates and times. The offender was caught, pleaded guilty and jailed – 20 years later. Sexual abuse of women prisoners was commonplace in GULAGs ; many women got favourable treatment in return for granting sexual favours to male guards. The GULAG experience stayed in prisoners’ minds for many years afterwards. Solzhenitsyn deserves kudos for recognising that the human defence mechanism does not allow such experiences to be forgotten. In Volume 3, he appeals to fellow writers not to write that people discharged from camps have forgotten it all and are happy. Absolutely true, and a parallel to some of my unfortunate classmates who were on anti-depressants for a long time after leaving the school, With free speech now under serious threat from moral totalitarianism, GULAG is actually more relevant now than it has ever been. In Volume 1, Solzhenitsyn recalls a case of a university lecturer losing his job for quoting Lenin, but not Stalin, in a lecture. The parallels with what is happening now, with academics losing their jobs and receiving death threats for questioning the wisdom of gender self-identification, and stating the biologically provable fact that only women can get pregnant, are alarming. A central message of GULAG is that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Now, it would seem, is a good time to reiterate that message and read this book, to which I award five well-deserved stars. Review: One of the most interesting and eye-opening books I’ve ever read - Admittedly, when I first got this book and seen how large it is, I was immediately intimated. Shortly after starting it, this feeling continued. Before reading this I literally knew nothing about Russian history, not a thing. So I barely understood what Solzhenitsyn was talking about and for the most of the beginning of the book, this is a problem. Obviously Solzhenitsyn references many names and events relating to Russian history, which I had no understanding or connection to which inevitably made the book difficult to interpret. So in response to this, I took the time to research Russian history to at least give me a basic understanding. Once things began to make more sense, the book wasn’t as heavy to pick up. For someone who finds themselves in a similar situation to myself or even struggles to read the first 1/4 anyway, STICK IT OUT. This book is phenomenal. Solzhenitsyn proves himself as possibly one of the most impressive writers of the 20th century. His life and the fundamentals that made up the gulag archipelago open your mind in a way which no other book will.The horrific details and truth within this book gave me a new found appreciation for life. You’re life problems immediately seem insignificant as you can’t even imagine the pain and suffering felt by the victims of the gulag archipelago. Solzhenitsyn does an amazing job at showing you very human aspects of so many different events which occurred. As well as this, you can’t help but appreciate his determination and outstanding skills to have actually written such a book, having gone through what he did. This book definitely isn’t pretty and can sometimes be tough to read because of the horrific details it shares but, is a massive eye-opener for anyone who is willing to read it. I’m very happy I read it and can say it has influenced me to dig even deeper into Russian literature. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | 87,326 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 24 in Slavery Biographies 48 in Russian Historical Biographies 150 in History of Slavery | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 5,318 Reviews | ## Images ![The Gulag Archipelago [Abridged] (Harvill Press Editions) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61hLCBrEe9L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A 20TH CENTURY LITERARY MASTERPIECE STILL RELEVANT IN THE 21ST CENTURY – BUT NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH *by S***N on 4 May 2022* If you’re prone to retching on hearing stories of gruel being served up in washbasins, human corpses being shoved under beds, prisoners eating the remains of a dead horse and 80 prisoners crammed into a transit train being left to wet themselves because visits to the toilet took too long to supervise, THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO is not for you. But if your stomach can stand such tales, and many far worse, the book is quite simply a masterpiece. Written in the spirit of the Star Trekkers, its Nobel Prize-winning author boldly going, like Captain Kirk and his crew, where no man had gone before, it was the first-ever true exposé of the brutality that occurred in the Stalin-era labour camps, or GULAGs as they were known. Predictably its publication in the West resulted in serious consequences for Solzhenitsyn – he was deported to the USA in 1974 – but thank God it was published. I first became acquainted with Solzhenitsyn’s writings whilst a pupil at a well-regarded grammar school in the Home Counties in the 1970s. My third-year class studied ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, which documents a typical day in the life of a prisoner in the “special” camps in which Solzhenitsyn served eight years as an “Article 58er” (basically an anti-Soviet agitator). It interested me sufficiently follow it up with GULAG, to which IVAN DENISOVICH is effectively a prequel. So I purchased a copy in Foyles Bookshop back in late 1976 and read it over the subsequent six months. It really does make IVAN DENISOVICH seem rather tame. Unfortunately, I gave the book away some years after reading it, but the invention of e-books and my recent retirement gave me the money and time to purchase it and re-read it. What struck me in the ‘70s, and now, were the similarities between the attitudes and mindsets of the GULAGs and those which I encountered daily at my school. Was this surprising? Not really, when you consider that many of the parents and teachers of the time had served in prisoner of war camps, albeit more likely German rather than Russian ones. Let’s look at just two examples. The main weapon of torture against GULAG prisoners was the cold. Prisoners working in mine shafts had to strip naked, have cold water poured over them and run naked to their compound. This evokes memories of the compulsory showers that pupils had to endure after compulsory games three days a week, even in midwinter. Not only was the water freezing, the teachers would walk round the changing rooms, obviously “checking out” the naked teenage bodies of their pupils. In Stalinist Russia, the state was always right and its subjects always wrong. Every complaint ever made to a camp chief was somehow proven wrong. This sounds like a parallel to my school experience, where a succession of complaints about sex abuse by a “Jimmy Saville” teacher were dismissed for alleged “lack of evidence” even though they had been well documented with dates and times. The offender was caught, pleaded guilty and jailed – 20 years later. Sexual abuse of women prisoners was commonplace in GULAGs ; many women got favourable treatment in return for granting sexual favours to male guards. The GULAG experience stayed in prisoners’ minds for many years afterwards. Solzhenitsyn deserves kudos for recognising that the human defence mechanism does not allow such experiences to be forgotten. In Volume 3, he appeals to fellow writers not to write that people discharged from camps have forgotten it all and are happy. Absolutely true, and a parallel to some of my unfortunate classmates who were on anti-depressants for a long time after leaving the school, With free speech now under serious threat from moral totalitarianism, GULAG is actually more relevant now than it has ever been. In Volume 1, Solzhenitsyn recalls a case of a university lecturer losing his job for quoting Lenin, but not Stalin, in a lecture. The parallels with what is happening now, with academics losing their jobs and receiving death threats for questioning the wisdom of gender self-identification, and stating the biologically provable fact that only women can get pregnant, are alarming. A central message of GULAG is that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. Now, it would seem, is a good time to reiterate that message and read this book, to which I award five well-deserved stars. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of the most interesting and eye-opening books I’ve ever read *by F***K on 17 November 2021* Admittedly, when I first got this book and seen how large it is, I was immediately intimated. Shortly after starting it, this feeling continued. Before reading this I literally knew nothing about Russian history, not a thing. So I barely understood what Solzhenitsyn was talking about and for the most of the beginning of the book, this is a problem. Obviously Solzhenitsyn references many names and events relating to Russian history, which I had no understanding or connection to which inevitably made the book difficult to interpret. So in response to this, I took the time to research Russian history to at least give me a basic understanding. Once things began to make more sense, the book wasn’t as heavy to pick up. For someone who finds themselves in a similar situation to myself or even struggles to read the first 1/4 anyway, STICK IT OUT. This book is phenomenal. Solzhenitsyn proves himself as possibly one of the most impressive writers of the 20th century. His life and the fundamentals that made up the gulag archipelago open your mind in a way which no other book will.The horrific details and truth within this book gave me a new found appreciation for life. You’re life problems immediately seem insignificant as you can’t even imagine the pain and suffering felt by the victims of the gulag archipelago. Solzhenitsyn does an amazing job at showing you very human aspects of so many different events which occurred. As well as this, you can’t help but appreciate his determination and outstanding skills to have actually written such a book, having gone through what he did. This book definitely isn’t pretty and can sometimes be tough to read because of the horrific details it shares but, is a massive eye-opener for anyone who is willing to read it. I’m very happy I read it and can say it has influenced me to dig even deeper into Russian literature. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Astounding.... *by E***R on 18 November 2010* I had been quite naive to the atrocities carried out during the Russian communist regime under Joseph Stalin until I read Child 44 - the epilogue of which detailed a number of facts and numbers about those who died, who were imprisoned and those (literally millions) who were sent to various gulags to suffer years of torment and abuse. Tom Rob Smith also cites the Gulag Archipelago as one of his sources and I decided to learn more. Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is an astounding work. And even more astounding is that what was done in the name of communism has essentially been whitewashed by history, bar books such as this. It is terrifying to think that what Hitler was doing for 2 years was being done to the populace of the USSR for almost 40. To put it in perspective, around 60 million Russians (and Finnish, Germans, Ukrainians, Jews...the list goes on) died during this period - the population of Britain! This was 40 years of execution, starvation, torture, fear and denouncement. No one was ever brought to account (unlike the majority of the Nazis) and the perpetrator of all of this died of a stroke at the ripe old age of 75. Solzhenitsyn encompasses all of this and more. The main focus is the Gulag system however he begins with the fear of arrest, the torture and imprisonment, and then moves to the archipelago. The subject is understandably an emotional one and the prose is punctured by asides from the author berating the system and also berating those who - as late as the 70's - were obviously still trying to keep a lid on what had happened. This makes the book incredibly personal and all the more interesting from a person who lived through all of this (along with stories and quotes from other witnesses and victims) rather than a more objective modern view. The only negatives for me are that the book sometimes feels slightly disjointed. It is an abridged version of the earlier publications which were 4 books covering the entire period - and there are areas where chapters have been taken out which might (in my view) have been better kept in. Particularly a chapter on an escape attempt which I would have loved to have read (and will look up). Also, Solzhenitsyn sometimes goes into very descriptive chapters on the Russian system which - whilst necessary - can be a little dry. All of this aside, this book should be read by everyone. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.jp/products/48089755-the-gulag-archipelago-abridged-harvill-press-editions](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/48089755-the-gulag-archipelago-abridged-harvill-press-editions) --- *Product available on Desertcart Japan* *Store origin: JP* *Last updated: 2026-06-22*