Gulag by Anne Applebaum

Gulag

A History

Anne Applebaum

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group · Print & ebook · April 9, 2004

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • This magisterial and acclaimed history offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost. “A tragic testimony to how evil ideologically inspired dictatorships can be.” —The New York Times A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century The Gulag—a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners—was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism.

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Who it’s for
A rigorous, readable history that balances explanation with a bleak, gripping pull.
Genres
Soviet-Era Russia, Communism & Socialism, Eastern European History
Published
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, April 9, 2004

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About this book

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • This magisterial and acclaimed history offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost.

Continue reading

“A tragic testimony to how evil ideologically inspired dictatorships can be.” —The New York Times A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century The Gulag—a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners—was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. Applebaum intimately re-creates what life was like in the camps and links them to the larger history of the Soviet Union. Immediately recognized as a landmark and long-overdue work of scholarship, Gulag is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand the history of the twentieth century.

Grim Clarity

A rigorous, readable history that balances explanation with a bleak, gripping pull.

Come here for

  • Eastern European history with moral clarity
  • A history that reads with literary and human stakes

Expect

  • Cultural context without hand-holding
  • A sustained read you can also enter in pieces

Where it sits

Soviet-Era Russia94%
Eastern European History37%
Communism & Socialism23%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Russian History
  • 20th-Century History
  • Communism & Socialism
Authors
Anne Applebaum
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published
April 9, 2004
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Russian History