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. In this magisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum 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. 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.
Chapter 1: BOLSHEVIK BEGINNINGS
Chapter 2: “THE FIRST CAMP OF THE GULAG”
Chapter 3: 1929: THE GREAT TURNING POINT
Chapter 4: THE WHITE SEA CANAL
Chapter 6: THE GREAT TERROR AND ITS AFTERMATH
Chapter 9: TRANSPORT, ARRIVAL, SELECTION
Chapter 12: PUNISHMENT AND REWARD
Chapter 15: WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Chapter 17: STRATEGIES OF SURVIVAL
Chapter 18: REBELLION AND ESCAPE
Chapter 21: AMNESTY—AND AFTERWARD
Chapter 22: THE ZENITH OF THE CAMP–INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Chapter 23: THE DEATH OF STALIN
Chapter 24: THE ZEKS’ REVOLUTION
Chapter 26: THE ERA OF THE DISSIDENTS
Chapter 27: THE 1980s: SMASHING STATUES