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[ERROR] No.2043844 [Reply] [Original]

Any good books about Katorga? Preferably first-person.

>> No.2044001

Bump. By Katorga I mean the Siberian work camps. Dostoevsky was sent to one. The Gulag would do fine as well.

>> No.2044159
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gulags? i bought this one but havent started it.

>> No.2045672

the house of the dead, obviously

>> No.2045710

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is short, yet very powerful.

If you want to delve deeper, I rather enjoyed the Gulag Archipelago as well (though I am a history nut). I quite enjoyed it.

Wouldn't recommend the Applebaum book, never could quite get through it. Solzhenitsyn, after all, had first-hand experience.

Though I would say that Katorga was different from the Gulags, with regard to survival rates among other things. Tsarism was a walk in the park compared to the jolly escapades of Bolshevism.

>> No.2045749

Thanks for the recommendations, I really appreciate it.

>>2045710
Yeah, The Gulags were a bit harsher.

>> No.2047355

Not about the Gulags but read Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler.

Set during the moscow show trials, it's about a communist official who's been arrested and sentenced to death for sedition and treason. The book's subtext is a commentary on the psyche of a communist dictatorship and totalitarianism

It's a wonderful book, Hitchens spruiks its awesomeness a lot too.

>> No.2047360

>>2045710
Solzhenitsyn lied throughout Archipelago. Sorting the lies from the truth requires you to be willing to be a historian.

Applebaum is a journalist big noting herself. I wouldn't trust it.

One day in the life is okay.

I recommend Edith Bone's /Seven Years Solitary/. /A Tibetan revolutionary: the political life and times of Bapa Phüntso Wangye/ is also good.

There are some other good Gulag stories from the 1940s/50s. Gyorgy Paloczi-Horvath also has a good memoir I believe.

>> No.2047361

>>2047355
>Hitchens spruiks its awesomeness a lot too.
Despite being praised by Hitchens, Darkness at Noon is worth reading. Though I suggest The Gladiators is a better Koestler.