What I've Been Reading: The Gulag Archipelago
At 468 pages, The Gulag Archipelago is not for the faint of heart. And this is the abridged version! The full version, published in three volumes numbers just shy of 2,000 pages! The content of the book is just as challenging as its length. The book, although not primarily autobiographical was born out of Solzhenitsyn’s own experiences. Solzhenitsyn, who was an officer in the Russian army, was arrested on some trumped up charge and hauled off to the Soviet prison system which he calls the “Gulag Archipelago.” In fact, it is this work that introduced English speakers to the word “Gulag.” Solzhenitsyn’s work is an exposition of what life was like in the Gulag. That’s what makes the book so challenging. The record he provides of the human depravity he and others witnessed is soul-crushing.
Solzhenitsyn’s work puts the reader in the shoes of the prisoner (actually in many cases the prisoners did not have shoes so perhaps that is a poor figure of speech). He describes what it would have been like to be arrested suddenly and secretly. He explains how the Soviets transported citizens by the thousands and even by the millions off to forced labor camps (the Gulag). He relives the terrors of interrogations, of punishments. Even women and children received brutal treatment at the hands of their Soviet overlords. The hopeful note comes when the reader realizes Solzhenitsyn survived these conditions and even found Christ in the midst of these horrors.
Solzhenitsyn's argument against communism starts from morality not politics. The Gulag Archipelago makes the argument that communism is a horrible political system because it is evil and morally bankrupt. He is not making a political argument, he is making a moral argument. Communism in the Soviet Union alone was responsible for the deaths of more than 60 million people. Worldwide, including China and other nations, greater than 100 million have perished under this kind of totalitarian rule. These deaths were the direct result of communist philosophy. The Gulag Archipelago is a warning that this great evil is possible anywhere that adopts these philosophies.
The siren song of utopian dreams that tempts a new generation today does so under the guise of compassion, justice, and equality. The language of the left today sounds righteous and that is why so many find it’s doctrines appealing. These were the same arguments for communism and socialism that appeared in pre-Soviet Russia. This book is a helpful reminder that, “No political experiment has ever been tried so widely, with so many disparate people, in so many different countries (with such different histories) and failed so absolutely and so catastrophically” (xx). Communism has never produced the kind of just society its doctrines espouse. Solhenitsyn concludes The Gulag Archipelago with a warning:
“All you freedom-loving “left-wing” thinkers in the West! You left laborites! You progressive American, German and French students! As far as you are concerned, none of this amounts to much. As far as you are concerned, this whole book of mine is a waste of effort. You may suddenly understand it all someday—but only when you yourselves hear “hands behind your backs there!” And step ashore on our Archipelago” (468).
This is a book Christians should read. For years I’ve read statements or quotations by Alexander Solzhenitsyn but never actually read his writings. Because the cultural elites of our society continue to beat the drum of socialism and communism, it is more important than ever for Christians to be informed on these matters.