The work of A. Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago". Summary

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

From the thirties to the sixties in the Soviet Union, the administration of mass detention camps was entrusted to the Main Directorate of Camps (Gulag). A. Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago" (a brief summary of the work is given below) was written in 1956, in a magazine version it was published in 1967. As for the genre, the author himself called it an artistic study.

"The Gulag Archipelago". Summary of Part 1 on Prison Industry, Part 2 on Perpetual Motion

The narrator lists the ways of getting into the Gulag for everyone who was there: from managers and guards to prisoners. The types of arrests are analyzed. It is stated that they had no grounds, but were caused by the need to reach the benchmark in terms of quantity. The fugitives were not caught or attracted, only those who were convinced of justice received a termpower and in his innocence.

The narrator explores the history of mass arrests in the country immediately after the October Revolution. The meaning of the powerful and sinister Article 58 added to the Criminal Code of 1926 is explained. It was designed in such a way that it could be a punishment for any act.

Describes the course of a typical investigation, based on the ignorance of Soviet citizens of their rights, and the way the investigators implement the plan to turn those under investigation into prisoners. Then investigators and even ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs became prisoners, and with them all their subordinates, friends, relatives and just acquaintances.

The narrator describes the geography of the archipelago. From the transit prisons (he calls them "ports") they set off and moor zaki cars (ordinary cars, but with bars for transporting up to 25 prisoners in each compartment), called "ships". They transported prisoners and real ships and barges with deep and dark holds, where neither the doctor nor the convoy had ever descended.

"The Gulag Archipelago". Summary of part 3 about the extermination labor camps, part 4 about the soul and barbed wire

The narrator tells the story of the creation in Soviet Russia of camps in which people were forced to work. The idea of their creation was put forward by Lenin in the winter of 1918, after the rebellion of the Socialist-Revolutionaries had been suppressed. The leader's idea was enshrined in an instruction that clearly stated that all able-bodied prisoners must be required to work. In the Decree onDuring the Red Terror, such labor camps were called "concentration camps".

Since they, according to the Soviet leaders, lacked rigor, the leadership took care of the creation of the Northern Camps, which have a special purpose and inhumane orders. After all the monks were expelled from the Solovetsky Monastery, he received the prisoners. They were dressed in sacks, and for violations they were thrown into punishment cells, where they were kept in harsh conditions.

The free labor of prisoners was used to lay the dirt Kem-Ukhta tract through impenetrable swamps and forests, in summer people drowned, in winter they froze. Roads were also built beyond the Arctic Circle and on the Kola Peninsula, and often the prisoners were not provided with even the most primitive tools and built by hand.

Prisoners escaped, one group even managed to get into Britain. So in Europe they learned about the existence of the Gulag. Books about the camps began to appear, but the Soviet people did not believe it. Even Gorky, who was told the truth by a minor prisoner, left Solovki not believing, and the boy was shot.

In the history of the Archipelago there were also great construction projects, for example, the White Sea Canal, which took countless lives. Echelons of construction workers arrived at the construction site, where there was no plan, no precise calculations, no equipment, no tools, no normal supplies, no barracks.

Since 1937, the regime in the Gulag has become tougher. They were guarded with dogs under bright electric lights. Worse than the guards were criminals who were allowed to rob and oppress with impunity."political".

Protection for a woman in the camps was old age or noticeable deformity, beauty was a misfortune. Women worked in the same jobs as men, even in logging. If any of them became pregnant, then she was transported to another camp while nursing the child. After the end of feeding, the child was sent to the orphanage, and the mother was sent to the stage.

There were also children in the Gulag. Since 1926, it was allowed to try children who committed murder or theft from the age of twelve. Since 1935, they were allowed to use execution and all other pen alties. There were cases when eleven-year-old children of "enemies of the people" were sent to the Gulag for 25 years.

As for the economic benefits of prison labor, it turned out to be very doubtful, because the quality of forced labor left much to be desired, and the camps did not pay for themselves.

There were few suicides in the Gulag, more fugitives. But the fugitives were sold back to the camp by the hostile local population. Those who could not run swore to themselves that they would survive no matter what.

The advantage of the Archipelago was non-infringement on human thoughts: no need to join a party, a trade union, there were no industrial or party meetings, no agitation. The head was free, which contributed to the rethinking of the former life and spiritual growth. But, of course, this was not the case for everyone. Most of the minds were occupied with thoughts about their daily bread, the need for labor was perceived as hostile, and the inmates were considered rivals. The Archipelago embittered and corrupted people who were not enriched with spiritual life.more.

The existence of the Gulag had a detrimental effect on the rest of the non-camp part of the country, forcing people to fear for themselves and their loved ones. Fear made betrayal the safest way to survive. Violence was nurtured and the line between good and evil blurred.

"The Gulag Archipelago". Summary of part 5 about hard labor, part 6 about exile

In the forty-third year, Stalin again introduced the gallows and hard labor. Not everyone deified him in the thirties, there was a peasant minority that was more sober than the townspeople and did not share the enthusiastic attitude of the party and the Komsomol towards the leader and the world revolution.

Link in Russia was legalized in the 17th century. By the thirties of the 20th century, it turned into a temporary pen for those who would go under the ruthless knife of the Soviet dictatorship.

Unlike other exiles, we althy peasant families were deported to uninhabited remote places without food and agricultural implements. Most died of hunger. In the forties, entire nations began to be deported.

"The Gulag Archipelago". Summary of part 7 about what happened after the death of the leader

After 1953, the Archipelago did not disappear, it was time for unprecedented concessions. The narrator believes that the Soviet regime will not survive without him. The life of prisoners will never get better, because they receive punishment, but in fact the system takes out its miscalculations on them, that people are not the same as they were conceived by the Advanced Leninist-Stalinist doctrine. The state is still bound by the metal rim of the law. There is a rim - there is no law.

Summary of "The Gulag Archipelago" - Solzhenitsyn's autobiographical work - does not give the reader the opportunity to put on the guise of a prisoner, penetrate into the warped consciousness of a native of the Archipelago, which, according to the author, was aimed at a detailed description of the camp and prison realities in full the text of the work.