Written in 2003 and winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, this is a comprehensive piece of work. With North Korea's recent admission of its use of 'labour camps for reform', it also justifies Applebaum's concerns about gulags never going away or being forgotten.
The book is divided into 3 sections: the origins of the system, 1917-1939; the types of prisoners and the process they went through, from arrest to release or escape; the growth and decline, under and post-Stalin, respectively. This structure makes the book as easy to follow as it could be, though it still takes an element of ploughing on regardless to get into it. For me, I twice gave up; once in the introduction and once in the first section. Despite the overall pattern of documenting the history through a mix of archival research and memoirs, both published, for example Solzhenitsin, and unpublished, the first section is heavy-going. In the second section, about the lives of the prisoners, it becomes more accessible due to the personalisation of the history and that carries through to the end.
My perseverance in reading was rewarded. The book is a fitting tribute to the memory of those crushed and mangled by a political system fearful of losing power and is a fitting testament to the courage of those prepared to stand up to a political monster and to those who survived through ingenuity.
Beyond Applebaum's concerns about forgetting leading to history repeating itself, she also questions Russia's unwillingness to come to terms with this ugly chapter in its history by investigating thoroughly, something she would appear to welcome. I don't doubt that there are a lot of skeletons still out there, many of which deserve to be revealed. However, at what point do you continue to expose war criminals or perpetrators of crimes in a system like the USSR in the 40s or 50s? There seems something undignified all round when another 90-year-old Nazi is paraded in court and it's declared as justice. It's wrong for the perpetrators to have enjoyed and continue to enjoy freedom but it's a hollow victory, like crushing a wasp with no wings. As Applebaum also pointed out, some people worked in the gulag/ legal system because they had no choice or, as was common, they went from prisoner to guard because they were already on site, which was a way out. It's almost too complex to unravel and probably not valuable when the worst criminal of them of, Stalin, is long-dead. Lily argues that the memory is still too fresh to evaluate impartially, therefore pointless, especially so when there are more pressing issues for the general population.
I'd probably agree with overall, particularly when history lessons teach young Russians about the Gulags negatives - the immoral system of convicting innocents, the economic failure and the human cost. Ultimately, I hope that it remains etched in people's minds, not as a collective, national guilt for past crimes, but as a grotesque example for people to understand the evils and ills of a political system set on remaining unchallenged and in power at any cost and to the detriment of its people.
A copy of the introduction can be downloaded on the author's website.
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