Difference between revisions of "The Gulag Archipelago"
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''Volume I:'' Covers Solzhenitsyn's arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment. Solzhenitsyn comes into contact with other political prisoners serving long terms, who had served time at other gulags and work projects throughout the Soviet Union. Prior to its publication in 1974, [[V.I. Lenin]] was still considered a benevolent dictator while communist atrocities had all been blamed on [[Stalin]]. Solzhenitsyn documents Lenin and other early revolutionaries employed [[terrorism]] and [[mass murder]] to establish rule. | ''Volume I:'' Covers Solzhenitsyn's arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment. Solzhenitsyn comes into contact with other political prisoners serving long terms, who had served time at other gulags and work projects throughout the Soviet Union. Prior to its publication in 1974, [[V.I. Lenin]] was still considered a benevolent dictator while communist atrocities had all been blamed on [[Stalin]]. Solzhenitsyn documents Lenin and other early revolutionaries employed [[terrorism]] and [[mass murder]] to establish rule. | ||
| − | ''Volume II:'' Goes into every day life in the camps, the different groups of prisoners and charges under which they were held, including [[Socialist party]] members whose interpretation pf [[progressive]] views fell out of favor with the [[elitism|elite]] [[bureaucrat]]s. The Volume goes into much detail of the history of the [[KGB]], which administered the camps, under different different KGB heads. The [[leftist]] and [[collectivist]] ideology eliminated the problem of [[unemployment]] by making | + | ''Volume II:'' Goes into every day life in the camps, the different groups of prisoners and charges under which they were held, including [[Socialist party]] members whose interpretation pf [[progressive]] views fell out of favor with the [[elitism|elite]] [[bureaucrat]]s. The Volume goes into much detail of the history of the [[KGB]], which administered the camps, under different different KGB heads. The [[leftist]] and [[collectivist]] ideology eliminated the problem of [[unemployment]] during the worldwide [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s by making unemployment illegal; by abolishing greed and the [[profit]] motive, forced labor became vital to the functioning of production and the economy. |
| − | ''Volume III:'' Covers the period of Solzhenitsyn's exile, a form of [[parole]] from the Soviet judicial system. The Soviet Union being so vast, barbed wire wasn't | + | ''Volume III:'' Covers the period of Solzhenitsyn's exile, a form of [[parole]] from the Soviet judicial system. The Soviet Union being so vast, barbed wire wasn't necessary in some remote areas. Each camp had a little village beside it which housed prison guards and their families. A prisoner who served his term could be released, with no money, and still barred from living within so many kilometers of the [[Moscow]] Center. These longterm exilees then took up residence in the village, living in chicken coops and basements of prison guards, employed as handymen and servants. Also covers much of [[World War II]] and the early [[Cold War]] history of the 1950s. |
==The Progressive Doctrine== | ==The Progressive Doctrine== | ||
Revision as of 13:03, September 19, 2019
The Gulag Archipelago is an influential book written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and published in 1973 that documents the implementation of Progressivism and failure of Socialism in Russia, and the murderous system of compulsory behavior. The Gulags were a system of "corrective labor camps" for people with politically incorrect views or attitudes, however they were often populated by people caught up in random round-ups by government bureaucrats to fill production quotas in a leftist system that promised a "guaranteed income".
Solzhenitsyn, who served as a captain during World War II, was imprisoned immediately afterward along with German POWs. In 1955, the German prisoners were amnestied and returned home, while Solzhenitsyn and other Red Army soldiers who defeated the Germans and won World War II, remained imprisoned by their leftist communist slave masters.
The Gulag Archipelago, 3 volumes and 1,800 pages, is required reading in all Russian high schools today. Because of totalitarian censorship, "official" histories and encyclopedias published in Soviet times are virtually useless, The Gulag Archipelago provides much of the missing history of the Soviet Union.
Volume I: Covers Solzhenitsyn's arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment. Solzhenitsyn comes into contact with other political prisoners serving long terms, who had served time at other gulags and work projects throughout the Soviet Union. Prior to its publication in 1974, V.I. Lenin was still considered a benevolent dictator while communist atrocities had all been blamed on Stalin. Solzhenitsyn documents Lenin and other early revolutionaries employed terrorism and mass murder to establish rule.
Volume II: Goes into every day life in the camps, the different groups of prisoners and charges under which they were held, including Socialist party members whose interpretation pf progressive views fell out of favor with the elite bureaucrats. The Volume goes into much detail of the history of the KGB, which administered the camps, under different different KGB heads. The leftist and collectivist ideology eliminated the problem of unemployment during the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s by making unemployment illegal; by abolishing greed and the profit motive, forced labor became vital to the functioning of production and the economy.
Volume III: Covers the period of Solzhenitsyn's exile, a form of parole from the Soviet judicial system. The Soviet Union being so vast, barbed wire wasn't necessary in some remote areas. Each camp had a little village beside it which housed prison guards and their families. A prisoner who served his term could be released, with no money, and still barred from living within so many kilometers of the Moscow Center. These longterm exilees then took up residence in the village, living in chicken coops and basements of prison guards, employed as handymen and servants. Also covers much of World War II and the early Cold War history of the 1950s.
The Progressive Doctrine
30 years into the leftist multicultural experiment called the Soviet Union, Alexander Solzhenitsyn did an extensive study of the Progressive Doctrine in Volume II of The Gulag Archipelago. Solzhenitsyn wrote,In this study. if nothing prevents us. we intend to, make an important scientific discovery. In the development of our hypothesis we would in no way wish to come into conflict with the Progressive Teaching. The author of these lines, attracted by the enigma of the native tribe populating the Archipelago, undertook a lengthy scientific expedition there and collected abundant material. And as a result it is very easy to prove that the zeks [prisoners of the gulag ][1] of the Archipelago constitute a class of society. For, after all, this multitudinous group (of many. millions) has a single (common to them all) relationship to production (namely: subordinate, attached, and without any right to direct that production). It also has a single common relationship to the distribution of the products of labor (namely: no relationship at all, living only that insignificant share of the products required for the meager support of their own existence). And, in addition, all their labor is no small thing, but one of the principal constituents of the whole state economy.[2]Solzhenitsyn explains the role of thieves and criminals in a socialist society. As oppressed victims of the propertied oppressor class, thieves were "socially friendly" or "class allies" of progressives in the class war between "the haves and have nots".
The fathers of the Archipelago, having, in accordance with the Progressive Doctrine, multiplied these socially friendly elements beyond all rhyme and reason...How many citizens who were robbed knew that the police, didn't even bother to look for the criminals, didn't even set a case in motion, so as not to spoil their record of completed cases - why should they sweat to catch a thief if he would be given only six months, and then be given three months off for good behavior? And anyway, it wasn't certain that the bandits would even be tried when caught. After all, prosecutors2 "lowered the crime rate" - something demanded of them at every conference - by the curious method of simply quashing cases, especially if they foresaw that there would be many defendants. Finally, sentences were bound to be reduced, and of course for habitual criminals especially. Watch out there now .. witness in the courtroom! They will all be back soon, and it'll be a knife in the back of anyone who gave testimony! Therefore, if you see someone crawling through a window, or slitting a pocket, or your neighbor's suitcase being ripped open - shut your eyes! Walk by! You didn't see anything! That's how the thieves have trained us - the thieves and our laws! The·thieves flourished because they were encouraged.[3]
Elsewhere Solzhenitsyn documents how forced labor, a cruelty of Czarist times that led to the Russian Revolution, was adapted to Progressive Doctrine.[4]
Solzhenitsyn goes into some detail how progressives deal with political opposition and dissenters in socialist re-education camps (gulags):
It has been known for centuries that Hunger . . . rules the world! (And all your Progressive Doctrine is, incidentally, built on Hunger, on the thesis that hungry people will inevitably revolt against the well-fed.) Hunger rules every hungry human being, unless he has himself consciously decided to die. Hunger, which forces an honest person to reach out and steal ("When the belly rumbles, conscience flees"). Hunger, which compels the most unselfish person to look with envy into someone else's bowl, and to try painfuIly to estimate what weight of ration his neighbor is receiving. Hunger, which darkens the brain and refuses to allow it to be distracted by anything else at all, or to think about anything else at all, or to speak about anything else at all except food, food, and food. Hunger, from which it is impossible to escape even in dreams - dreams are about food, and insomnia is over food. And soon - just insomnia. Hunger, after which one cannot even eat up; the man has by then turned into a one-way pipe and everything emerges from him in exactly the same state in which it was swallowed.[5]
References
- ↑ zek is a Russian slang term similar to "con" in English to refer to convicts, however many zeks were opponents of Socialism, not criminals.
- ↑ Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (1973). The Gulag Archipelago (1st ed.) Harper & Row, page 502.
- ↑ Gulag, Vpl. II, Page 422, 425 et seqq.
- ↑ Gulag, Vol. II, page 76.
- ↑ Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (1973). The Gulag Archipelago (1st ed.) Harper & Row, page 209.
