Gulag: A History
 | |
| Author | Anne Applebaum |
|---|---|
| Subject | Gulag |
Publication date | 2003 |
| Pages | 720 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-0767900560 |
Gulag: A History, also published as Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps, is a non-fiction book covering the history of the Soviet Gulag system. It was written by American author Anne Applebaum and published in 2003 by Doubleday. Gulag won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction [1][2] and the 2004 Duff Cooper Prize.[3] It was also nominated for the National Book Critics Circle prize and for the National Book Award.[3]
The book charts the history of the Gulag organization from its beginnings in the Solovki prison camp and the construction of the White Sea Canal through its explosive growth in the Great Terror and the Second World War, and tracks its diminution following the death of Joseph Stalin and its final closure in the 1980s. A large portion of the book is devoted to covering lives and deaths of camp inmates, including their arrest, interrogation, trial, transportation, the details of the rigors of their working and living conditions, the privations of starvation and disease, and the circumstances of their deaths. The book draws heavily on Soviet-era archives and on the diaries and writings of camp survivors.
References
- ↑ "'The Known World' Wins Pulitzer Prize for Fiction". The New York Times.
- ↑ "Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Non-Fiction". pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
- 1 2 "Award Winning Books - Duff Cooper Prize", Random House website
External links
- Gulag: A History on Open Library at the Internet Archive
- Applebaum's page on Gulag on her website
- "'Gulag': The Other Killing Machine". Review: 'Gulag: A History'. The New York Times. May 11, 2003.
- "'Gulag': First Chapter". The New York Times. May 11, 2003.
- Booknotes interview with Applebaum on Gulag, May 25, 2003