Gulag
A fully documented history of the Soviet camp system, from its origins in the Russian Revolution to its collapse in the era of glasnost. Anne Applebaum first lays out the chronological history of the camps and the logic behind their creation, enlargement, and maintenance. Applebaum also examines how life was lived within this shadow country: how prisoners worked, how they ate, where they lived, how they died, how they survived. She examines their guards and their jailers, the horrors of transportation in empty cattle cars, the strange nature of Soviet arrests and trials, the impact of World War II, the relations between different national and religious groups, and the escapes, as well as the extraordinary rebellions that took place in the 1950s. She concludes by examining the disturbing question why the Gulag has remained relatively obscure, in the historical memory of both the former Soviet Union and the West.
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7recommend
15mentions
10people
2010–2023years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- > Only if you ignore the gulag period.
Which, of course, encompasses the majority of Soviet history. (Speaking of which, Anne Applebaum’s “Gulag: A History” is an excellent introduction to a camp system and culture whose scale and cruelty is little appreciated in the West.)
- Oh boy, you're gonna release the Kraken here.
Nonfiction that reads like a thriller is my favorite genre.
The last book that truly surprised me for how good it was and had been sitting unread in my queue for a while because the descriptions didn't give it justice was Empty Mansions: Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_Mansions
It's basically like rise and fall of Sackler family 1.0 in dynastic wealth and all crazy things that happen to the next generations. Her dad was a mining baron who created the US' largest superfund site and bought himself a Montana Senate seat and then it gets more wild from there. Unlike the Sacklers, the daughter who does seem to have arrested development re: emotional maturity- she played with dolls and ordered customized artisanal dollhouses from Japan for 500k and up into her 80s - did have a very kind heart and gave large gifts to her staff, her relatives, friends, even the guy who came in to repair the TV in her hotel room got a $40k tip. At the end there is a giant fight over multiple versions of the will, allegations of elder abuse by both Doctors Hospital in NYC and her nurse, CPA and attorney and pursuit by the IRS for unpaid gift taxes of millions of dollars.
She lived such a long life that you basically get a tour through American history throughout the book because it starts in the Gilded Age and she lives to be 105 years old! Even at the end of the book the main character who seems easy to write off as a batty old rich lady sort of earns your respect because she doesn't let the hospital push her around too much and stands her ground to many predatory family members and other sharks circling for her estate and largess.
There are some tie ins with modern tech wealth as well- a few of the purchasers of her assets including her Stradivarius violin for $2.5 million is one of the original microsoft guys!
Def check out John Carreyrou's book about Theranos, Bad Blood if you haven't already. That's imo the GOAT of this genre.
The Smartest Guys in the Room about the rise and fall of Enron is AWESOME and truly outrageous, as is Nobody would Listen by Harry Markopolos is about the Bernie Maddof ponzi scheme.
Another long read but REALLY GOOD was The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which has a sloooooow start (there are a few chapters off the bat about philosophy and the origins of various schools of political theory etc) but once the Beer Hall Putsch happens it really takes off. It was written by William Shirer, an American journalist who lived in Germany and stayed through from the end of WW1 through WWII.
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder was horrific reading and just gruesomely sad but also incredibly well researched and fascinating. I liked it so much I then when on an Ann Applebaum kick of Iron Curtain, Gulag and Red Famine, all of which were very good. If you were going to pick one of hers, I'd do Gulag.
John Kraukauer's Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven are excellent, as is Crisis in the Red Zone about the origins and spread of ebola in the Sierra Leon.
edit: Oh! Also Midnight in Chernobyl was amazing, especially great if you listen to it before or after watching the HBO show. It's a fantastic read even if you don't watch the show and I think is what kicked off my interest above in life in the Soviet bloc.
Red Notice by Bill Browder details his experience as a global investor during the economic transition and rise of the oligarchs in Russia under Putin and details so much of the corruption and fraud of the current regime. It was written in 2014 after Browder's partner was tortured and murdered and brought about the Magnitsky Act. All the more relevant today with Navalny's recent revelations and very good background for what is happening in Russia now.
Re: tech co books, I'd say STAY AWAY from Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez - was awful and the author is just totally unlikeable douchebag. He's not particularly insightful and the whole book was poorly written, sparsely edited bloviating.
Dear Leader by Jang Jin-sung about his life as a Pyongyang party elite, defectation and escape from North Korea was fantastic, thrilling and actually read like a real life spy novel. Some of the portions where he gets close to the border and as he survives on the lam in the Chinese border adjacent countryside while being hunted are... heart pounding.
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick is also about life in North Korea but focuses less on the party elite and more on the suffering of the general population. Heart-wrenching, horrific, well-researched and depraved.
And the Band Played on by Randy Shilts about the origins and spread of HIV & AIDs is another fantastically written and educational medical themed nonfiction about the development of the AIDS epidemic and the world spread and US and world research responses. Several infuriating portions especially the disinformation campaigns by the blood bank industry and lobbyists once the supply was tainted with the virus.
Ugh... I have so many more, but this should get you started. Have fun and don't forget book reports are due in 5 weeks so get cracking :P
- I think its fair to say that at that time concern for actual guilt or actual crimes wasn't a major factor in the Soviet 'justice' system.
Edit: If you want some nightmare material I can recommend Anne Applebaum's "Gulag: A History":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag:_A_History
Edit: I should correct myself there - of course, there were still those found guilty of 'normal' criminal offences and one of the recurring themes in accounts of life in the Soviet camps were the tensions between the criminals and 'politicals'.
- Anne Applebaum's book Gulag describes similar psychology and social dynamics. It's an epic work of scholorship that examines the surrounding society as well as the camps and the prisoners. A wide range of inmate experience shows through because of varying lethality of camps and some longer resulting timelines, in contrast for example to Kiernan and Cambodia where the end was often more prompt.
- I would also highly recommend "Gulag" by Anne Applebaum. She covers the entire history of the Gulag in great detail from the Revolution to the fall of the Soviet Empire.
- If this sort of stuff intrigues you, as it does me, check out "Gulag" by Anne Applebaum. I listened to it in audiobook form (27 hours!) and it was both fascinating and devastating to hear how the Soviets imprisoned, tortured, and, frequently, killed millions in such encampments.
