The Gulag Archipelago

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1973

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-12

Part 2, Chapters 1-4

Part 3, Chapters 1-7

Part 3, Chapters 8-14

Part 3, Chapters 15-22

Part 4, Chapters 1-3

Part 5, Chapters 1-6

Part 5, Chapters 7-12

Part 6, Chapters 1-7

Part 7, Chapter 1-P.P.S.

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 2, Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary: “The Ships of the Archipelago”

Prisoners were transported across the Archipelago, the system of prison labor camps known as the Gulag. Trains, trucks, and ships were part of a “thoroughly developed system” (149) that transports people across the country via an efficient network of stations and prisons. Some of these vehicles used the same transport networks as civilian vehicles but do so in disguise. Prisoners were crammed into the so-called Stolypin railway carriages, traveling for days at a time while being fed the bare minimum of food. Providing food and toilet facilities to the prisoners was a complicated process, which bred even more resentment among the guards. Solzhenitsyn conveys the abject situation by giving hypothetical advice to the condemned: They must give up any idea of personal property and “only own what you can carry with you” (158), such as knowledge and memories.

Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary: “The Ports of the Archipelago”

Most prisoners, as they were moved around the Gulag via transit prisons, struggled to differentiate the prisons from one another. Solzhenitsyn describes the miserable conditions he and others experienced in these transit points. Some, he recalls, did not even have the privilege of a filthy latrine bucket as “Siberian industry hadn’t caught up with the full scope of arrests” (161). Solzhenitsyn believes that Western writers cannot begin to comprehend the horrors of existing in a cramped cell without a latrine bucket, nor that the solution is to urinate into the hood of a jacket or a boot. Solzhenitsyn tells the story of a Swedish Soviet sympathizer whom the state imprisoned for refusing to create Soviet propaganda. The time he spent in the Gulag convinced him of the superiority of Western capitalism.

Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary: “The Slave Caravans”

Solzhenitsyn describes the trucks used to transport prisoners, known colloquially as Black Marias, and the red cattle train carriages which could move many people at once. The red cattle carriages did not work on the same strict schedule as the Stolypin carriages, so they could transport groups of people to remote places quickly. Approximately 1,000 people were stealthily loaded onto these carriages, hidden from civilians. Each night, a line of naked, shuffling prisoners boarded the trains, led by guards with snarling dogs and guns. Throughout the journey, the guards closely surveilled the prisoners, who were not allowed to sleep. Not all the prisoners survived the journey; sometimes, their corpses were only found and removed at the final stop.

Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: “From Island to Island”

Solzhenitsyn describes the transfer of prisoners from one camp to another. He recalls an interaction with a younger prisoner, whose youthful earnestness surprised him. Solzhenitsyn struggles to maintain his conviction after years in the camp.

Part 2, Chapters 1-4 Analysis

Solzhenitsyn describes the Gulag system as a series of islands scattered across the country. The space between camps is an important part of their symbolic value. The Gulag camps were deliberately kept separate from the rest of society, and this remoteness allowed the public to ignore the Gulag, even though they were aware that it existed. The physical remoteness becomes a convenient intellectual remoteness.

Solzhenitsyn suggests that the authorities intended the camps’ remoteness to hide the prisoners from the civilians, indicating the state was ashamed of its own inhumanity and feared reprisals from its citizens. Instead, the state used distance to hide its shameful behavior, and the citizens could willfully ignore the camps. The state and its citizens had apparently reached an unspoken agreement: The camps were permitted so long as they were ignorable. Solzhenitsyn criticizes the Soviet Union for implementing this arrangement, but his criticism extends to the citizens who remained willfully ignorant. Even though the citizens were the victims of state violence, they were ultimately complicit.

As a citizen of the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn is not free from his own blame. He acknowledges his willful participation in the society which victimized its people. He admits that he was aware of the Gulag system but long ignored its reality. Like many others, Solzhenitsyn felt powerless to change things, so he agreed to turn aside. He even willingly joined the army to fight against the Germans, but despite his subservience, the state sent him to the Gulag. His personal story of willful ignorance becomes a criticism of the Soviet citizens: By ignoring the camps, the people were not saving themselves, but rather perpetuating a system which would inevitably turn against them.