Nice compliment to Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archepelago is better because it gives you the soul and first hand account and is written by a great master--an enduring legacy worth even of re-reading. A master storyteller who can make you cry and cringe and almost relive the whole ghastly tragedy is the sort of history that plants deeply the will that this should never happen again. But Applebaum's account is good history and fills in many details from a variety of sources closed to Solzhenitsyn. in fact, Solzhenitsyn hoped that someone would do exactly this, and calls for it in his own magnum opus. I can see why Applebaum won the Pulizter prize.--well deserved. Applebaum leaves us with the cold assurance that such totalitarianism will most certainly happen again. Let's prove her wrong, even if our struggle is vanity and chasing after the sun. Imagine, Stalin with FB, Google, Microsoft, cloud drives and Twitter to hack, and complex algorithms to build cases against all who love freedom.

26 people found this helpful

Great book, with serious narration problems

Most of the narration was great, however I am shocked that there was no russian-speaking advisor to help the narrator pronounce the Russian names and words. Clearly, this narrator put zero effort to try to pronounce any of the Russian words even close to what they should sound like. She butchered them so badly that for a native Russian speaker it was absolutely torturous to hear. There were times where she mispronounced the same word in three different ways in the same sentence. If I had known about this, I would have volunteered my time to help her with the pronunciation. This oversight is absolutely inexcusable.

20 people found this helpful

Pronunciation is bad

The narrator cannot correctly pronounce Russian names at all. For a book written by an author as well versed in Eastern Europe, the narrator insulted her work by butchering pronunciation to the my great displeasure. If you're reading this narrator, Bukhta Nakhodka is pronounced Boo-(kh makes a hard h) -ta Na-khodka not Bookta nak hotka, the ship Dzurma is pronounced as Jur (like in jury) -ma, not the dezurema. Such butchering of names really killed much of the experience for this otherwise great book. Other than this, the narrator did ok.

9 people found this helpful

Torture of Russian names

If you could sum up Gulag in three words, what would they be?

Necessary, frightening, sad

What other book might you compare Gulag to and why?

"Iron Curtain" by the same author

What didn’t you like about Laural Merlington’s performance?

She ought to have been given at least a one-hour crash course of Russian pronunciation. Many names are simply not identifiable.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

That can't be done.

6 people found this helpful

Riveting story, flawed performance

Would you listen to Gulag again? Why?

Perhaps parts of it. I will consult a hard copy in order to digest and remember some of the many facts, statistics and quotations cited by the author.

What other book might you compare Gulag to and why?

Holocaust histories. Applebaum's history is based on newly opened archival information.

Would you be willing to try another one of Laural Merlington’s performances?

Not if it's a performance of a Russian-related subject. Her style was over-dramatic in inappropriate places, but worse was her horrendous pronunciation of Russian names, places, and gulag terminology. And it was inconsistently horrendous -- she pronounced the same name two or three different ways -- almost always incorrect.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Way too long for that but in places it was definitely hard to stop. The author livens up her chronological historical survey of the prisons and camps with the fascinating, if dismal, tragedies of individuals.

Any additional comments?

I find other reviewers' negative comments interesting. Applebaum opens her history with an instructive analysis of the contrast between the west’s cultural fascination with Nazi atrocities and its willful ignorance and disregard of Soviet evils. The details of the story are grisly and mind-boggling, but all too true and they deserve attention. The gulag is an important part of 20th century history and it is still relevant in Russia.

13 people found this helpful

informative to a degree

Anne Applebaum's books are always informative. She is very smug and thin skinned on Twitter. She has a pro-Polish bias. She has a tendency to over hype lesser known Gulag writers at the expense of Solzhenitsyn. That said I will buy every single book she writes.

12 people found this helpful

Great book, annoying narrator

This is an impressive, deeply researched book and anyone interested in history should get it. Five stars.

But how could the producers of an audiobook about the Soviet concentration-camp system not get a narrator who has at least a passing familiarity with the pronunciation of Russian words and names? Her voice is not unpleasant and she otherwise does a creditable job of reading, but I don't think she pronounces a single Russian name properly -- sometimes her pronunciation was so bad that it wasn't clear what she was saying at all. Seems like before undertaking a project like this, you might want to look up the pronunciation of Felix Dzerzhinsky, Lavrentiy Beria, the city of Lvov, etc. -- the narrator must have worked overtime to get the pronunciations so wrong.

4 people found this helpful

GULAG

“Gulag” is an important part of history. No one should forget the brutality, paranoia, and human degradation perpetrated by Joseph Stalin after the revolution of 1917. Anne Applebaum capitalizes on Russian glasnost by opening history’s door to forced labor camps during Stalin’s reign (1917-1953).

“Gulag” is well written and fairly documents a history of gulags in Stalinist Russia. Historians and descendants of gulag prisoners will be enlightened by Applebaum’s research but the book is too long and repetitive for general consumption. One doubts most Russian citizens wish to be reminded of gulags’ enforced labor, starvation, and death–just as most Americans would dislike being reminded of slavery.

Many gulag’ leaders were never punished for their crimes against humanity. Applebaum explains that the purpose of this book is to let the world know gulag-like imprisonment will occur again; if not in Russia, in some other country that succumbs to totalitarian rule, where the worst in human nature reveals itself.

3 people found this helpful

Compelling history of Soviet oppression

Would you consider the audio edition of Gulag to be better than the print version?

I am enjoying listening to the book-- however the narrator's pronunciation of Russian places and names drives me crazy! I find her rendition of Russian words very distracting in that it is so deliberate, and stilted. I can't stand it.
The story however is very compelling-- a history of Soviet cruelty that the west is woefully unaware of. With recent news events in Ukraine, this book is very revealing and helpful in understanding just why the people of the former Soviet Union do not want to go back under the control of the Russian communist regime.

What did you like best about this story?

A overview of the gulag system in the former Soviet Union.

Any additional comments?

The reader does a fine job-- except with Russian language words. You will see what I mean!

3 people found this helpful

Reader struggles with russian words

This book does an excellent job of both emotionally and quantitatively exploring the GULAG system and various related trends throughout Soviet history. I highly recommend consuming this book in some form.
However, the narrator has A LOT of trouble with russian words and names. Im a russian speaking student of russian history; I can recognize the names she was trying to say and it was just annoying rather than confusing. Im worried, though, that people new to russian history will be confused by the inconsisted pronunciation of certain names and think, for example, that BerIa and BEria are different people. Or YEzhov and YezhOV (both the stress and nature of the o change in these). Yagoda is occasionally "Yogada." So while some mispronunciations are consistent and should only be a problem if you want to spell the name later (ex. "Derzherzhinsky" for Dzerzhinsky and "Vladvivostok" for Vladivostok), some will vary wildly and could be an issue.

6 people found this helpful