The Day Will Pass Away: The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard: 1935-1936

by Ivan Chistyakov, Arch Tait (Translation)

A rare first-person testimony of the hardships of a Soviet labor camp—long suppressed—that will become a cornerstone of understanding the Soviet Union.

Originally written in a couple of humble exercise books, which were anonymously donated to the Memorial Human Rights Centre in Moscow, this remarkable diary is one of the few first-person accounts to survive the sprawling Soviet prison system.

At the back of these exercise books there is a blurred snapshot and a note, "Chistyakov, Ivan Petrovich, repressed in 1937-38. Killed at the front in Tula Province in 1941." This is all that remains of Ivan Chistyakov, a senior guard at the Baikal Amur Corrective Labour Camp.

Who was this lost man? How did he end up in the gulag? Though a guard, he is a type of prisoner, too. We learn that he is a cultured and urbane ex-city dweller with a secret nostalgia for pre-Revolutionary Russia. In this diary, Chistyakov does not just record his life in the camp, he narrates it. He is a sharp-eyed witness and a sympathetic, humane, and broken man.

From stumblingly poetic musings on the bitter landscape of the taiga to matter-of-fact grumbles about the inefficiency of his stove, from accounts of the brutal conditions of the camp to reflections on the cruelty of loneliness, this diary is an astonishing record—a visceral and immediate description of a place and time whose repercussions still affect the shape of modern Russia, and modern Europe.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Russian History, Memoir, Autobiography, 20th Century

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1936

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very hard to read - not the grammar - the content. Definitely worth the read though! Shows an otherwise unknown side to the prison society. Sometimes the guards are as much a prisoner, as the prisoner.

[Tatyana Naumova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Человек - существо очень шаблонное по сути своей. Нам скажи "ГУЛАГ", а мы такие - о, бедные з\к, холод, голод, нечеловеческие условия, смоделированный ад на земле - это, конечно, не лагеря уничтожения, а чуть пооптимистичнее, но суть, конечно, вся та же. И над этими несчастными и абсолютно бесправными людьми стоит сытые, одетые, отдохнувшие ребята из ВОХРа. А вот книга Ивана Чистякова о том, что в СССР хорошо жить только тем, кто занимает должность винтика на верху пирамиды, а все винтики внизу - это не жизнь. Для тоталитарного государства, говорит Чистяков, абсолютно не имеет значение, на свободе ты или в заключении, потому что ты сам себе не принадлежишь. Ты винтик, ты даже не живой, ты будешь заменен кем-то другим по щелчку пальцев. Что? Ценность человека? Звучишь гордо? Господи боже, вы же не разговариваете в магазине хозтоваров с мешочком гвоздей. Вот и тут не стоит. Пусть строят БАМ и ложатся вместо шпал. "Вынесет все, что Господь не пошлет" - пишет Некрасов, а Чистяков говорит о другом - не вынесет. Кончится. Сломается. Сопьется. Будет раскатан и зарыт в землю. Нет выхода, нет спасения, хорошо в стране советской жить.

[Stany · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only possible value this book may have is that it is the testimony of a guard and not of a prisoner. There are of course many testimonies of prisoners that describe life in the gulag camps that are of great literary value, but the literary value of this book is zero, absolutely zero. These are the ramblings of a mediocre person with nothing interesting to say. The only thing he does is complain about his job and his life in the camp. Boring and a waste of time. A pity because I looked forward to reading this book.

[Serafima Karkkila · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not the easiest thing in the world to try to write a review/recommendation for this book. On one hand, the book is succinct, informative, and makes for an “enjoyable” reading experience. A reader already well-versed in gulag affairs won’t get any revolutionarily new insights, but, personally, I did learn a few new things here and there that I think made this diary worth reading.

On the other hand, the book is a bit long considering the objective value of the information the reader will be getting. Also, the aforementioned lack of “shocking new Gulag discoveries” may make this a bit of a boring read.

All in all, I would say that while the reasons to read this book aren’t too plentiful or urgent, there are absolutely no reasons NOT TO read this book (if that makes sense). So, put aside all excuses, and make a bit of time in your life for 190 pages of the life of Gulag prison guard.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this interesting because we don't know much about the gulag from a guard's point of view. This one guard found it pretty miserable and it's a safe bet many others did as well. It was a bit hard to follow at times, with names thrown around and conversations that obviously meant something to the write but without the context doesn't mean much to the reader. Still glad I read it.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth reading, makes you realize how good your life is.

[Marko Kivimäe · Rating 4 out of 5]

"20. [mai]
Roheline luht on üleni õites! Üleni õites!! Suvine päevake. Taevakumm on sinine ja sügav. Sopkade suitsuhallil foonil kulgeb rohelise lindina tee. Lõokesed lõõritavad nähtamatus kõrguses. Õhk on rahulik ja puhas, ainult kärbsed rikuvad oma suminaga seda rahu. Taresein paistab horisondil kui valge puri. Lõkkesuits tõuseb ilma õõtsumata otse üles ja sulab, kaob. Aga lilled - kollased, lillad, sinised, tumepunased. Lilled rõõmustavad päikese üle. Linnud rõõmustavad päikese üle. Päikese üle on rõõmsad lehmad, ajades kaela õieli, vehkides laisalt sabaga. Karjuse peni on pikali visanud, silmad kissis, keel ripakil. Kõrval raudteel töötavad tööarmeelased. Ühest pilgust piisab, et täita end vihkamisega ehituse vastu. Kohe annab tunda sinu tähtsusetus ja elu tühjus. Vaikust häirivad veduri raske ohe ja pikaldane vile. Pähe ronib mõte, ja nii see tegelikult ongi - kõik on mult ära võetud."

Elust Gulagis vangide seisukohast on palju materjali ja mälestusi, Solženitsõni "Gulagi Arhipelaag" on üks massiivsemaid kokkuvõtteid sel teemal. Vangivalvurite elust on aga vähe, kuna neid jälgiti pigem rohkem. Seega kui täiesti kogemata avastati noore haritud Ivan Tšistjakovi päevik, kes aastatel 1935-1936 BAMi ehitas vangivalvurina, siis avanes suurepärane võimalus vaadata seda maailma ka teise pilguga. Etteruttavalt ütlen, et ega midagi põrutavalt uut siit ei selgu, kogu see õudne projekt on ka läbi natšalniku silme läbi endiselt kurb ja lohutu. Siin päevikus on juttu BAMi algusaegadest, kogu see projektilohe sai ju läbi mitme iteratsiooni lõpuks valmis alles nelikümmend aastat hiljem. Tõlgitud on raamatuke tšehhi, poola, saksa, prantsuse, hispaania, itaalia ja eesti keelde.

Päevik mõjus natuke ilukirjanduslikult, samal ajal ka dokumentaalselt. Не рыба не мясо, seda isegi mitte negatiivses mõttes, pigem valgustaski elu pärapõrgus mitme nurga alt. Siin on palju ehtvenelikku ängi, millest minu silmis vene ilukirjandus pungil on. Lisaks on tunda, kuidas sisemiselt Ivan Tšistjakov suri teenistuse jooksul, on ka kirjastiilist tunda vaimset kollapsit.

"Ajus puurib üks mõte, puurib valutundeni. Ma teadsin üht-teist, püüdlesin, olin kasulik, olin pedagoog, olin teistele raamatuks. Aga nüüd on see raamat, need leheküljed suletud. Kes ma olen? Mille jaoks ma olen? Ei saagi aru. Kui komandöri ei tunnista mind isegi Punaarmee laskurid. Sillavahtkonnal on muidugi õigus, ära käi ilma lubatäheta, kuid suhtuda tuleks ikka nagu komandörisse."

Raamatu päevikuosa on mu silmis natukene nii-ja-naa. Oli väga huvitav, meenutas natukene kas siis kaasaegset technot või depressiivset blackmetalit, mis võib esmasel kohtumisel mõjuda monotoonselt, kuid lähemal vaatamisel torkab siit ja sealt silma (kõrva) huvitavaid detaile, mis pikemal nautimisel moodustavad väga meeldiva lisakihi. Tšistjakovi päevik on kirjutatud autorile endale, ilmselgelt ta ei mõtelnud kirjutamise ajal, et seda võivad tulevikus lugeda tuhanded inimesed. Ta oskab kirjutada, on poeetiline, samas puhtalt kirjanduslikus mõttes kisub jutt vahepeal üksluiseks ja nüriks. Teisalt, kui hakata mõtlema, siis see teos siin ongi tollase aja peegelpilt ning dokumentaalne mahajoonistus.

Rohkem ehk kritiseeriks ma Irina Štšerbakova sissejuhatust, mis venis liiga pikaks. Kuna autori kohta ongi vähe infot, siis keerutas eessõna minu silmis liiga kaua mitteteadmise ümber ning mõjus üldsõnalise vahutamisena. Natuke sai BAMi ja tausta kohapealt targemaks, aga jah, jäi tsutt lahjaks.

Lõpus on mõned lisad, mis olid ilmselt mõeldud reportaažina ajakirjandusse, kuhu nad küll ei jõudnud.

Kujundus on väga äge, on ära kasutatud algsest päevikust pärit noppeid ning illustratsioone, lisaks mõned fotod. Samuti on tõlkija Andres Adamson säilitanud mitmeid kasutatud lühendeid, hästi palju lisanud joonealuseid märkuseid. Tehniliselt tipp-topp, tõeline nauding oli lugeda.

Kokkuvõtvalt: on mõned noritavad kohad, st põmst üks, eessõna pikkus ja olemus. Aga kõik muu on minu silmis unikaalne vaade ajalukku, väga äge, et selliseid asju on välja kraabitud. Natuke meenutas olemuselt Eduard Laamani "Vapside vandeseltsi" käsitlust, mis ka jäi omal ajal sahtlisse ning tükk aega hiljem on leidnud tee lugejani. Gulagi pärapõrguraamat on asjalik lisa ja killuke leninlik-stalinistliku terrori pilti, mida ei tohi unustada ega pisendada.

[Bea · Rating 2 out of 5]

The issue with this book is, as a diary (and the sole surviving diary of a gulag prison guard) there is little room to make the book more interesting. A large majority of the book is Ivan Chistyakov having a bad time in a desolate horrible place and being upset about it. He is writing the diary for himself so fails to expand on ideas that may be interesting from a historical perspective and the snippets of character we do get are interesting but unseen. For example, another person berates him for always painting and taking photos, something that is entirely unmentioned in his diary. More interestingly, he is criticised later in the book for actions seen as combatative that we never see him take.

While some of the writing is beautifully lonely and it could be seen as an interesting window into how good people can be corrupted by a cruel system, Chistyakov is so critical of those around him and the prisoners he works with that for the first 2/3 of the book I found him completely unlikeable.

The appendix features two fictional stories written by Chistyakov reimagining key moments in this book that were very well written and engaging.

Ultimately, I am glad that I read this book but I would not do so again.

[Steve Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and only account of gulags in diary account. Drags on a bit.

[Ryann · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be a guard in a Russian Gulag and journal it for a year, only to whine in each entry. I don’t say that lightly, I too would complain every day that I had to work in such a place with horrendous weather and an appalling treatment of prisoners. However, I gained so little knowledge of the Gulag through Ivan Chistyakov’s journal.

Instead, he wrote every day on how much he hated being there and would eventually commit a crime believing that he would return home sooner if he did time as a prisoner, rather than work a miserable job for an unforeseeable future with no option to quit or retire.

I’m glad I read this, it’s not everyday you see a journal from the perspective of a Guard. I just wish Ivan would have spoken more to what he witnessed there.

[Ted Haussman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monotonous. That is best way to describe the life of an armed guard in BAMlag in 1935-36, which is what the diary reflects. I found it interesting that he portrayed the life / conditions of zek almost above himself / the other guards. All of that said, if you have little interest in the workings of the Soviet GULAG, this book would be dull. I rated it 3 stars only because I found it a valuable sliver of knowledge in my overall understanding.

[Andris A Perkunas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admit I could not make it through this book this first read... I could not help it I cried so much reading this book.
I could not stop crying.
The pain as we watch him drift further and further away from us, the fact he never returned home.
I cried.
Someday. I will read this book again, I will finish and I will tell the world of this injustice and I will work with every fiber of my being to keep things like this from happening again.

[Piyush Gupta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually hate the idea of abandoning a book after reading it halfway. This one, couldn’t give enough reasons to continue.
It’s a rambling of a prison guard trying to capture his routine life during his posting at a section of “Baikal Amur Mainline”.
Chistyakov narrates the hardship he encountered during his stay at BAM. He is mostly complaining the system and yearns to go back to Moscow, where life is not as cruel as it was there in BAM.

[John Harbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw many that rating this book quite low saying it was repetitive. My take is different as the repetitive nature and the growing lack of hope the author felt drove home how miserable the experience was. If you enter into the reading with proper expectations, it will perfectly encapsulate how life was for a prison guard.

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this pretty boring. It's basically 300ish diary entries of a guy who hates his job and is depressed. There's very little variation on that theme, he barely refers to other guards or prisoners so it's not really any new insight into the gulag, just his depression.

[Nissen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The diary entries give you a peek into what life was like at the time as a Gulag Prison Guard, and it leaves enough detail for the reader to imagine being there as they read.

[Tom Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Reelika Raimet · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://raamaturiiulike.wordpress.com...

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me say at the outset, this is not a book that anyone would read for pleasure. The Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard is raw and confronting, written by a man struggling to maintain his mental health in an environment designed to brutalise him. I read it for Vishy's Red October Russian Reads, and it is indeed a very salutary reminder of the extremes of the Soviet experiment...

It has relevance today because there are, no doubt, similar situations in repressive regimes such as China's, but also in places like Australia's detention centres where we know from media reports that it is not just the detainees who suffer mental health problems. (But we only know this about Australian guards, there are only hostile media reports about PNG local guards and yet it would be surprising if some of them were not also gravely troubled by their work and what they witness.)

Not much is known about the author of the diary, Ivan Chistyakov. As it says in the Introduction by Irina Shcherbakova, it is a miracle that somehow this text survived until the fall of the USSR: all through Stalin's Terror and the successive regimes, that somehow it did not fall into the hands of the NKVD officials, that it was not discarded and destroyed, and that somebody managed to send it to Moscow. It is now held for safe keeping in the Memorial International Human Rights Society in Moscow and its translation and publication was supported by an organisation to which I belong: PEN International.

What we can surmise from the text is that Chistyakov was an educated man in his thirties, well-read and fond of poetry. He was probably a teacher, perhaps a teacher of engineering, but conscripted into the army and then assigned to serve as a prison guard in Siberia. There's no word about wife and children, but someone sent him much-valued parcels and letters. It seems to me also that this diary was intended as testimony of a witness. Not yet knowing the extremes to which Stalin's Terror would extend, perhaps he hoped to share it in some way. But there is no doubt that it was kept covertly by its eventual recipient until after the fall of the USSR.

The period of time covered by this diary is from October 1935 to October 1936, i.e. before Stalin's Terror really began. But Stalin's ambitious plans to modernise the USSR with extensive rail links to service ports could not be realised without a massive labour force, and nobody was volunteering to go to Siberia. The cheapest, most pliable work force was the forced labour of prisoners, and prisoners had to be guarded, so conscripts like Chistyakov, who had been expelled from the Communist Party during the purges of the 1920s and 1930s, were despatched into appalling conditions to meet the construction deadlines that Stalin had set.

I've read Solzhenitsyn, and more recently Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov and also Zuleikha, a novel by Guzel Yakhina so I had some idea of the conditions that Soviet prisoners endured in forced labour, but it had not occurred to me to feel any sympathy for their guards. But this diary makes it clear that Chistyakov had no choice in the matter, and he suffered privations not dissimilar to the zeks he was guarding. His clothing, accommodation and equipment is atrocious: he is often cold, hungry and unwell, and whereas both Kolyma Tales and Zuleikha show that it was possible, though always risky, for some kind of camaraderie to assuage loneliness and despair among the zeks, The Diary of a Prison Guard shows that this was never possible in Chistyakov's position because he had to keep his distance from the zeks in order to maintain authority, and amongst his fellow guards there was always suspicion and the risk of being denounced under one of the punitive laws against dissent. There is no one who is his intellectual equal, or even as educated as he is, and the system is designed so that guards are always blamed for anything that goes wrong, with an extension of their service as punishment. Since the zeks are forever escaping, and deadlines are rarely met because of the incompetence of the administration causing delays in supplies and so on, Chistyakov's fear of being stuck in this nightmare forever is well-grounded.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/11/04/t...

[Daire Lüüs · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://trekseklugemine.blogspot.com/...

[Keen Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars!

“My thoughts are all over the place, like pages torn out of a book, shuffled, stacked, crumpled, curling like paper on a fire. I’m disorientated. Lonely. Sad. Twenty days ago I was in Moscow, alive, living my life, but now? There’s no life here. There’s no telling how high the clouds are, and it’s impossible to take in the endlessness of the hills and the emptiness of the landscape. One hill, then another, then another, then another, on and on for thousands of kilometres. It’s bewildering. Life starts to feel insignificant and futile. It gives me the creeps. Moscow! Moscow! So far away, so out of reach!”

I’ve read my fair share of gulag experiences from the likes of Solzhenitsyn to many other accounts in various historical books, but I am pretty sure that this is the first time I have read about the experiences of a guard on the other side, and I have to say it was mostly an engaging experience. Without doubt Chistyakov’s experience sounds almost as awful and as any zeks (prisoners). And in many ways he was a prisoner too, to the elements and the unforgiving geography, that punished all who ever set foot there. He was sent out to help oversee the construction of the notorious BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline railway project), living there for a year from 1935 until late 1936.

“My day off. Went hunting again, and again bagged nothing. I didn’t even see anything to shoot at. Cold. Minus 29, with the wind searing my face and hands. The trees are beautiful, covered in hoar frost. Telegraph wires iced up and looking like threads of fire in the sun. No thoughts in my head. Well, perhaps just the one: some day I will make it back to Moscow. I still have that hope. Hooray!”

He has an eloquence and sensitivity that you would not necessarily associate with a prison guard.
He manages to conjure up some vivid and at time profound imagery that brings beauty to the bleakness, even if only for a short while. Though to be fair he also comes across as fairly pretentious and arrogant, regularly giving us the impression that he is intellectually superior to everyone he meets, in almost every situation he finds himself in, leading us to believe that he is apparently surrounded by a savage mob of idiots. Though this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it gives him a more rounded and three-dimensional feel.

“Minus 42 degrees during the night and very, very quiet. The air chimes like crystal. The dry crack of a gunshot. It feels as if the air could break like glass and splinter. In places the ground has fissures as wide as my hand. It’s so cold that even the rails can snap, with a sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard. A message over the intercom to the railway station duty officer: ‘Comrade Duty Officer, a rail has broken at Kilometre 755. Hold the trains!’”

We get to feel the full misery and hardship of gulag life in here. For instance the entry for 14 March, 1936 simply reads, “Murderously cold. The wind chills you to the marrow of your bones. There’s nothing to write about because life is empty.” This is a world of bone chilling conditions, lice, disease and boredom, all sustained on a poor diet. There is a selection of gritty, black and white photos that certainly help to embellish the grim circumstances too.

So this is an interesting piece of history, told from a fairly original perspective, allowing us some private insights into a gulag guard’s psyche. Without doubt it is important, though ultimately like the surroundings he finds himself in, the diary entries eventually become somewhat monotonous and fairly tedious. The three accounts tagged on at the end are of mixed quality, the best being the last one of the lot.

[Pawel Mucha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Facet trafia do BAMu ( Bajkalsko - Amurska Magistrala Kolejowa ) i jest tam strażnikiem. Książke wybrałem bez przygotowania historycznego, bez wcześniejszego czytania pamiętników więźniów, bez zbędnych ocen. Po prostu chciałem posłuchać co facet miał do napisania będąc w takiej dupie, bo nie wątpliwie musiał być. Od początku pamiętników Iwan pisze o tym z jakimi debilami ma doczynienia, mowa tu o jego przełożonych, o tym jak te głupie są te zwierzęta, bo taki ich określa. I tak czytając o głupocie tych ludzi nie moge się oprzeć analogii do świata dzisiejszego, ale tylko przez chwile, bo przypominam sobie jak to wielu różnych ludzi w swoich książkach ubloewało nad samotnością swoich myśli. Czistakow pisze o tym, że grając w szachy musi się poddawać, aby nie drażnić przełożonego. O tym jakimi to są analfabetami. Bardzo mi się podoba jak kilkakrotnie nadmienia jak to opowiadał ludziom o kosmosie, o pochodzeniu człowieka i Ci byli bardzo zadowoleni. Zabawna wzmianka o dowódcy dywizjonu który słucha jego dyskusji filozoficznej i nic nie może zrozumieć...i nie zrozumie.

23 stycznia 1936 Czistakow pisze:

"Migoce lampa naftowa, kopci. Na pewno po BAM-ie ze zdziwieniem będe patrzył na elektryczność. Styczeń się kończy, niedługo luty, marzec. Wiosna i lato przelecą. Dokąd się śpieszymy ? Czemu spieszymy się żyć ? Nie wiem! Spieszymy się, oczekujemy na coś lepszego, później patrzymy - a życie przeleciało. "


Facet w środku zimnej chaty, z zamarzniętym jabłkiem na obiad spisywał takie myśli. Nie miał pojęcia, że kiedyś ktoś w innym świecie będzie siedział i zastanawiałem się nad tym co napisał. Nie miał pojęcia, że będzie powodem do zastanowienia się nad swoim życiem dla mnie. Facet żył przez rok w skrajnie ciężkich warunkach przy temperaturach spadających poniżej -50 stopni. Nie miał co jeść, żył niby strażnik więźniów a jednocześnie sam czuł się jak wiezień, tęsknił za rzeczami prostymi, rzeczami które dziś tak powszednie, tak zwyczajne. Zastanawiam się ile woli życia musiał mieć , by w takich warunkach funkcjonować, pisać, myśleć. Jak sam pisał, nie wiedział czym są myśli, skąd i po co się tłoczą. I to właśnie te myśli, myśli o wolności dawały mu siłe by nie raz po kilkadziesiąt kilometrów iść, iść przez śnieg , przyjmując na twarz parzący wiatr.

[Nemalevich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Документ огромной силы, но читать практически невозможно. Удивительные детали: автор, командир взвода ВОХР проходит почти ежедневно пешком 30-50 километров, в любую погоду. Ходит в карьер - рисовать. Регулярно пишет, что есть только два способа покинуть БАМ - пойти под суд (и получить реальный срок, зато - известной длины) или застрелиться. Жизнь охранника действительно мало чем отличается от жизни з/к, свободы только меньше. Но большая часть текста - неудобоварима, в контексте, окружающих героя людях разобраться невозможно, смысл ускользает. Имеется довольно любопытное введение, но лучше бы текст снабдить подробными комментариями.

[Alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

[17.6] Праздничный пост, книга для всех влюбленных: дневник охранника БАМа, командира взвода ВОХР. Уникальный материал; в основном до нас дошли воспоминания з/к, здесь же опыт выживания по другую сторону от лагерный черты. Короткие и однотипные дневниковые записи (читал в метро по дороге на работу, идеальный формат), куча повторов об одном и том же: скорей бы вышел срок службы, увольнение и статья или 'шлёпнуться'? Самое сильное впечатление: из предисловия известно, что у него ничего не вышло и в общем-то он сгинул, и вот передо мной год его мучений, переживаний, надежд.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Take a thought for the prison guards of the Gulag Archipelago. Their lot was not all that much better than that of the zeks. Chistyakov can sound a little whiny at times--as when frets about the good times and employment advantages his friends enjoy in Moscow while he's out in Siberia. Still, this book provides some background and texture to my understanding of the Soviet Union, particularly in the era of Stalin and his immediate successors.

[Jane E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredibly dull. Could have been vastly improved by a better introduction including details of the prison system guard hierarchy so that the titles made sense. A map of the far east would also have helped.

The translation was not good. Far too much colloquial English that did not feel right within a historic Russian text. (Purchased at King of Books, Moscow, Russia)

[Franklin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is more interesting than good and more important than either in a historical sense, however I can't say I enjoyed reading it. It was a slog through a personal diary that for the most part was the same couple entries every day. The one thing I keep from it is the phrase "the coming of the green attorney" which was prison slang for more people escaping when spring hit the gulag.

[Gali · Rating 5 out of 5]

5* because it was such an unusual book and the writing is so personal, which, you know, is normal because it is a diary after all. I wish we did know what happened to Ivan after the final entry, how was his short sting back in Moscow before he got arrested and then later went to the front.

[Pavla Ripinskaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Очень просто, очень коротко... и страшно. Никаких ужасов не описывается. Страшна. Сама обыденность жизни охранника - который в итоге сам был арестован. Книга - документальное свидетельство года его Службы в ВОХРе.