Brian’s Reviews > Gulag: A History > Status Update
Brian
is on page 657 of 1040
The combined effect of the deportations and the war on the demographics of the Baltic states was shocking: between 1939 and 1945, the Estonian population declined by 25 percent.
— Jun 16, 2026 08:28AM
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Brian
is on page 830 of 1040
In 1836, the Russian philosopher Pyotr Chadaev wrote an essay critical of the regime of Czar Nicholas I: “Contrary to all the laws of the human community,” he declared, at the height of the Russian imperial regime, “Russia moves only in the direction of her own enslavement and the enslavement of all neighboring peoples.”
Wow. Not much has changed in 200 years.
— Jun 16, 2026 07:39PM
Wow. Not much has changed in 200 years.
Brian
is on page 378 of 1040
In fact, this question—“Did they believe in what they were doing?”—is actually a small part of a much larger question, one which goes to the heart of the nature of the Soviet Union itself: Did any of its leaders ever believe in what they were were doing?
— May 22, 2026 02:45AM
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Jonfaith
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Jun 16, 2026 08:41AM
Have this at home and recall the opening section overflowing with citations from Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov. I’m eager to hear your impressions.
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Jonfaith wrote: "Have this at home and recall the opening section overflowing with citations from Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov. I’m eager to hear your impressions."The best history book I've read so far this year.
I have had to read it in small doses - it's brutal.
That seals it: I'm taking it to Ontario next week. Thanks
