Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Revealing the Gulag
Marking the centenary of a prison camp survivor whose works proved how inhumane life in the Gulag had been. With Solzhenitsyn scholars Dan Mahoney, Elisa Kriza and Leona Toker
The Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a towering literary figure whose novels, chronicles and essays have lifted the lid on the horrors of the Soviet gulag network, which over several decades incarcerated millions of often innocent prisoners. Born a hundred years ago, Solzhenitsyn survived the brutal conditions of a gulag in Kazakhstan and it was this harrowing experience that provided the impetus for his best-known works, starting with his novella, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and culminating in The Gulag Archipelago, a multi-volume history of the Soviet forced labour camps from 1918 to 1956.
Bridget Kendall is joined by two Solzhenitsyn scholars: Professor Daniel Mahoney from Assumption College in the United States and Dr. Elisa Kriza from Bamberg University; and by Professor Leona Toker of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, an expert on labour camp literature.
Photo: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in Gulag clothing. (Apic/Getty Images)
Last on
More episodes
Clip
-
Saved from the Gulag by pretending to be a nuclear scientist
Duration: 00:51
Broadcasts
- Thu 13 Dec 2018 09:06GMT成人快手 World Service
- Fri 14 Dec 2018 00:06GMT成人快手 World Service
- Sat 15 Dec 2018 14:06GMT成人快手 World Service News Internet
- Sun 16 Dec 2018 15:06GMT成人快手 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East Asia & South Asia
- Mon 17 Dec 2018 04:06GMT成人快手 World Service except East and Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East, News Internet & West and Central Africa
Featured in...
Classic literature: Reading between the lines—The Forum
From Moby Dick to the Moomins, exploring the books that captured the world's imagination
Do you think political or business leaders need to be charismatic? Or do you prefer highly competent but somewhat stern people?
Podcast
-
The Forum
The programme that explains the present by exploring the past