“Shukov stared at the ceiling and said nothing. He no longer knew whether he wanted to be free or not. To begin with, he’d wanted it very much and counted up every evening how many days he still had to serve. Then he’d gotten fed up with it. And still later it had gradually dawnedContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Prison Sentences in Stalinist Soviet Union”
Tag Archives: “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
RKS Literature: Freedom of Speech in the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)
“The good thing about hard-labor camps is that you have all the freedom in the world to sound off. In Ust-Izhma you’d only have to whisper that people couldn’t buy matches outside and they’d clap another 10 on you. Here you could shout anything you liked from a top bunk and the stoolies wouldn’t reportContinue reading “RKS Literature: Freedom of Speech in the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: The Perpetual Sentence in the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)
“Another thing the searchers looked for in the morning: men wearing civilian dress under prison clothes. Never mind that everybody had been stripped of his civilian belongings long ago and told that he’d get them back the day his sentence ended (a day nobody in the camp had yet seen).” “One Day in the LifeContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Perpetual Sentence in the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: Everyone Taking Their Cut of Bread at the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)
“Shukov had drawn a few thousand bread rations in jails and prison camps, and though he’d never had the chance to weigh his portion on the scales, and anyway was too timid to kick up a fuss and demand his rights, he knew better than most prisoners, that a bread cutter who gave full measureContinue reading “RKS Literature: Everyone Taking Their Cut of Bread at the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: The Boss Man and Thievery at the Gulag (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
“What the boss man doles out is all you will get. Only you won’t get even that, what with the cooks and their stoolies and trusties. There’s thieving on the site, there’s thieving in the camp, and there was thieving before the food ever left the store.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “One Day in the Life ofContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Boss Man and Thievery at the Gulag (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS Literature: Thoughts of a Convict (Aleksander Solzhenitsyn)
“A convict’s thoughts are no freer than he is: they come back to the same place, worry over the same thing continually. Will they poke around in my mattress and find my bread ration? Can I get off work if I report sick tonight. Will the captain be put in the hole, or won’t he?Continue reading “RKS Literature: Thoughts of a Convict (Aleksander Solzhenitsyn)”
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