ABSTRACT
The Gulag Archipelago is a classic statement of social reality. It will rank as a foremost contribution to the literature on power and powerlessness long after the biography of the author ceases to be a point of contention or argumentation. A sure measure of a classic is that any one specialist is unable either to encapsulate or for that matter emasculate its contents. Solzhenitsyn is a writer. It would be a mistake to call him a sociologist, or for that matter, a novelist. He conveys experiences, he recites the truths of an entire society. The Gulag Archipelago should be viewed as a series of experiences, a set of lessons in fear and courage, in being oppressed and in doing the bidding of the oppressor, in working the system and in being ground down by the system. The essence of The Gulag Archipelago is the equation of Soviet political sociology with criminology and penology.
