Return from the Archipelago

"Return from the Archipelago" is the first comprehensive historical survey and critical analysis of the vast body of narrative literature about the Soviet Gulag. Leona Toker organises and characterises both fictional narratives and survivors' memoirs as she explores the changing hallmarks of the genre from the 1920s through the Gorbachev era. Toker reflects on the writings and testimonies that shed light on the veiled aspects of totalitarianism, dehumanisation, and atrocity. Identifying key themes that recur in the narratives - arrest, the stages of trial, imprisonment, labour camps, exile, escapes, special punishment, the role of chance, and deprivation - Toker discusses the historical, political, and social contexts of accounts of the Gulag experience and the ethical and aesthetic imperative they fulfil. Toker's sensitive readings provide extraordinary insight into the circumstances that determined a prisoner's experience of the Soviet penal system. Special attention is devoted to the writings of Varlam Shalamov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but many works, especially those by women, which are not well-known in the West are addressed. Consideration is also given to events that recently brought many memoirs to light years after they were written. A pioneering book on an important subject, Return from the Archipelago will become an authoritative resource for scholars in Russian history and literature.