Steven A. Barnes
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151120
- eISBN:
- 9781400838615
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151120.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This book offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the role of the Gulag—the Soviet Union's vast system of forced-labor camps, internal exile, and prisons—in Soviet society. Soviet authorities ...
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This book offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the role of the Gulag—the Soviet Union's vast system of forced-labor camps, internal exile, and prisons—in Soviet society. Soviet authorities undoubtedly had the means to exterminate all the prisoners who passed through the Gulag, but unlike the Nazis they did not conceive of their concentration camps as instruments of genocide. This book argues that the Gulag must be understood primarily as a penal institution where prisoners were given one final chance to reintegrate into Soviet society. Millions whom authorities deemed “re-educated” through brutal forced labor were allowed to leave. Millions more who “failed” never got out alive. Drawing on newly opened archives in Russia and Kazakhstan as well as memoirs by actual prisoners, the book shows how the Gulag was integral to the Soviet goal of building a utopian socialist society. It takes readers into the Gulag itself, focusing on one outpost of the Gulag system in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, a location that featured the full panoply of Soviet detention institutions. The book traces the Gulag experience from its beginnings after the 1917 Russian Revolution to its decline following the 1953 death of Stalin. It reveals how the Gulag defined the border between those who would re-enter Soviet society and those who would be excluded through death.Less
This book offers a fundamental reinterpretation of the role of the Gulag—the Soviet Union's vast system of forced-labor camps, internal exile, and prisons—in Soviet society. Soviet authorities undoubtedly had the means to exterminate all the prisoners who passed through the Gulag, but unlike the Nazis they did not conceive of their concentration camps as instruments of genocide. This book argues that the Gulag must be understood primarily as a penal institution where prisoners were given one final chance to reintegrate into Soviet society. Millions whom authorities deemed “re-educated” through brutal forced labor were allowed to leave. Millions more who “failed” never got out alive. Drawing on newly opened archives in Russia and Kazakhstan as well as memoirs by actual prisoners, the book shows how the Gulag was integral to the Soviet goal of building a utopian socialist society. It takes readers into the Gulag itself, focusing on one outpost of the Gulag system in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, a location that featured the full panoply of Soviet detention institutions. The book traces the Gulag experience from its beginnings after the 1917 Russian Revolution to its decline following the 1953 death of Stalin. It reveals how the Gulag defined the border between those who would re-enter Soviet society and those who would be excluded through death.
Chris Ferns
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780853235941
- eISBN:
- 9781781380642
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235941.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines a number of utopias of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in which the traditional paradigm is still clearly evident. It considers some of the consequences of its ...
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This chapter examines a number of utopias of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in which the traditional paradigm is still clearly evident. It considers some of the consequences of its interaction with the very different social and political ideals embodied in the utopian societies depicted. The analysis focuses on Bellamy's Looking Backward and H. G. Wells's A Modern Utopia, Men Like Gods, and In the Days of the Comet.Less
This chapter examines a number of utopias of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in which the traditional paradigm is still clearly evident. It considers some of the consequences of its interaction with the very different social and political ideals embodied in the utopian societies depicted. The analysis focuses on Bellamy's Looking Backward and H. G. Wells's A Modern Utopia, Men Like Gods, and In the Days of the Comet.
Chris Ferns
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780853235941
- eISBN:
- 9781781380642
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Discontinued
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853235941.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Utopian societies exhibit a variety of ways of organising the financial, political, and emotional relationships between people. For all this diversity, however, one thing that exhibits far less ...
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Utopian societies exhibit a variety of ways of organising the financial, political, and emotional relationships between people. For all this diversity, however, one thing that exhibits far less variation is the story, the framing narrative that accounts for how the narrator reaches the more perfect society and obtains the opportunity to witness its distinctive excellences. This book is about that story, the curious hybrid of the traveller's tale and the classical dialogue that emerges in the Renaissance, but whose outlines remain clearly apparent even in some of the most recent utopian writing.Less
Utopian societies exhibit a variety of ways of organising the financial, political, and emotional relationships between people. For all this diversity, however, one thing that exhibits far less variation is the story, the framing narrative that accounts for how the narrator reaches the more perfect society and obtains the opportunity to witness its distinctive excellences. This book is about that story, the curious hybrid of the traveller's tale and the classical dialogue that emerges in the Renaissance, but whose outlines remain clearly apparent even in some of the most recent utopian writing.
