Description
Book SynopsisJacques Rossi was one of the most astute observers of the Stalinist system, in addition to being one of its victims.
Trade Review"Jacques Rossi stands perhaps second only to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his contributions to our anthropological understanding of the Gulag […] Rossi’s detailed descriptions of Gulag life near Norilsk, from intimate portraits of fellow prisoners to an analysis of whether a damaged can or a hat was better for receiving one’s soup ration, are endlessly fascinating." -- Jeffrey S. Hardy, Brigham Young University *
The Russian Review *
"The keen observations and reflections of a highly intelligent and educated man, committed to social justice." -- Katherine R. Jolluck, Stanford University *
Journal of Modern History *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Meeting Part One: Before 1. Never again 2. The established order 3. The future of the worldwide proletariat is more important than one’s career! 4. Fugitive 5. Secret agent 6. Let them stuff themselves with caviar! They won’t grow old! 7. Early indications of an announced arrest 8. The trap Part Two: During 9. From the dog house to the train station 10. We don’t torture foreigners 11. Confess, filthy fascist! 12. On interrogations 13. Daily life at the Butyrka Prison 14. The story of a blind man and coffee with milk 15. The verdict: now we’re going to put into practice Marxist-Leninist theory 16. Destination unknown 17. Transit. May your memory be your only travel bag! 18. An operatic voice on the Yenisei 19. Dudinka: the end of the world 20. The polar night 21. Surviving 22. Yes I am a communist and you are too; only between us there is barbed wire 23. How Jacques, the Frenchman ceased to be a communist 24. The friends of the people 25. Continuing in spite of oneself 26. The rebel: the first hunger strike 27. In the central prison of Alexandrovsk 28. The beginning of the end 29. “I Choose Samarkand” 30. “But sir, you are dripping snow on my floors!” 31. In Central Asia: the man who came from a country with no collective farms 32. To Nikita Khrushchev, [stop] I, Jacques Rossi, [stop] a Free Citizen, [stop] Am Starting a Hunger Strike, [stop] With No Time Limit and Until Death Part Three: After 33. Communist Poland: Origins of The Gulag Handbook 34. Seeing Paris again 35. Life after communism In Place of an Epilogue Afterward to the English Edition
