The Gulag Archipelago, by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

The horrors of the communist state had been documented before, but never with the verve and authority of a great author of the stature of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. In a voluminous work that catalogued crimes perpetrated by not only Stalin, but the system that grew out of communist ideology, Solzhenitsyn completely undermined the authority of the Soviet dictatorship.

Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the "Evil Empire" and even a cursory reading of "The Gulag Archipelago" would serve to drive home the point. The leaders of the Soviet Union from its very inception worked hard to impose an ideology on an intelligent and vibrant people. But since everyone did not want to go along with this new system, the leaders decided it must be imposed upon them. Beginning with Lenin and not ending until the fall of Gorbachov, the state set up and operated a system of prison camps that served several purposes. First, the prison system would house anyone who would not dedicate their life, labor and property to the communist ideal. Second, it would extort the labor of these people to make up for the inefficiencies of a communist system that could not create enough goods and services even to keep its own loyal workers happy. Finally, it would serve as a warning to anyone who would in any way question the ideals of communism.

Solzhenitsyn told his own story and the story of 256 others who were thrust into the camps, merely because they differed in perspective from the government. Many blamed the camps on Stalin and his thuggish minions (such as Beria), but Solzhenitsyn showed that the roots of the prison system found their way straight to the worshipped Lenin, and indeed, such repressive measures are the hallmark of all communist systems. This is because communism cannot be imposed on a free people, dissenters must be coerced. This was shown over and over again in every country where communism has been tried.

The stories of individuals interwoven with history and analysis in "The Gulag Archipelago" gave a human face to the suffering caused by the mindless imposition of a utopian system that failed to take into account human nature and the yearning for freedom. Ultimately, the book would prove to be one of the leading factors in the demise of the Soviet Union. Even so, today, many advocates of the left say, "But communism only failed in Russia because it was not properly done. The Russians were not ready." They ignore the fact that the ideology was at one time imposed on nearly half the people on the planet and everywhere, in every mode it was tried, it failed...China, North Korea, Yugoslavia, Albania, etc. "The Gulag Archipelago" does not describe just a specific case, but graphically shows the end result when leftists are allowed to have their way.