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History Russia & The Former Soviet Union

Rethinking the Gulag

Identities, Sources, Legacies

edited by Alan Barenberg & Emily D. Johnson

contributions by Alexander Etkind, Irina Anatolievna Flige, Susan Grunewald, Jeffrey S. Hardy, Mikhail Nakonechnyi, Judith Pallot, Gavin Slade, Lynne Viola, Josephine von Zitzewitz & Sarah J. Young

Publisher
Indiana University Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2022
Category
Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Russian & Former Soviet Union, Penology
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780253059628
    Publish Date
    Mar 2022
    List Price
    $112.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780253059611
    Publish Date
    Mar 2022
    List Price
    $46.00

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Description

The Soviet Gulag was one of the largest, most complex, and deadliest systems of incarceration in the 20th century. What lessons can we learn from its network of labor camps and prisons and exile settlements, which stretched across vast geographic expanses, included varied institutions, and brought together inmates from all the Soviet Union's ethnicities, professions, and social classes?

Drawing on a massive body of documentary evidence, Rethinking the Gulag: Identities, Sources, Legacies explores the Soviet penal system from various disciplinary perspectives. Divided into three sections, the collection first considers "identities"—the lived experiences of contingents of detainees who have rarely figured in Gulag histories to date, such as common criminals and clerics. The second section surveys "sources" to explore the ways new research methods can revolutionize our understanding of the system. The third section studies "legacies" to reveal the aftermath of the Gulag, including the folk beliefs and traditions it has inspired and the museums built to memorialize it. While all the chapters respond to one another, each section also concludes with a reaction by a leading researcher: geographer Judith Pallot, historian Lynne Viola, and cultural historian and literary scholar Alexander Etkind.

Moving away from grand metaphorical or theoretical models, Rethinking the Gulag instead unearths the complexities and nuances of experience that represent a primary focus in the new wave of Gulag studies.

About the authors