Drawings from the Gulag: Selected Essays by Donald N Michael

Nascido em Ulan-Ude, Buryatiya, Rússia, em 1925, filho de um "inimigo do povo", Danzig Baldaev depois de servir no Exército Vermelho na II Guerra Mundial, foi servir em uma das muitas prisões políticas da era stalinista. Em 1948 foi a Leningrado trabalhar como guarda, onde começou a desenhar as tatuagens dos criminosos; a KGB, curiosa acerca do tema (temendo como sempre traição), permitiu que Baldaev viajasse pelo sistema de campos de prisioneiros (o Gulag) para fazer o registro das tatuagens dos presos, e isto lhe rendeu a oportunidade de testemunhar muitas das cenas tétricas que ele eternizou em desenho. Uma obra dantesca, obrigatória a todos que querem de fato entender o que foi a realidade do sistema soviético; esta obra é o equivalente moderno das pinturas de um Debret ou Rugendas, que nos permitem ter um vislumbre do horror que foi a escravidão nas Américas. O testemunho de Baldaev, juntamente com os de Aleksandr Soljenítsyn e Varlam Chalámov, compõem alguns dos documentos mais importantes para compreender a natureza do sistema soviético, contado por suas testemunhas diretas.

A perfect book to understand who are the russians and how they treated non-russians and everybody else around with an iq higher than 60

no issues with it. Great book series.

La vita nei Gulag, descritta dai disegni di chi guardava dalla finestra il susseguirsi di azioni e rappresaglie giornaliere. Un racconto crudo, un libro ben fatto!

Mixed in with the drawings are the Marxist slogans -- lies all - to beat people down so that they think they are the real criminals. The Gulag depicted by Mr. Baldaev is worse than any horror flick, Bible anecdote, the bloody mass-murders of the French Revolution, or the human vivisection practiced by Unit 731 of Imperial Japan. If one thinks he knows the extent of evil in the universe, "Drawings from the Gulag" will give him a quantum leap beyond his imagination of horror, torture, and mass-murder. Crucifixion? Being burned at the stake? Drawn and quartered? Holidays all.While not overtly touted, the conclusion any person of sense and humanity would have is that anything is better than Communism/Socialism, including anarchy. Its relentless war on religion, the family, and the producers in any society will bring about its own end, as it did in the Soviet Union under Stalin and to Cambodia under Pol Pot. Most dictatorships are mere gangs of kleptocrats who merely steal earthly goods from their subjects. But not Marxism. It steals people's goods and then their very souls. Islam has some rules (and strictly enforced) that ensure that it will last for generations, such as orderly man/woman relationships, obedience to authority, and ruthless punishment of thieves. The prominent Nazis of the Third Reich were tried, punished, executed, and/or humiliated but not the brutal monsters of the Soviet system, most of whom had long lives of luxury and peaceful deaths.Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (Gulag Archipelago) remarked about his regret that people did not take fireplace pokers to the heads of the NKVD agents who invaded homes to drag people away to the Gulag. Russians traded the Czar for ruthless thugs, jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Mr. Baldaev revealed this calamity in a way that no written account could ever do.The book is a reminder that, as Dostoevsky wrote, "...without God, all things are possible." American Progressives, accordingly, think that Stalin was a hero and his victims dangerous scum that got what was they deserved. It is a reminder for patriots and honest men that being arrested for political "crimes" must never happen. As someone said recently, "If they come for me, someone will be dead and I won't be the first."