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The First Circle by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

This is a historical fiction novel. The First Circle refers to Dante's first circle in hell, that is the best place to be, if you are unfortunate enough to be there. The story takes place over three days of time, and much of it takes place in a Soviet prison facility, called a sharashka, where the convicts are developing voice technologies to be used by the Soviet Union. The story also follows prison officials as they leave the facility, some family members of the prisoners, and a couple chapters portray Josef Stalin as he is an interested party in the development of those technologies.

The main theme of this book is that there are people who will live according to their conscience irrespective of the consequences. Thus Nerzhin refused to betray his wife, irrespective of whether she would be waiting for him or not at the end of his term. He refused to take a certain job at the sharashka, even though he understood that he would be sent to a prison work camp.

Lev Rubin is a “dyed in the wool” communist who was unjustly imprisoned, and is working on being acquitted. He spends his free time arguing for communism and earning the wrath of the other prisoners.

Spirodon was an interesting character who was a hard working, non-drinking farmer with a wife and children, but his success as a farmer became a death sentence for him when collectivization began. But through a twist of fate he became someone assigned to force peasants into collectivization. At this time as he became an aggressor, he began to drink. He then went through prison, the army, in hiding, then in an occupied territory. But he finally decided to return to Russia because his children wanted to be there, and he was imprisoned upon returning. In prison he didn't slander anyone, lie, or steal, or curse, except when necessary. His whole hope was on how to help his family.

Ruska Doronin was forced to become an informer, and he rebels by letting everyone know about his assignment. At the end of the book he is in the punishment cell of a prison van being sent away.

There are many others in the book who have their individual circumstances and challenges.

The story starts as State Counselor Second Rank Innokenty Voldin tries to secretly warn someone (a naive buffoon) of a trap being set for him. He could not in good conscience just allow the wheels of injustice to turn. But the buffoon's wife refused to believe the warning, and her blunderings led to the secret police being able to record a conversation that shouldn't have been so long. As the story develops, the prisoners and their technology are engaged to determine the identity of the person on the recording. But even though the task was to determine the identity of the voice, the Soviets were very comfortable arresting all potential suspects and sending them all to interrogation and prison, because, “they all are guilty of something.”

Chapter 51 has an interesting comment on The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas which some of the inmates had read. Nerzhin characterizes Dumas' prison as a “seaside resort” compared to Russian prisons.

The Gulag Archipelago, volumes 5 - 7, by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

This is the final volume of the series.

One topic was prison escapes, how they walked through deserts for days without water, and everything they tried to avoid being detected. Unfortunately, whenever they found civilization, the local population out of fear would report them. So to continue fleeing, they had to steal papers and vehicles from local citizens, but then they were faced with the choice to either murder them and hide the bodies while they proceeded, or just to tie them up knowing that they would eventually free themselves and report their stolen identification papers. The only population who wouldn't report them were the people in the Chechen provinces who choose, even today, death over obeisance to the Soviets. Unfortunately, the prisoners didn't know that about the Chechens until they had arrived there and had stolen property which brought the Chechen's wrath upon them when they were caught.

During the late forties and fifties many of the prison terms went from ten years to twenty-five years, and there came into the hearts of the prisoners the knowledge that they had nothing to lose by resisting. The tactics of finding ring leaders and sending them to other camps were ineffective because they continued their resistance in their new camps. For some inexplicable reason, they just didn't shoot the ring leaders, or if they did, they didn't shoot enough of them.

The political prisoners, who for years had suffered greatly at the hands of the thieves and informers, began to assert themselves. They began to murder the informers, one by one, and the remaining informers would choose going into the punishment cells and torture rather than face the prisoners.

The thieves were always outnumbered by the political prisoners, and the politicals demanded that the thieves join with them. They did—life was preferable to death.

Various strikes occurred in the camps. High-level Soviet officials would fly in to negotiate—they would promise improvements, but once the prisoners were cowed and went back to work, the promises were forgotten. The demands of the prisoners were reasonable—guards can't murder prisoners for no reason; 8-hour work days and remuneration for work; the right to send letters; not being locked in their hovels; and a review of their cases.

But then they just struck and refused to listen to more lies. Interestingly those only with a year or two left on their sentences would stand with them. Word got around that in previous strikes when the loudspeakers said, “Amnesty for anyone who will come out,” those who did were executed or given new prison terms. But in the end, the tanks rolled in followed by the infantry, and the strike was squashed.

There was a total disconnect between the prisoners and Soviet leadership. The leadership believed the prisoners were enemies of the state and intent on destroying it. Many had no idea of the condition of the camps. The guards were forbidden to speak with the prisoners except to order them around—the guards were given inservice on what kind of people the prisoners were from the government.

When Solzhenitsyn met with government officials in the 60s, he had to be so careful of the questions he asked and the concerns he raised. He was worried that his manuscripts would be confiscated or that those people who gave him information would be imprisoned. He still didn't understand how it was that he was able to write his works.

Solzhenitsyn wrote how silently the evil had proceeded in his nation. He was a young husband, in love with his wife, and they were enjoying life. Yes, he was aware that sometimes a professor disappeared from the university, and sometimes a student would disappear, but it never touched him personally. It wasn't until he was sleeping under the bunks in an overcrowded cell that he realized what was going on while “he was dancing with his wife.”

He recounted how he wrote while in the prison camp, how he would have to work on something during the day, commit it to memory, then destroy it before the inspection at the end of the day. (Of course, if you were writing poems about how wonderful Stalin was, you didn't have to destroy them.) At one point he made a rosary with a hundred beads in it. While waiting for roll call he would touch each bead and silently recall what memorized passage was referenced by each bead.

Early in the fifties there were two key developments that greatly affected the prisons: the death of the paranoid Stalin and his replacement by a more moderate Khrushchev (but he was just less evil than Stalin); but more importantly the execution of Lavrenti Beria, who was in charge of the prison system since 1938. All of a sudden the lauded protector of Russia to whom all had affirmed their unfailing allegiance was a traitor. In Russia's culture, anyone who swears allegiance at any time to someone who later becomes a criminal is also guilty of the same crime. The prisoners openly mocked the prison officials saying things like, “When will you be joining us?” , “Sounds like you'll get 25 years,” etc.

Another topic treated was exile. There were various forms of it. Released prisoners often were exiled, sometimes to a specific place—sometimes they got a meal ticket; sometimes they didn't and many of these would beat on the prison gates to be readmitted to hard labor because at least there they hadn't starved to death. In some places they could get jobs; in other places anyone who gave them a job or even a meal would be arrested. Usually they could not remarry, and they were continually watched--the slightest infraction or accusation would land them back in the prison camp again.

Some prisoners weren't given a specific place of exile—it was common when the reported to the police on arrival in some city, the police would say, “You aren't assigned here, so leave.”

Exile was also pronounced on communities—those who didn't respond properly to collectivization, those who were more prosperous than other communities (obviously, they were taking advantage of the system somehow), or ethnic groups that someone in power hated. Everyone would be stuffed into box cars on trains with a half-hour of warning and several days later they were unloaded somewhere, or trucked or taken on sleds elsewhere. Those who didn't die in-transit found themselves in some inhospitable place. Sometimes they were given supplies, sometimes not; sometimes there was water there, sometimes not. This was cheaper than prison camps—no kitchen , no barbed wire, no housing—just some guards to shoot whoever tried to escape. Millions died, but many also survived.

During the Khrushchev period, many terms were reduced. One condition of being released was admitting guilt—that you confessed when being tortured twenty years ago wasn't sufficient—they wanted to know that you were reformed before releasing you.

One man admitted his guilt and was released. He traveled to the camp where his wife was—she was told that if she would confess for being a co-conspirator with her husband, she could walk out. She refused and stayed another three years—her husband told her she was stupid and left her.

For those who weren't perpetually exiled, they eventually became “free.” Free means that your papers are marked that you were a convict; it's hard to find work; it's hard to make friends; you're watched, and many think that freedom is just the period between prison periods; your family doesn't know if they dare accept you for fear they'll go to prison with you the next time. And then there's dealing with how you feel when you run into your interrogators, your prison guards, and other prison officials in the street. They are dressed well, have a good retirement, and all the good things in life—when they see you, they want to “let bygones be bygones.”

This series of books was certainly an eyeopener. Freedom is very much to be prized.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

The Willy Loman family lives a life of illusion and lies--as they flatter each other rather than looking at life as it really is, lying to get approval, and lying to avoid responsibility for their actions. A common theme with Cat on a Hit Tin Roof is that they don't listen to each other, except to pick up on the gist of what was being said and to interrupt with some flattering words. Even Linda, Willy's wife, who is generally supportive of Willy and rebukes her sons' hurtful behavior towards him, keeps interrupting him when he's trying to speak, even when he repeatedly asks her to stop.

Willy prides himself on his salesmanship record and his ability to build things with his hands, but he isn't selling and the home that he has remodeled over the years was done with pilfered building materials. Willy looks to his Uncle Ben for advice, but Ben is always in a rush to go somewhere. Willy wants his two sons to be successful, but they live for the moment. There are people who want to help the Lomans, but in their pride, they reject help and often abuse these people. Biff summarizes the Loman family destructive trait, "And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never stand taking orders from anybody."

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Blanche, an aging older sister who appears prim and proper (even the name Blanche signifies white) comes to visit her sister Estella and her husband Stanley in New Orleans. She finds them and their associates crude and uncultured. Stanley and his two poker friends are abusive to women in general, but their wives are willing to overlook their abusive behavior because of their deep feelings for them. There is conflict between Blanche and Stanley, and as the play progresses, it becomes known that Blanche is much more like those she despises than she wishes to admit.