The Long Walk

Rating:
Summary: EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK
Review: .

********************************************
I'm 90% through reading THE LONG WALK by Slavomir Rawicz. My sister-in-law Pricilla, passed this book on to me, and I'm grateful. It's the best book I've read this year, and hard to put down.

This story tells a scary society that is not free. Something to think about.
**********************************************
Slavomir Rawicz was a Polish Cavalry Officer in 1941 when Germany and Russia steamrolled over Poland. Guilty of nothing, Rawicz details how he was brain washed, tortured, beaten, drugged by the Russians, and finally sentenced to 25 years of hard labor in Siberia. I was stunned by the brutality of the Russians, and the Nazi-like world they created. The fatality rate due to the hardships encountered, I found, horrifying.

Rawicz is young, 25, and toughed by the thousand mile winter march from the Trans-Siberian Railroad to the labor camp, and by the people dying around him. He survives, builds his strength, and later escapes with a group of men who dared to walk 3000 miles at 20 miles a day. The whole journey from Poland to Siberia including the 1000 mile winter march, and the 3000 mile walk from Siberia to India are compelling example, of grit, spirit, determination, and will-power.

I'm compelled to search for still more information on these dark days. This book shows a narrow slice, albeit in great detail, of the atrocities committed by the USSR in its formative years. This is a period of history that needs much wider dissemination, and discussion.

Rawicz is still alive; living in England. God bless him.

Conrad Senior

Rating:
Summary: Reading this made me feel as though I had no problems
Review: A friend that we highly admire recommended this book to my husband and I. Although we read it years ago now, we still frequently mention it when one of us is grumbling about a problem and we brighten up and laugh. This survival story is truly amazing.

Rating:
Summary: A testament to the human spirit
Review: Having seen a review of this book in a literary journal I recieve, I was struck with the urge to read this testimony of hardship, loss and perserverance.

I was not disapointed when I put the book down, finished with the gripping tale of a man and his friends that can be described only with the heart, not in words. I cannot imagine the trials and tribulations of such a daring escape from the clutches of the former "Evil Empire".

Questions arise about the truth of the claims in the book, about survival, navigation and the like. To be honest, in a survival situation the mind and your will to survive and ability to live on is the most important thing a person has, and these are traits all members of the party had.

Mr. Rawicz is a testament to the human spirit, and our ability as humans to overcome and adapt, while never losing hope. His claim to having seen two Yeti are pooh-poohed by some, but I would believe it at face value. This mans integrity and spirit are beyong reproach. Let disbelievers to his story try to make a journey of 100 miles on foot with his pary's provisions and they will most certainly fail. Let a person who has the will to live make the journey, and I believe they would easily make it, with dignity intact.

It's said that you can survive three minutes without air, three hours without proper shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food, and three months without love.....

The members of this party stretched the limits of human endurance, and in the end, they had each other to help themselves along the untrodden path to freedom. The Creator was helping Mr. Rawicz along, on his terrible journey. His tale is true, and should be required reading for all children of any nation calling itself "free".

Rating:
Summary: May Freedom Reign, in Poland and Tibet
Review: I highly recommend this book. The best part about it is the contrast between the insane society under totalitarian Stalin and the compassionate society seen in Tibet and Tibet-influenced Mongolia and Buryatia.

Now, as to the truth of the account: Some aspects of the book ring true:

1.) As someone who has walked over 2000 miles in a 6 month period, I can say that the distances covered in the book (20-30 miles/day) are reasonable. 2.) Descriptions of Tibetans, Mongols & Buryats ring true with my experience & knowledge. 3.) Description of incarcerated life seems quite real & perhaps is hard to fake in detail.

However, some things don't quite jibe: 1.) I'm told its almost impossible to live beyond 3-5 days with out water. (Weeks with out food is not problem however) 2.) What about the other members of the journey. They could not go home so they are in free countries with free media who would be glad to tell their tale. Especially the American (conveniently named "Smith") would have come to light by now, unless, of course, he really was a spy.

The most likely scenario in my opinion is that some sort of escape through Tibet took place, but that the escapees were much less innocent than described in the book. Some of the escapees may have died in other ways, and indeed Russians may have been killed by the desperate prisoners to avoid capture. Note that when the woman is discovered, the prisoners initially say "we will have to kill him" Something like this may have happened in real life.

In spite of likely creative remembering above, in the end we should probably let bygones be bygones and appaud Rawicz for (rightfully) pointing out the sad fate of fogotten Poland at the hands of communist invaders. His cry for freedom is as applicable today as in 1941, especially when we consider the genocidal repression under which Rawicz benefactors, the Tibetans, now live.

One Irony, had the prisoners chosen to enter Lhasa (as I think they should have) they might have met up with fellow escapee Heinrich Harrier (author of "Seven Years in Tibet")....

Rating:
Summary: I Doubt This Story Is True....
Review: I spent two and a half years living in Mongolia, including time in the Gobi desert. I read the book while I was there. There are no large black snakes in the Gobi (Yes, this is documented; there are very few snake species in Mongolia....), and all of the information about Mongolia and the Gobi is inaccurate to a greater or lesser degree. I have severe doubts about the whole story. Still, if you take it as a work of fantasy, it's an okay way to spend a few hours' free time.

Rating:
Summary: Great adventure; great suffering!
Review: I've noticed some sceptical reviews of this adventure.Boy, there are some cynical people in the world! Are there huge black snakes in the Gobi? has any snake expert confirmed this as a fact or fiction? I presumed that this actually happened. What an incredible journey with such suffering! It's a great testament to what the human body can endure. Read it for that!

Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: In the genre of survival books, this book should rank near the top. It is a book about an incredible walk by a small band of prisoners who have decided to escape from a forced labor camp in Siberia rather than serve out their sentences working as slaves for the Soviets. With nothing but the woefully inadequate clothing on their backs, a few pieces of dried bread to eat, and an axe blade, they begin their escape which takes them directly through some of the most inhospitable regions our planet has to offer. Starting in Siberia in winter, hitting the Gobi desert in the summer then on to the Himalayas in winter, the small group of prisoners trudges on, enduring unimaginable hardship with such regularity and stoicism that it almost reads like fiction. If the book has any faults, perhaps it would be that it is written in a matter-of-fact style with no embellishment so that it seems almost dry. But, for me, at least, that style made the book even more compelling. Beyond simply being a survival tale, the story of these men is inspiring because it shows the strength of the human spirit and because it reminds us of how much we have and take for granted. One of the best books I have read and one that I am sure I will think of whenever I face a "hardship".

Rating:
Summary: history
Review: It is certainly a good idea to be skeptical about any historical account, and this one particularly invites such skepticism because of the lack of corroboration from the other persons involved. However, I found that the entire story is very plausible. The writing style is quite straight foward and humorless, but that is just the style this story calls for. I think it is a fascinating book. I have read it twice. It would be instructive for anyone wishing to get a first hand account of the inhumanity of the totalitarian state.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing story
Review: It is hard to imagine the hardships that Rawicz went through during WWII. He was a Polish soldier, newly married, and, along with a mysterious American, was captured and confined in a prison in Moscow. They were then sent by rail to a location south of Lake Baikal and forced to march hundreds of miles north where they had to build their own prison camp. He and others, including the American, escaped in the dead of winter so that the snow would cover their tracks. Always fearful of being captured by the Russians, they often walked at night. They marched south for about a year, crossing the Gobi desert and the Himalayan mountains (one chapter gives a quite credible account of seeing a pair of Abdominable snowmen). After reaching India and recovering in a hospital, the survivors went their separate ways. (Look at a map - they marched from northern Lake Baikal to India!!) The amount of suffering described is unimaginable. The book ends there. However, I was so intrigued that I wrote the publisher (in early 1995) and received a nice letter from Rawicz, now living in Nottinghamshire, England! Unfortunately, none of the survivors of the long walk ever reunited again. The mysterious American has remained just that (Rawicz theorizes that he may have been an intelligence officer and thus maintained secrecy - he went by the name Mr. Smith). This book was orignally written in the early 1950s.

Rating:
Summary: Great Story of Endurance and Quest for Liberty
Review: The story in a nutshell: A Polish Army officer is captured by the Soviets after they have joined Hitler in dismembering his country. Rawicz (the officer) is tortured in the Soviet prison system and sent to the Gulags. Faced with misery in Siberia and probable death, he and a band of others escape and undertake a two thousand-mile long journey from the snows of Siberia through Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, and across the Himalayas toward British India and freedom.

This is a great story. The author describes the mindless torture under the Soviet system in a manner that should persuade any reader of the evil of totalitarianism. The description of his train journey, hundred-mile winter hike through a Siberian winter to his gulag and life in the camp is fascinating. His will to survive amidst degradation, the elements and overwhelming odds are a testament to the human thirst for freedom and liberty.

As other reviewers have stated, there are some parts of the book that invite skepticism. His befriending by the camp commandant's wife seems as improbable as it is crucial to his ability to escape. The escapees journey across the Gobi Desert where his group went for many days without water beyond what I understood a person could tolerate. Without any climbing tools, his party went across the Himalayas to India -- a feat that seems fantastic. Also his brief description of spotting what could only be described as the elusive Yetti in the Himalayas stretches credibility (unless it does actually exist).

That being said, this story is exhilarating and I found it believable and enthralling. It is a wonderful adventure story and describes the limits of what the human spirit and mind can endure to survive in freedom. This book has been around for almost fifty years and was given wide play when first introduced. I'm going to assume the lack of anything debunking this widely told tale (or, anything that I could find) argues for the author's veracity -- certainly that frame of mind allows one to enjoy a stirring story.