Rating: 
Summary: Excellent but hard
Review: OK, another review of this book isn't called for...but I mostly just wanted to see my name up here. :P It's a great book...I had to read it for a history course, but it's hard reading. I would only suggest tackling this one unless you're really intrested in Soviet politics.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the most important books of the century.
Review: When the inevitable lists of the most important books of the 20th century appear this one must surely be near the top. It should be required reading for any history or political science course, or anyone interested in current affairs or policy. It should be taken as a cautionary tale by anyone currently looking towards adminsitrative or bureaucratic control as a solution to social, economic or environmental problems.Solzhenitsyn documents the Soviet Holocaust which began earlier (no Virginia, it didn't start with Stalin, it started with Lenin in 1917) lasted longer, and killed many more people than the more famous Nazi Holocaust. Indeed, the juxtaposition of the two events and their relative prominence in our consciousness is itself a worthy subject for meditation. In an age infatuated with the progeny of Marxism, this book should provide a remarkable antidote to baroque, theoretical academic exercises.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest book ever written
Review: I read the entire work in 1984, trying to find out if Owell was writing about the Soviet Union. The prose took me down a terrifying cataract, helped along by the very involved but equally fluid and transparent translations by Whitney and Willets. It is like no other translation. At any rate, yes, Orwell was talking about the Soviet Union. The snoops and informers in the SU were the secret to its success, as were the snoops and informers in 1984. The six months I spent reading this, 10 pp per day, were segments of a nightmare. Now, the SU is no longer. But gulags still exist, at least in the hearts of intellectuals who know what is best for everyone else. How Solzenhitsyn managed to record this experience with such sarcasm and understanding the root of the evil (socialism itself) is a sign of his greatness and goodness.
Rating:
Summary: Terrifying
Review: A book of amazing horror and power. What makes it more than just a list of atrocities is Solzhenitsyn's effort to understand how the functionaries in the Stalinist prison system have come to be so inhumane -- and his conclusion that given only a slightly different fate, he, too, might have been a prison guard or interrogator or informant rather than a prisoner. While documenting a dehumanising, utterly destructive system, he shows us how the system itself results from the very human failings of the people running it. Absorbing, shocking, I couldn't put it down. And I've lost sleep knowing that the same sorts of regimes still exist in other countries, even today.
Rating:
Summary: By perhaps the best authority on the Soviet Union...
Review: The Gulag Archipelago is a massive, masterpiece of historical fact. While any recollection of the Soviet penal system (and even of the Soviet Union in general) is apt to be dark, Solzhenitsyn's sarcastic style had me laughing even when the stories were grim. A long book, but thoroughly enjoyable and informative.
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Summary: An candid look at the Soviet penal system
Review: This stark revelation of the Soviet gulags (jails) during the communist regime is an amazing achievement of memory and dedicated work. Solzhenitsyn deserves the highest marks for his work, both for its revealing nature as well as its painstaking attempt to account for the events inside this archipelago of prisons that stretched across the Soviet empire. Solzhenitsyn's pronouncements and thoughtful interpretations make this more than just a listing of horrors, giving the readers the stories involved. The writing is terse and somewhat rough, perhaps due in part to this being a translation from the Russian, but partially owing to Solzhenitsyn's rough hewn style as well. In all, enlightening and terrifying reading.
Rating:
Summary: one of the finest pieces of literature i have ever read
Review: Solzhenitsyn takes the reader on the incredible journey of soviet prisons and the penal system, based on his (and other anecdotal) experiences. he also exposes the fallacies of the stalinist regime and illuminates the reasons behind the terror of the communist years in the USSR.
Rating:
Summary: Like Orwell's 1984, but longer and for real
Review: This book reads like a dictionary. It's well worth reading, but it's hard reading. The author lists a lifetime of anecdotes from inside the 1920-1950 Russian prisons, sorted by topic. For example, 30 some types of torture, with actual names of prisoners tortured in each way. My favorite anecdote was the prisoner who had been appointed at birth to become Emperor of all Russia.
Rating:
Summary: Must read - the Forgotten Holocaust
Review: This biting, darkly beautiful chronicle is one of the greatest works of the 20th century. Vol. 1 overshadows the ensuing volumes.
Rating:
Summary: How the Soviet prison system worked & the human toll exacted
Review: Up to 60 million people died as a result of the Soviet prison system. This is the definitive story of how it worked, from the terror of arrest to agonizing death in the frozen tundra. Do not miss the chance to see how a totalitarian state comes into being and maintains control by crushing the human spirit. There is no greater drama than the stories found in these works because rarely have human beings faced such long odds of physical, and spiritual, survival. The first volume is the most widely read of this three-volume set. Unfortunately, it is also the most boring volume. The second and third volumes contain hair-raising tales of escape and revolt, as well as the final sections on hope
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