Redpill me on Solzhenitsyn.
I am two thirds through The Gulag Archipelago.
What's true? What's exaggerated?
He is a terrible writer but everything he said is true.
Communism killed more people than capitalism and had overall worse results.
>>390034
Can you provide sources that you find accurate?
>>390034
Found the tankie.
>>390048
No, friend, I'm a libcom.
>>390040
I was talking about this with an actual Tankie, who is Russian yesterday. Apart from fictional memoirs like the thaw books there isn't much out there in English.
Applebaum is worse than Solzhenitsyn. Don't trust Furr. Conquest on the "purge" is remarkably useful, but has nothing on the camps. Fitzpatrick, of course, is excellent on the whys of the purge—but isn't a camp historian.
>>390078
What do you think about Danzig Baldaev? I'm curious about exploring the Soviet atrocities and I'd like to see both sides.
>>390048
I'm deeply sympathetic to Solzhenitsyn. And not just at a "I don't like the Soviet Union" level. Like 'born again radical Christian' level. But Archipelago is not written as a well researched overview of the camps, and wasn't even intended to be read as such. It's a deeply personal work.
Even at the most charitable reading, Solzhenitsyn was writing under the constraints of a totalitarian system, something that is no longer true with modern Historians.
>>390102
Drawn works done for catharsis aren't the most stable source. Diaries tend to be more useful.
>>389702
He claims information that he couldn't possibly know, like how many people were interned in the gulag system.
You don't figure out how many people are imprisoned in america from going to jail.
He is a great writer but much of what he said is false.
>>390078
>Applebaum is worse than Solzhenitsyn
Apples and Oranges. Gulag Archipelago is a great work and surprisingly objective if you take in mind the fact that Applebaum writes some of the most retarded articles.
Always disregard Furr.
>>389702
haha guys karl marx did nothing wrong and communasm has never ben tried
