Ann Applebaum’s book is not only a complete history of the Soviet camp system, based on archival documents and witness accounts—from its creation in 1918 to the middle of the eighties. No less carefully than the chronology and geography of the Gulag, the author tries to reconstruct the logic of the executioners and the victims, to understand what drove them to kill and what helped people survive. Applebaum gives the floor to Russians and Americans who went through the camps, Poles and Jews, communists and anti-communists, and their testimonies come together into a picture—unbelievably unified and powerful in its impact. This is a detailed description of the zone world—with its laws and unwritten rules, its special language and hierarchy. “GULAG” by Ann Applebaum received the Pulitzer Prize and has been translated into dozens of languages.