This brutal shattering glimpse of the fate of millions of Russians under Stalin shook Russia & shocked the world when it first appeared. Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup the incredible luxury of a book the ingenious possibilities of a nail a piece of string or a single match in a world where survival is all. Here safety warmth & food are the first objectives. Reading it you enter a world of incarceration brutality hard manual labour & freezing cold
- & participate in the struggle of men to survive both the terrible rigours of nature & the inhumanity of the system that defines their conditions of life.