User Reviews

This film needs to be seen by everyone in the world it is not enough to be told about it you need to see this. The Gulags were Stalin's labour camps in which all kinds of horrific things happened I know at my drama school we recreated one and it was one of the most incredible things I have ever done. The Gulags were like the Nazi's concentration camps only the prisoners were not simply killed but they were basically forced to work until they were close to death or killed. The majority of people in Gulags were 'convicted' (and I use that word in the loosest sense possible) of crimes such as stealing bread to feed their families or being a state traitor despite having not a clue of what they were supposed to have done. These people were then sent to Siberia to work. I can't describe it well enough in such a short space of time but watch this film it is a travesty that this has not been more widely acknowledged. If you get to this page read these books Man Is Wolf To Man by Janusz Bardach, Journey Into The Whirlwind by Eugenia Semenovna Ginzburg, A Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago both by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Gulag by Anne Applebaum is good but its a really difficult read and very hard to get in to. but these books will open your eyes to things you could never imagine.

To be honest this is heavyweight, not only this documentary is almost 3 hours long, it is very sad as well and yeah it is old, but real gold, I am sure that nowadays it would not be possible to make such a documentary, not because most of the people on it most probably are dead and new generation does not now what they talk about at all, but as well, because this must be made when people in Russia still had a vision of greater Russia in future and people spoke free, not being afraid of consequences.

It is not like this is something new , since it is well know that before WWII communist first killed and dealt with their own Russia intelligence and opposition, own nation, but it is always great to remember those who have suffered, because of this! And if in the beginning I thought well, this looks way too grey and old to watch, I some how found my self watching it all, almost 3 hours! Such a documentaries should be shown in schools, since they actually makes you think and kind a open your eyes!