Even if The Gulag Archipelago was mostly fictitious, which it certainly is not, it would still be a staggering work of literary brilliance. There is quite liter

Even if The Gulag Archipelago was mostly fictitious, which it certainly is not, it would still be a staggering work of literary brilliance. There is quite literally no other work I'm aware of in Western literature that is even comparable. The prose is incredible, moving, at times dark and punishing, and in a turn hilarious and you really feel the wight of the exercise of having written the thing while reading it. The broad facts are well supported by what's come out of Soviet archives since the 90s and further details are supported by the Mitrokhin Archive. The surviving Stasi archives also paint a similar picture.