- 5/20/2025
En este impactante documental, exploramos "La historia secreta del Archipiélago Gulag", una obra fundamental que revela la brutalidad del sistema penal soviético y sus efectos en millones de personas. A través de testimonios de sobrevivientes, archivos históricos y análisis de expertos, este documental ofrece una visión profunda sobre cómo el Gulag se convirtió en un símbolo de opresión y sufrimiento en la era de Stalin. Desde la creación de estos campos de trabajo forzado hasta las condiciones inhumanas que enfrentaron los prisioneros, la historia del Archipiélago Gulag es una lección vital sobre la resistencia del espíritu humano frente a la adversidad.
El Archipiélago Gulag, como se conoce en la obra de Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, no solo es un relato de sufrimiento, sino también de valentía y lucha por la verdad. Este documental no solo se centra en los hechos históricos, sino que también invita a la reflexión sobre las implicaciones de la represión política en la sociedad contemporánea. Al finalizar, los espectadores entenderán no solo la magnitud de esta tragedia, sino también la importancia de recordar y aprender del pasado.
Acompáñanos en este viaje a través de la historia que revela las verdades ocultas detrás del Archipiélago Gulag y sus repercusiones en el mundo de hoy. Asegúrate de suscribirte para más contenido educativo y reflexivo que ilumina los rincones oscuros de nuestra historia.
**Hashtags**
#ArchipiélagoGulag, #HistoriaSecreta, #Documental
**Keywords**
Archipiélago Gulag, historia secreta, documental Gulag, Solzhenitsyn, campos de trabajo forzado, represión política, sufrimiento humano, resistencia, memoria histórica, lecciones del pasado
El Archipiélago Gulag, como se conoce en la obra de Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, no solo es un relato de sufrimiento, sino también de valentía y lucha por la verdad. Este documental no solo se centra en los hechos históricos, sino que también invita a la reflexión sobre las implicaciones de la represión política en la sociedad contemporánea. Al finalizar, los espectadores entenderán no solo la magnitud de esta tragedia, sino también la importancia de recordar y aprender del pasado.
Acompáñanos en este viaje a través de la historia que revela las verdades ocultas detrás del Archipiélago Gulag y sus repercusiones en el mundo de hoy. Asegúrate de suscribirte para más contenido educativo y reflexivo que ilumina los rincones oscuros de nuestra historia.
**Hashtags**
#ArchipiélagoGulag, #HistoriaSecreta, #Documental
**Keywords**
Archipiélago Gulag, historia secreta, documental Gulag, Solzhenitsyn, campos de trabajo forzado, represión política, sufrimiento humano, resistencia, memoria histórica, lecciones del pasado
Category
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TVTranscript
00:00In the next episode
00:19Leningrad, August 1973.
00:23Elisaveta Boronyanskaya is interrogated without a barracks in a sinister KGB office.
00:31After 5 days and 5 nights of interrogation, she is disfigured.
00:37With swollen lips and disgusting eyes, just like a captivity companion,
00:43Elisaveta comes down and reveals the existence of a hidden manuscript in a friend's house.
00:52After being set free, Elisaveta returns to the quarters that she occupies in a community building on Romanskaya Street.
00:59She will be found hanged.
01:02As for the manuscript, it is now in the power of the KGB.
01:05Four months later, on December 28, 1973,
01:10that manuscript, so feared by the Soviet authorities, is published in Paris.
01:16And then, the editorial bomb of the year 74.
01:20The last of Solzhenitsyn, Archbishop Gulag.
01:24It is a fulminating event.
01:27The whole world discovers the magnitude of the Soviet concentration system
01:32and how it has annihilated tens of millions of lives.
01:35An implacable diatribe against communism,
01:38which will become one of the most famous books of the 20th century.
01:42But how did this extraordinary book come into our hands, written in the most absolute secret?
01:58Everything begins in February 1945.
02:02The war comes to an end.
02:04Solzhenitsyn, a young officer of 26 years, is arrested.
02:08In a letter intercepted by the secret police, he had questioned Stalin's military talents.
02:14He is sentenced to 8 years of internment in a camp.
02:17Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who has not yet published anything,
02:20will base himself on his experiences in the Gulag,
02:23to write his first work,
02:25the story of a day in the life of a prisoner, Ivan Denisovich.
02:34In 1958, I had just written,
02:37a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich,
02:40but I did not consider that it could be published.
02:43I was afraid that I would be seized.
02:46I was aware that what I had written,
02:50the literary form, a day in the life of a prisoner,
02:53captured well the atmosphere of the archipelago.
02:56The atmosphere was happy with what I had written,
02:59but not with the perspective it offered.
03:02I did not feel that I had fulfilled my duty.
03:13I think, comrades, that I express the opinion of all those present here,
03:17if I say that these bastards need to be shot.
03:32I had not managed to evoke those 40 years of terror of the innocent population,
03:38the deportation of entire classes, like peasants,
03:42the arrest of millions of innocents,
03:45the executions, and how that terrible Gulag was built,
03:51that institution of the KGB,
03:54how it was built, of all that I had not said a word.
04:03The terror had begun long before Stalin.
04:06Already under the dominion of Lenin,
04:08the important thing was not what he had done to undermine the Soviet power,
04:12but the class to which it belonged, its origin, its education, its profession.
04:30The Gulag, which means General Directorate of Labor Fields,
04:33did not take long to establish itself.
04:37This racist,
04:40cursed gang,
04:43will be sentenced to one more sentence,
04:45execution.
04:55In 1958, I began to design the framework,
04:59the structure of the book,
05:01the parts, the chapters,
05:04the topics I was going to develop.
05:08But I ended up giving up, because my experience was totally insufficient.
05:13I knew what the structure of the book should be,
05:16but it was not enough for me with my personal experience.
05:19I needed an experience,
05:21to cover several decades, 40 years of terror.
05:24Terror.
05:33In the 1930s, the repression struck indiscriminately the country.
05:39In 1935, about a million Soviets
05:43try to survive after the Gulag.
05:55At the beginning of the 1950s,
05:58while Solzhenitsyn is interned in a field,
06:01the Gulag reaches its peak,
06:03with about 2,750,000 prisoners.
06:12After the death of Stalin in 1953,
06:15the regime loosens the nuts a little.
06:18It is the so-called thaw.
06:20Its successor, Nikita Khrushchev,
06:22seeks a forceful symbol,
06:24to show that the de-Stalinization is in progress.
06:29It will be published at the end of 1962,
06:32of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,
06:35in the prestigious Novimir magazine,
06:37with a batch of millions of copies.
06:40In 1963, the regime miraculously changed course.
06:44My book became famous throughout the Soviet Union.
06:48Solzhenitsyn is now a writer known by all,
06:51and appreciated by the power.
06:53Nikita Khrushchev receives him even in the Kremlin.
07:02The letters began to rain.
07:04Hundreds of letters, without exaggeration,
07:07thousands of letters even.
07:10Apart from the most interesting letters,
07:12the strongest,
07:15I started to mess with the authors.
07:17I stayed with them.
07:20And then I realized that fate,
07:22I just sent just what I needed.
07:26It was these people who provided me with the material
07:28I needed to write Archipelago Gulag.
07:33The arrest.
07:35Needless to say, it is a fracture in the life of a person?
07:39A lightning bolt that hits him full?
07:42An unbearable moral shock,
07:44that makes those who do not adapt go crazy?
07:49If you were arrested,
07:51there is something that would resist that earthquake?
08:04We did a considerable job in 1963 and 1964.
08:09By the end of 1964, it had advanced a lot.
08:23In 1964, Khrushchev is dismissed and replaced by Leonid Dreznev.
08:30It is the end of the thaw.
08:32The timid liberalization of the post-Stalin era comes to an end.
08:36The KGB, now headed by Yuri Andropov,
08:39regains its former power.
08:43The repression hits the dissident movement
08:45that is developing at that time,
08:47as well as the writers who publish their works clandestinely,
08:51both in the Soviet Union and abroad.
08:55Solzhenitsyn works in the greatest secret,
08:57with methods of conspirators,
08:59and continues his work on Archipelago Gulag.
09:02You could not pronounce the name of the people out loud.
09:05They could be listening to you.
09:08You had to use names in code, or nicknames.
09:13Then things worked like this.
09:15We moved in a very narrow circle of people of confidence,
09:18whom I called the invisible.
09:24Nadia Levitskaya and Natalia Milevna
09:26formed a political party,
09:29Nadia Levitskaya and Natalia Milevna
09:31were part of the invisible.
09:38Both had passed through the Gulag,
09:40and met in a field.
09:44Nadia, whose parents had died in captivity,
09:46became the adoptive daughter of Natalia.
09:49Why did I help Solzhenitsyn?
09:51My father, who was a famous geneticist,
09:54was arrested in 1941,
09:56and died in prison.
10:00My mother was arrested after the war,
10:03because we had lived under the German occupation.
10:06She died in a field,
10:08in the middle of the field,
10:10and her body was buried there.
10:13My father, who was a famous geneticist,
10:15was arrested in 1941,
10:17and died in a field, in Taishet.
10:23My brother was sentenced for anti-Soviet agitation,
10:26and was six years interned in a field,
10:29in Norilsk.
10:32I was the last to be arrested.
10:37When it is published,
10:38One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,
10:40Nadia and Natalia write to Solzhenitsyn
10:42and propose their help.
10:44Moved by his letter,
10:45he decides to meet them.
10:53From the first moment,
10:55we understood each other,
10:58and we accepted the rules he proposed to us.
11:03He gladly accepted our help,
11:06but he demanded the following.
11:09We should not tell anyone
11:11what we were doing to him.
11:14And we did.
11:33Elena Chukovskaya was also invisible.
11:36Liucha, as Solzhenitsyn called her,
11:38was at the center of the clandestine device
11:40of the writer.
11:43His rules were very strict.
11:45We all had a name in code.
11:48When we were in an apartment,
11:50he never called anyone by his name,
11:52and never used the phone.
11:55As far as I remember,
11:57he never left a record of his plans.
12:01If he wanted to say something,
12:03he wrote it,
12:04and then we burned the paper.
12:09We never said things like
12:11I'm going to this or that place.
12:13We never said anything
12:15about what we were going to do.
12:19This is how we used to proceed.
12:21Solzhenitsyn called to announce
12:23that he was coming.
12:26When he arrived,
12:27he did not ring the bell,
12:28he hit the wall
12:29so that no one would be aware
12:31of his visit.
12:33He came in and gave us things to do.
12:35He always did it the same way.
12:38He looked at his watch
12:40and said,
12:41I have 13 minutes.
12:44And after 13 minutes,
12:46he took what we had done
12:48and assigned us other missions.
12:50What did we have to do?
12:52Read certain books
12:53that could be useful to him,
12:55copy extracts,
12:57locate passages,
12:59check quotes.
13:02We had to control
13:04absolutely everything.
13:06We never spoke on the phone
13:08or out loud about our plans.
13:10We had to be cautious,
13:12hide everything.
13:13That's how we managed to hold on.
13:15None of our people betrayed us.
13:18As soon as he arrived,
13:20they stunned the prisoner,
13:22locking him in a standing dungeon.
13:25One of those dungeons so narrow
13:27that if you did not have the strength
13:29to stand up,
13:30you could only fall
13:32with your knees against the wall.
13:35They kept you in that dungeon
13:37for more than 24 hours,
13:39long enough to subjugate your spirit.
13:47Bresnet's return to power
13:49soon paid off.
13:52In September 1965,
13:54the KGB arrested two writers,
13:56Iuli Daniel and Andrei Siniavsky,
13:58for sending their works to the West.
14:01In 1965,
14:03I was stunned.
14:05In the apartment of one of my friends,
14:07the police discovered
14:09a secret hideout,
14:11where I kept some of my manuscripts.
14:13I was exposed to be arrested,
14:15and probably to be registered
14:17in my apartment.
14:19I thought they were going to capture
14:21Archipiela Gogulag.
14:23Luckily,
14:25there was no record.
14:28The KGB tightened the nuts.
14:30After this last record,
14:32which was a direct threat
14:34to Solzhenitsyn,
14:36he immediately decided
14:38to put Archipiela Gogulag
14:40in good hands.
14:42Two invisible people
14:44who do not know each other,
14:46Nadia Levitskaya and Georgi Teno,
14:48another veteran of the Gulag,
14:50were in Moscow
14:52when the night fell
14:54in the house of Nadia
14:57My meeting with Teno
14:59was so fast,
15:01that I have nothing
15:03to say about it.
15:05We had agreed
15:07an hour to come.
15:09I went down with Teno
15:11by the elevator.
15:13I gave him Archipiela Gogulag.
15:15I went up again.
15:17He left,
15:19and that's it.
15:23Solzhenitsyn was marked
15:25by that episode,
15:27because for him it was important.
15:29But everything was done
15:31in a few minutes.
15:38After making sure
15:40that no one is following him,
15:42Teno takes the manuscript
15:44of Archipiela Gogulag to Estonia.
15:56To continue his work in peace,
15:58Solzhenitsyn had prepared
16:00an ultra-secret refuge
16:02in the house of a friend in the field.
16:11It turns out that three Estonians,
16:13former prisoners,
16:15I was offered to go
16:17to hide in a place
16:19where no one knew me,
16:21to finish my book.
16:25That's how I ended up
16:27in Estonia.
16:33Arnold Susi,
16:35a former cellmate
16:37of Solzhenitsyn,
16:39had been interned in a field,
16:41and the rest of his family
16:43had been deported to Siberia.
16:45Years later,
16:47after the publication
16:49of One Day in the Life
16:51of Ivan Denisovich,
16:54it will be his daughter Eli
16:56who will take care of Solzhenitsyn
16:58during the winters,
17:00who will spend hidden
17:02in an isolated farm
17:04to finish Archipiela Gogulag.
17:13I had run into
17:15some real friends
17:17who were willing
17:19to risk their lives
17:21so that he could
17:23do his job.
17:25He had the feeling
17:27that this was the only place
17:29where he could work in peace.
17:31No one would betray him
17:33from here.
17:35This is an isolated place,
17:37quiet.
17:39People are not curious,
17:41no one comes to look
17:43or hear what you are doing.
17:45It was unlikely
17:47that the KGB
17:49would come here
17:51if he was prudent.
17:55That's how he came
17:57three winters in a row
17:59to work here.
18:01In 1965,
18:05in 1966
18:07and in 1967.
18:09He always took
18:11many precautions
18:13to come here.
18:15One day he had
18:17shaved,
18:19another had
18:21shaved,
18:23changed several times
18:25buses
18:27and trams,
18:29sometimes even
18:31jumped
18:33in the last moment
18:35of the tram
18:37to catch
18:39a bus.
18:45I arrived
18:47in the evening
18:49by bus.
18:51I got off
18:53a stop before
18:55the check.
18:57I got on the skis
18:59and climbed
19:01the river
19:03here.
19:05The wind
19:07erased my steps in the snow.
19:11I spent the night
19:13in the house.
19:17The next morning,
19:19before dawn,
19:21I went down the river
19:23with the manuscripts
19:25in a backpack
19:27to put them safely
19:29in my house.
19:35My hair was messy,
19:37my lips were bruised
19:39and full of pustules,
19:41my cheeks were badly shaved,
19:43my hair was frizzy
19:45and in the middle of winter
19:47a summer cap
19:49was sewn on my ears.
19:51I recognize you,
19:53you are the inhabitants
19:55of my archipelago.
19:57That's where he wrote
19:59with his typewriter.
20:01He wrote and wrote
20:03and wrote and wrote.
20:05I spent the night there
20:07and he was writing.
20:09I was listening to the typewriter
20:11all night long.
20:34He had to overcome
20:36great obstacles
20:38to do his job.
20:40He always had to think
20:42about places
20:44where to hide his manuscripts.
20:46He was writing the book
20:48without having at any time
20:50all his erasers in front of his eyes.
20:52That is, he had notebooks
20:54in which he wrote,
20:56here you have to insert
20:58such or such chapter.
21:00This chapter is hidden
21:02and another in Moscow.
21:04From a technical point of view
21:06it was very difficult.
21:08In 1968,
21:10a series of close friends,
21:12Elena Chukovskaya
21:14and Elizaveta Voronyanskaya,
21:16among others,
21:18mechanized the entire manuscript
21:20of the archipelago.
21:22We ran the risk
21:24of working near Moscow.
21:26Since the KGB
21:28was not intervening,
21:30the work is done
21:32in the usual conditions,
21:34that is, in full secrecy.
21:36This time they take refuge
21:38in the little house
21:40that has Solzhenitsyn
21:4280 kilometers from Moscow.
21:44In April 1968,
21:46the first volume is ready.
21:48Elizaveta and I
21:50mechanized the second
21:52and the third volumes
21:54at the same time,
21:56each with his typewriter.
21:59After having circulated for years
22:01from one place to another,
22:03after having been hidden
22:05and disseminated in multiple places,
22:07the Gulag Archipelago
22:09is finally compiled.
22:12Finally,
22:14I took in my backpack
22:16four mechanized copies
22:18of the three volumes.
22:24Can you imagine?
22:26The three volumes of the archipelago
22:28mechanized
22:30in four copies?
22:36I took it all to our typewriter,
22:38a man out of the ordinary,
22:40Andrei Kryzhanovsky.
22:46Then I went to look
22:48for the four copies,
22:50already typed,
22:52to deposit them in different places.
22:54But for several hours
22:56all the copies were
22:58in the same place.
23:02Later,
23:04Andrei and his wife told me
23:06they had been watching me
23:08through the window while I was leaving,
23:10praying
23:12that nothing would happen to me
23:14on the way.
23:16I am infinitely grateful to them.
23:18Without their help,
23:20I would never have achieved it.
23:22A man alone can not fight
23:24against such a machine.
23:26But everyone helped me
23:28without failing.
23:30No one betrayed me,
23:32no one made any mistakes,
23:34they did everything.
23:36And if I write this book,
23:38it is only in the sense of duty,
23:40because I have accumulated
23:42too many memories
23:44and too many stories in my hands,
23:46and I can not throw them away.
23:48I do not expect to see it
23:50I have little hope
23:52that it has been read by the survivors
23:54of the archipelago.
23:56I do not think at all that it explains
23:58the truth of our history,
24:00at a time when it is still possible
24:02to recover something.
24:08The time has come
24:10to safeguard the Gulag archipelago
24:12in microfilm format.
24:14It will be Valery Kurdiumov
24:16who is in charge of the operation.
24:18I proposed
24:20to take the copies
24:22to my house
24:24to photograph them,
24:26but Solzhenitsyn
24:28thought it would be better
24:30to do it at home.
24:32I knew how to handle the technique
24:34and all the material
24:36fit in a backpack.
24:40I started work
24:42at eight in the morning
24:44and finished
24:46around ten at night.
24:50It took us about 14 hours.
24:54In my memory, it lasted
24:56a whole day.
25:08Alexander Sasha Andreev
25:10was an interpreter at UNESCO in Paris.
25:12By chance of the calendar
25:14of international conferences,
25:16he arrived in Moscow in June 1968
25:18for a one-week stay.
25:20A sign of fate.
25:22Perhaps now or never
25:24is the time to send the microfilm
25:26from the archipelago to the West.
25:32Another invisible Natalia Stolyarova
25:34proposes Solzhenitsyn
25:36organize the operation.
25:40As soon as I arrive in Moscow,
25:42I see Natalia Ivanovna Stolyarova
25:44who says to me,
25:50Would you dare to take the mammoth
25:52that Solzhenitsyn told you
25:54in January?
26:00I said yes immediately.
26:04But I spent four or five days
26:06without sleeping,
26:08thinking where I would hide it,
26:10how I would get it out of the country,
26:12etc.
26:14I got cold sweats.
26:24I was given a plan.
26:28I had to go to a station
26:30very early,
26:32get off
26:34and meet someone
26:36whom I knew
26:38on the platform.
26:40But they did not tell me who.
26:50The contact is another invisible,
26:52Alexander Ugrimov.
26:54The two men recognize each other.
27:00We walked together
27:02to his car.
27:04He sat in front of the wheel.
27:06I sat next to the co-pilot
27:08and we started.
27:12To give a touch of irony
27:14to the matter,
27:16he passed in front of Lubyanka,
27:18the headquarters of the KGB.
27:24And he said to me,
27:26You have it under your feet.
27:28A few days later,
27:30Sacha arrives in Paris.
27:34It is done with the microfilms
27:36that had been placed
27:38in a box of caviar
27:40carefully concealed
27:42in the middle
27:44of the technical material
27:46of the UNESCO.
27:50As soon as I had the microfilms
27:52in my power,
27:54except in Paris,
27:56he sent me a telegram
27:58to say that
28:00the analysis of blood
28:02of his sister
28:04had given positive.
28:08That is to say
28:10that the microfilms
28:12had come to a good port.
28:14But she was confused.
28:16It was thought that positive
28:18meant that you are sick,
28:20as with Wasserman's test.
28:22So they all hid.
28:24Solzhenitsyn left
28:26three days, I do not know where.
28:28I was in Paris
28:30and they called me.
28:32It was her and she said to me,
28:34Well, what happened?
28:36I told her,
28:38But you have not received the message?
28:40The analysis of your sister
28:42has given positive,
28:44it means that everything
28:46has gone well.
28:52In 1970,
28:54the Nobel Prize
28:56falls on
28:58A Day in the Life
29:00of Ivan Denisovich,
29:02the First Circle
29:04and the Pavilion of Cancer.
29:06At that time,
29:08no one knew
29:10about the existence
29:12of the Gulag Archipelago.
29:14Solzhenitsyn lets go
29:16a while before publishing it
29:18and focuses on other projects.
29:20It will have irreversible consequences
29:22both for itself
29:24and for its neighbors.
29:30Afraid that he will not be allowed
29:32to return to Russia,
29:34he decides not to go to Stockholm
29:36to collect his prize.
29:40A year and a half later,
29:42the Nobel has not yet been officially delivered.
29:46The Swedish Academy tries to organize
29:48a ceremony of delivery of the prize
29:50in Moscow, in vain.
29:56It is a failure,
29:58but Solzhenitsyn wants to make public
30:00the speech he has prepared for the Nobel.
30:02At the beginning of 1972,
30:04a young Swedish journalist,
30:06Stig Fredriksson,
30:08has just been sent to Moscow.
30:10He begins to meet in secret with Solzhenitsyn.
30:12During our first meeting,
30:14it was a night of April,
30:16in 1972,
30:18he asked me if I could take
30:20from the Soviet Union
30:22his speech of the Nobel Prize.
30:24I had to make a decision
30:26at once,
30:28so I said,
30:30okay, I'll try to help you.
30:32As a result of the announcement
30:34of the Nobel Prize,
30:36the circle of the KGB
30:38narrows even more around Solzhenitsyn
30:40following, phone calls
30:42and home records.
30:44He gave me
30:46these black and white negatives
30:48of his acceptance speech
30:50of the Nobel Prize.
30:52When I returned to my apartment,
30:54I hid the negatives
30:56in a transistor.
30:58I took out the batteries
31:00and put an envelope
31:02with the negatives in its place.
31:06I kept the radio in my suitcase
31:08and took the train to Helsinki.
31:12There I met my editor-in-chief
31:14and I told him,
31:16I have a mail from Moscow
31:18in my suitcase.
31:32It was a very powerful text.
31:34I think it was there
31:36where he first mentioned
31:38Gulag Archipelago,
31:40because his speech
31:42was a tribute
31:44to all the victims
31:46who had not survived
31:48the Gulag.
31:50All this expressed
31:52in a very forceful way
31:54in his speech.
32:04August 1973
32:06Elisaveta Voronianskaya,
32:08who has mechanized
32:10the definitive version
32:12of the archipelago,
32:14is detained at the Leningrad station.
32:18They had been following her
32:20for months.
32:22The KGB knows
32:24that this 66-year-old woman
32:26is fragile and will not
32:28withstand interrogations
32:30and pressure.
32:32Elisaveta Voronianskaya
32:34was a person
32:36full of enthusiasm.
32:38She had completely surrendered
32:40to that book.
32:42She had kept a copy
32:44mechanized archipelago.
32:46I had warned her,
32:48I said, destroy it.
32:50I had made some corrections
32:52to the text,
32:54destroy it, I said,
32:56but I had been unable
32:58to do it.
33:00In autumn,
33:02with a friend,
33:04as they had thrown
33:06both to cry,
33:08but it was not true.
33:10And that was the copy
33:12that fell into the hands
33:14of the KGB.
33:16It was a shame
33:18to destroy that work.
33:20He had an exceptional relationship
33:22with Solzhenitsyn,
33:24and felt true passion
33:26for what he did.
33:28Elisaveta was found
33:30hanged in her house.
33:32Circumstances of her death
33:34and her imprisonment
33:36in Leningrad
33:38are still dark.
33:40Some witnesses
33:42even remember knife marks.
33:44When Solzhenitsyn finds out
33:46about the drama,
33:48he writes the preamble
33:50of the Gulag Archipelago.
33:52I have abstained for years
33:54from giving this book
33:56because it was my duty
33:58for the dead.
34:00Be that as it may,
34:02the State Security
34:04has seized the work today.
34:06I have no choice
34:08but to publish it
34:10without further delay.
34:20The situation was becoming
34:22increasingly dangerous.
34:24I told him,
34:26suppose we had to stay
34:28as soon as possible.
34:30If our next appointment
34:32is in a month,
34:34what do we do?
34:36Stig always told me,
34:38you have to call me
34:40before nine o'clock.
34:42I was out of Moscow
34:44and I had to arrive on time
34:46to be able to call
34:48before nine o'clock.
34:50Luckily I got it
34:52He hung up the phone
34:54and recognized my voice right away.
34:56I told him,
34:58is the inkshop?
35:00No, he was wrong.
35:02What? I was wrong?
35:04Is not the inkshop?
35:06Sorry.
35:08We just agreed.
35:12It took me two or three words
35:14to recognize his voice.
35:16His call meant
35:18that something had happened
35:20on the same day at eight o'clock.
35:30He told me,
35:32Stig, I have decided
35:34to announce to the world
35:36the existence of Archipelago Gulag.
35:44That night he gave me
35:46a press release
35:48where it says that
35:50the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn
35:52announces today publicly
35:54that ...
35:56I sent the message
35:58to all the press agencies in Moscow.
36:00He also gave me a letter
36:02for his lawyer
36:04Fritz Hepp in Zurich
36:06where he asked
36:08to translate and publish
36:10as soon as possible
36:12the first volume of Archipelago Gulag.
36:18At the book fair in Frankfurt
36:20in 1973,
36:22Solzhenitsyn's editor in France,
36:24Claude Duran,
36:26meets with the writer's lawyer
36:28at his request.
36:30The fact is that Hepp
36:32had moved to Frankfurt
36:34to meet with the publishers
36:36from all over the world
36:38who had come to the fair
36:40to talk to them about a book.
36:42It was then when he told me
36:44about a book called
36:46The Manuscript.
36:48This is strictly confidential.
36:50It will have to be translated
36:52and it will have to be ready
36:54for publication
36:56as soon as we notify you.
37:00When I returned to Paris,
37:02I took a geography atlas
37:04and searched for Archipelago Gulag
37:06in the index.
37:08I searched everywhere in Siberian maps
37:10and found nothing.
37:12I also asked several geographers
37:14who had not heard of any Archipelago Gulag
37:16in their life.
37:18Nobody knew that name.
37:20The translations are in progress
37:22in France and Germany,
37:24but the first edition of Archipelago Gulag
37:26that is prepared in Paris,
37:28in the greatest secret, is the Russian.
37:30I tried to limit
37:32the people who were aware of the matter.
37:36We only knew three people
37:38and quite late,
37:40but still
37:42the thing was uncovered
37:44in mid-December,
37:46so I wanted to publish it
37:48as soon as possible.
37:50Solzhenitsyn expected
37:52that the book would come out
37:54at the beginning of January,
37:56coinciding with the Russian Christmas,
37:58but it came out on December 28.
38:04The last book of Solzhenitsyn
38:06has arrived clandestinely to the West
38:08and has just been published
38:10by Archipelago Gulag.
38:16Three days later,
38:18several copies arrived in Moscow
38:20printed on Bible paper
38:22through some Russian sailors
38:24who had made a stop in St. Nassar.
38:28Thanks to the Samizdat,
38:30an informal network
38:32in which anonymous readers
38:34risked making copies of forbidden books
38:36to disseminate them,
38:38Archipelago Gulag
38:40circulates hand in hand
38:42throughout the country.
38:48It was very dangerous to read it.
38:50People borrowed it for one night,
38:52read it in one night
38:54and returned it the next morning
38:56so as not to have it at home.
38:58But they could also come
39:00at night for the book.
39:02People read it in panic and fear.
39:04The French weekly L'Exprès
39:06publishes exclusively
39:08the first pages of the book.
39:10It does not take long
39:12to imitate other European publications.
39:14The publication of Archipelago Gulag
39:16becomes a world media event.
39:18The translations reinforced
39:20its impact.
39:22While there was no more than in Russian,
39:24the world could not read it.
39:28In Moscow,
39:30the KGB becomes increasingly aggressive.
39:32It even physically threatens
39:34the environment of Solzhenitsyn.
40:02I just got out of my apartment
40:04and saw a man looking out the window
40:06on the stairs.
40:08Instead of going out to the street,
40:10I went to pick up my mail.
40:12At that moment,
40:14the man swung over me,
40:16covered my mouth with his hand
40:18and began to hit my head
40:20against the floor.
40:22I had a terrible fear.
40:32After the publication
40:34in the West
40:36of the first volume
40:38of Archipelago Gulag,
40:40the propaganda
40:42against Solzhenitsyn
40:44became even more violent.
40:46We had a meeting in January,
40:48a day when Pravda
40:50had launched
40:52a terrible invective
40:54against him.
40:56We felt that something
40:58was going to happen
41:00and we were going to be arrested,
41:02judged and imprisoned
41:04or exiled.
41:14I remember that meeting
41:16in January,
41:18the time when Pravda
41:20had published that article.
41:22It was very cold.
41:24I was frozen.
41:26We were walking
41:28and we got into a portal
41:30to say goodbye
41:32and I remember that he kissed me
41:34on the cheeks three times,
41:36like a Russian.
41:38It was as if he knew
41:40that we would not see each other again.
41:42As a way of saying goodbye.
41:46It was a very strong moment.
41:50Solzhenitsyn has been arrested
41:52this afternoon by agents
41:54who have taken him by force
41:56The mother-in-law of the Nobel Prize says
41:58that after ringing the bell,
42:00six men have swung on the writer
42:02and, according to her,
42:04Alexander has been taken unnoticed.
42:06When I came home
42:08at night to work,
42:10all the Western radio
42:12were already talking about his arrest.
42:16The night of February 13,
42:181974,
42:20Solzhenitsyn is taken to the prison
42:22in Moscow.
42:24He shares a cell with two other prisoners.
42:26The interrogations begin.
42:28It is nine o'clock at night.
42:32Killing him would have been equivalent
42:34to corroborating what he said
42:36in Archipelago.
42:38And deporting him to Siberia
42:40would have meant another incursion
42:42for the regime.
42:44The regime had to settle
42:46with exile
42:48and wait for him to be very unhappy
42:50in the West.
42:52By decree of the Presidium
42:54of the Supreme Soviet,
42:56Solzhenitsyn loses his Soviet nationality
42:58and is expelled on February 13, 1974.
43:02Surrounded by KGB agents,
43:04he gets on a plane
43:06to an unknown destination.
43:08His last image of Russia
43:10will be the snowy runway
43:12and the airport facilities
43:14wrapped in fog.
43:18After the expulsion of Solzhenitsyn,
43:20I was summoned by the KGB.
43:24An agent said to me,
43:26furiously,
43:28Anichkov and all your people
43:30all appear in the book.
43:34I answered,
43:36that's right,
43:38it's true.
43:40He asked me,
43:42do you know what the book says about you?
43:44Yes, I know,
43:46and it's all true.
43:48Then he asked me,
43:50have you read Archipelago Gula?
43:52I answered,
43:54of course not,
43:56I've only heard things on the radio.
44:0224 hours after his interrogation
44:04in Moscow,
44:06Solzhenitsyn lands in Frankfurt.
44:10His friend, the German writer Heinrich Boll,
44:12who welcomes him.
44:18Solzhenitsyn is a free man,
44:20but his wife and children
44:22are held in Moscow.
44:26In the course of the following months,
44:28the translations of Archipelago Gula
44:30are still proliferating
44:32all over the world.
44:48The first to publish it
44:50were the French and the Germans.
44:52The Americans arrived later,
44:54but the book had a tremendous success
44:56also in the United States.
44:583 million copies were sold,
45:00so it can be said
45:02that in total,
45:04with its 30 or 40 translations
45:06all over the world,
45:08the book has sold
45:10about 10 million copies.
45:18In 1976,
45:20with Leonid Brezhnev still in power
45:22in Moscow, in Lithuania,
45:24a veteran of the Gulag,
45:26Valis Gajauskas,
45:28alone undertakes the translation of Archipelago.
45:30Gajauskas knows the subject well.
45:32He has just served a sentence
45:34of 25 years in a field
45:36for belonging to the anti-Soviet
45:38Lithuanian resistance.
45:42Of a total of 250 pages,
45:44I had about 50 to translate.
45:46I already had a first manuscript
45:48and I just had to pass it
45:50clean to the machine.
45:54It was those last 50 pages
45:56that they found in my apartment.
46:00The KGB then proposes
46:02an agreement with Valis Gajauskas.
46:04If he declares in the Lithuanian edition of Pravda
46:06that he renounces all anti-Soviet activity,
46:08he will be able to return home.
46:10He refuses completely.
46:12I said, I have no idea,
46:14it's none of your business,
46:16investigate it yourself.
46:18I will not tell you where this book comes from
46:20or who gave it to me.
46:22And that's how they sentenced me
46:24to another 10 years in the field.
46:26Valis will have spent a total
46:28of 35 years in the Gulag.
46:30They had me working
46:32in the mines of Molitdeno.
46:34Others worked in the forests,
46:36others on the roads.
46:38That was the only difference,
46:40because cruelty and barbarity
46:42were the same in the Stalin era.
46:46It was terrible.
46:48How many people have died.
47:00It is a very important book
47:02because it is the first
47:04that describes the system of the fields.
47:06I would not have been exposed
47:08to spend another 10 years in a field
47:10without this book.
47:26For me,
47:28it is a sacred book,
47:30an unparalleled book.
47:40I considered
47:42and I still consider
47:44this book
47:46as one of the most important
47:48events of the 20th century.
47:52If we think that,
47:54after all,
47:56communism has never been judged,
47:58Solzhenitsyn's book
48:00is the only thing
48:02that allows us to know
48:04what happened in this country.
48:10The man of the fields
48:12is not just someone who suffers,
48:14but a witness.
48:16That is the strength
48:18of Archipelago Gula,
48:20which is a testimony
48:22of the greatness of the human being.
48:26If we judge it
48:28based on the effects
48:30it has had
48:32on the development
48:34of world history,
48:36there is no doubt
48:38that it is the most influential
48:40of the 20th century.
48:48I was aware of the strength
48:50of this book,
48:52a force
48:54that could never defeat
48:56the communist power.
48:58I knew that.
49:00But I did not know
49:02what was going to happen,
49:04nor what would be the fate
49:06of this book.
49:12The new edition
49:14has allowed me
49:16to name all the co-authors,
49:18all the witnesses
49:20of the archipelago.
49:24All the names are here
49:26with all my gratitude,
49:28as promised.
49:30I have fulfilled my duty
49:32for those who have died,
49:34and that gives me
49:36a certain relief,
49:38a certain serenity.
49:40This truth was
49:42about to disappear.
49:44It was trampled,
49:46drowned, burned,
49:48pulverized,
49:50but it remains alive,
49:52printed,
49:54and that no one
49:56will ever be able to erase.
50:00The New Edition
50:02Produced by
50:04Written by
50:06Choreography by
50:08Music by
50:10Editing by
50:12Edited by
50:14Music
50:16by
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50:20Music by
50:22Edited by
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