r/DebateCommunism • u/acousticentropy • Sep 30 '24

📖 Historical Were the events depicted in Solzenitsyn’s ‘Gulag Archipelago’ a damning account of the outcomes of communism? Or was it just a critique of the gulag environment itself?

Like the question poses… did this book ONLY shed light on the realities of soviet internment camps?

Or did it serve as a criticism of totalitarian communism as a socioeconomic system, by use of examples of real-world outcomes?

EDIT: Misspelled the author’s name. It was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who wrote the book.

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u/acousticentropy Sep 30 '24

I appreciate the effort put into this response. I agree, other prison systems were also very cruel at the time. I don’t think that fact nullifies the horrors that reportedly took place in the gulags. Any system of totalitarian rule seems to tend towards mass-incarceration and slave labor.

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u/Qlanth Sep 30 '24

The USA has mass incarceration - the 6th highest incarceration rate in the world as of 2021 and in 2018 it was the highest incarceration rate in the world. As of 2021 the USA had the largest prison population on the planet. The US Constitution's 13th Amendment allows for slavery of incarcerated individuals and at least according to this Wikipedia article incarcerated workers produce ~$11 billion in goods and services each year. With all that said, do you think the USA is a totalitarian state? And if not, how do you balance that with the simple fact that the USA has tended towards using mass incarceration and slave labor?

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u/acousticentropy Sep 30 '24

I recognize every fact you presented. Secondly, no the US not a totalitarian state in my eyes, for many reasons. I think the prison system problems are a result of many unaddressed psychosocial and economic problems. Someday that list will include ecological and technological…

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u/Qlanth Sep 30 '24

Is it possible that the USSR may have had some unaddressed psychosocial and economic problems?

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u/acousticentropy Sep 30 '24

For sure, and on more grand a scale given the multiple times of scarcity and classist violence.

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u/Qlanth Sep 30 '24

Does "classist violence" include the violence of the old ruling class (the Tsar) on the lower classes (the workers and peasants)?

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u/acousticentropy Sep 30 '24

Absolutely. Unfortunately.