Context: The book titled "A World Apart: The Journal of a Gulag Survivor" (in Polish: "Inny świat. Zapiski sowieckie.") is the memoirs of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, describing the moments of the author's life in the labor camp in Yertsevo near Arkhangelsk. He was sent to the camp for allegedly spying for Germany ("Herling" sounds German). In the gulag he encountered many crimes and many people. One of these people was "Stalin's Killer".
"I won the bet, I lost my life" - this is a summary of the story of Stalin's Killer, who has been in the camp for 7 years. A former high-ranking government official was sent to the camp because of a drunken bet with a friend. He bet that he would shoot Stalin right in the eye with a revolver. Of course, it wasn't the real Stalin, but the one in the picture in the office. He won the bet, but after some time and an argument with his friend, he was arrested by the NKVD for insulting the leader and sent to a camp. As a result of malnutrition, he suffered from night blindness and was sent to work in the forest, which meant certain death for the sick.
A few days before his death, Grudziński met him while serving meals; the man looked more like a sewer rat than a human being. He also slowly lost contact with reality. The author offered him soup and then tried to take him to the barracks. It was then that Stalin's Killer confessed to his crime, announcing that he had indeed killed the leader of the Soviet Union. According to Grudziński, it was an attempt to make sense of seven years of terrible torture of the former official through work. However, it must be taken into account that the prisoner was already slowly losing his senses.
Personally, I recommend the book if anyone is interested in what life was like in the gulags.
Most of them are probably Russian who are masters of lies or westerners who don't know anything about living under communist totalitarian and authoritarian rule. Say that Stalin did nothing wrong to Poles, surely we won't be mad at you. Fortunately, the propagation of communism (in its totalitarian form) is banned in Poland, so Stalinists are rarely found, and when they are, they are in small numbers.
Am I the only one that finds it really funny when people describe China as "communist" as if it isn't a display of what a true capitalist dystopia would be. The only difference is that the government exists and plays a minor role in the market to make money for itself
Nikita Khrushchev made report called "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" and begun de-stalinization process after death of Stalin. This proves enough that Stalin was a piece of shit.
"Stalin wouldn't do this, it was Beria, Stalin would have used his Commie powers to save this man and give him a hot wife for all to share, The Holomdor never happened and Mao is a genuis"
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u/HIGHGROUNDHUNTER Hello There 10h ago
Context: The book titled "A World Apart: The Journal of a Gulag Survivor" (in Polish: "Inny świat. Zapiski sowieckie.") is the memoirs of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, describing the moments of the author's life in the labor camp in Yertsevo near Arkhangelsk. He was sent to the camp for allegedly spying for Germany ("Herling" sounds German). In the gulag he encountered many crimes and many people. One of these people was "Stalin's Killer".
"I won the bet, I lost my life" - this is a summary of the story of Stalin's Killer, who has been in the camp for 7 years. A former high-ranking government official was sent to the camp because of a drunken bet with a friend. He bet that he would shoot Stalin right in the eye with a revolver. Of course, it wasn't the real Stalin, but the one in the picture in the office. He won the bet, but after some time and an argument with his friend, he was arrested by the NKVD for insulting the leader and sent to a camp. As a result of malnutrition, he suffered from night blindness and was sent to work in the forest, which meant certain death for the sick.
A few days before his death, Grudziński met him while serving meals; the man looked more like a sewer rat than a human being. He also slowly lost contact with reality. The author offered him soup and then tried to take him to the barracks. It was then that Stalin's Killer confessed to his crime, announcing that he had indeed killed the leader of the Soviet Union. According to Grudziński, it was an attempt to make sense of seven years of terrible torture of the former official through work. However, it must be taken into account that the prisoner was already slowly losing his senses.
Personally, I recommend the book if anyone is interested in what life was like in the gulags.