Here's what I wrote in 2011 about this read: "Wow, another Soviet-set, human-centric educational masterpiece by Solzhenitsyn. We meet two alter-egos: Nerzhin and Volodin." ( )

This book was written by Solzhenitsyn from 1955 to 1958, after his first stint in one of the notorious Gulag prison camps. In order to get it published he removed nine chapters but it still took until 1968 for this "lightened version" to be published. Even this self-censored version did not garner approbation in the Soviet Union and in 1974 Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the USSR. This complete version was put together in 1978 when Sozhenitsyn replaced the nine chapters and substantially altered a dozen more. The first version was widely praised but this uncensored edition is peerless.

Most of the action in this book takes place in a prison research institute similar to one in which Solzhenitsyn spent three years. The prisoners in the institute are mainly engineers, physical scientists and technicians working on various projects that the KGB and Stalin wish to have. One of the main projects is to produce a working scrambler for telephone calls but there are other projects such as an attempt to categorize all Russian speech patterns. It is this project that brings top security officials to the prison. A telephone call from a pay phone to the American embassy was made on Christmas Eve. It tipped the Americans to a plan to steal the atomic bomb specifications from them in a few days time. Of course all the telephones at the American embassy were tapped and a recording made. Security officials wanted to know who had made the call and thought the experts in the prison could perhaps determine from a small group of diplomats privy to the plan.

Many of the prisoners were former soldiers from World War II who had been captured by the Germans. Their offence was that they had spent time in German POW camps and were thus suspected of having become Western agents. Sentenced to terms of at least 10 years they were estranged from their wives and families and even if they were released they would undoubtedly have trouble for the rest of their lives. Their wives were vilified by anyone who knew their husbands were in prison and they also had problems getting job and earning enough money to live. In some ways this research institute was a cushy incarceration; the prisoners had enough to eat, they earned money that could be sent to their families, they had a yard to exercise in and they had access to books. They also liked the mental challenge of the projects on which they worked but the fact remained that they were incarcerated for a long period of time. Most of them criticized the State when they thought it was safe to do so but they had to be careful because there were free citizens working along side them and it was known that many of their comrades were stoolies. The one gleam of hope in their lives was that if they were successful in their projects they might earn remission of their sentence. Juxtaposed with their hope of release was a concern that they would be furthering the USSR's totalitarian objectives by producing the work. Horns of a dilemma indeed.

So much of the state security system doesn't make sense to our Western eyes. The interminable levels of bureaucracy and oversight seem ludicrous now. When the guilty diplomat is finally arrested his experience as detailed by Solzhenitsyn is horrific. And yet he was guilty of a significant breach of security so perhaps the treatment was warranted. Except when you realize that another diplomat who was entirely innocent was arrested at the same time and put through the same treatment so guilt or innocence doesn't really matter.

All this took place decades ago and we can treat this as an historical novel now. Except that the news continues to show us examples of regimes that continue to deny basic human rights to many of their citizens. Unfortunately this book is as realistic now as it was at the time it was written. ( )

If you read this book several decades ago, it was called "The First Circle," and it was edited in a way that the author hoped would allow it to be published in the Soviet Union (though it wasn't, only being published in the West in 1968.) The version I read was published in 2009 and restores his original intent in writing the novel, restoring nine chapters that had been cut, and reverting to the original plot, which had been modified as well.

The novel is about prisoners who live occupants of a sharashka, which is kind of an R&D facility made up of political prisoners. The sharashka is in Moscow, and life in the sharashka is significantly better than living in the gulags. However, the inmates live in constant danger of being shipped to Siberia (and many of them spent time there.) The title refers to Dante's first circle of Hell in The Divine Comedy--in the first circle of hell, "good" pagans live in a walled garden, unable to enter heaven, but able to enjoy a bit of freedom in Hell. To the prisoners in the sharashka, they are in the first circle of hell.

The novel is a tour-de-force, exploring themes of authoritarianism, dissent, the arc of Soviet history, etc. I found the chapters that described Stalin and his inner thoughts fascinating (and a bit frightening when being read in conjunction with watching the reality show that is the Trump White House.) Not saying that Trump is Stalin, but, well, you gotta read it. Highly recommended. ( )

If you read this book several decades ago, it was called "The First Circle," and it was edited in a way that the author hoped would allow it to be published in the Soviet Union (though it wasn't, only being published in the West in 1968.) The version I read was published in 2009 and restores his original intent in writing the novel, restoring nine chapters that had been cut, and reverting to the original plot, which had been modified as well.

The novel is about prisoners who live occupants of a sharashka, which is kind of an R&D facility made up of political prisoners. The sharashka is in Moscow, and life in the sharashka is significantly better than living in the gulags. However, the inmates live in constant danger of being shipped to Siberia (and many of them spent time there.) The title refers to Dante's first circle of Hell in The Divine Comedy--in the first circle of hell, "good" pagans live in a walled garden, unable to enter heaven, but able to enjoy a bit of freedom in Hell. To the prisoners in the sharashka, they are in the first circle of hell.

The novel is a tour-de-force, exploring themes of authoritarianism, dissent, the arc of Soviet history, etc. I found the chapters that described Stalin and his inner thoughts fascinating (and a bit frightening when being read in conjunction with watching the reality show that is the Trump White House.) Not saying that Trump is Stalin, but, well, you gotta read it. Highly recommended. ( )

I read a lot of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's work in college, but somehow managed to miss "In The First Circle," which is a shame. I enjoyed the book a lot and would have gotten even more out of it had I read it when I was immersed pretty deep in Russian history classes.

The story is semi-autobiographical and follows the story of several prisoners in a sharanska -- engineers and such who have a relatively comfortable prison life (as comfortable as prison life can be) as they work on technology to advance the Russian cause. Its a struggle for some to work for a country that is causing so much misery for them and their families -- but the threat of heading to a gulag in Siberia looms over those who choose not to cooperate.

I enjoyed the story a lot and especially the chapters on Stalin, which were eye opening in their likeness to another recently elected world leader. This was definitely a great book and worth the time it took to finish it. ( )