This diary is long - mostly because it includes my inadequate attempt at translating a few paragraphs of "The GULag Archipelago" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. These paragraphs are what the author chose to use as examples if Stalin regime brutality. If you choose to read them, be prepared for a surprise.
We are all familiar now with the comparisons made by Amnesty International of the system of US detention centers to GULAG. We are also quite familiar with the outrage at the comparison.
Much of what is now known about GULag (In Russian, it is a neutral acronym for "Main Directorate for Camps"), is described in Solzhenitsyn's monumental tome.
To be fair, the bulk of the book deals with imprisonment after a trial or tribunal. There is nothing we can compare with there, since vast majority of the detainees in the current war on terror have not even been charged with a crime. We can, however, reflect on the methods used in arrests and in pre-trial interrogations.
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