A. SOŁZENICYN - GUL-ag archipelago. Parts 3-4 (in Russian). Paris 1974 First edition.

SOLŽENICYN A[leksandr] - GULag Archipelago 1918-1956 [Čast] 3-4. Paris 1974. YMCA-Press. 16d, pp. 657, [4]. Brochure.
Minor staining of rear cover and lower trim, crease of lower corner of front cover, internally good condition. Illustrations in the text. The whole book consisted of 4 parts published in 2 volumes, here parts 1-2 are missing for the set. The first official edition of the Russian text of Solzhenitsyn's most famous work. The writer worked on the book from 1958 to 1968. In the Soviet Union it circulated in illegally published, samizdat copies, printed in a small edition. The first volume (containing parts 1-2) was officially published for the first time in Paris in 1973, the second - presented here - a year later. "The book is a testimony to the criminal activities of the communist system in the USSR. Using his own experience, the author showed the development and spread of the Soviet prison system, the original goal of which was to 'eliminate hostile social classes.' As a result, an entire 'archipelago' of concentration and labor camps was created, named the Gulag Archipelago (Glavnoye Upravleniye Lagierei) after its governing institution. The work bears witness to the gradual stripping of man of his dignity and forcing him into slave labor under lofty slogans" (Wikipedia).