Journal Entry 1 by FeistyPom2Love from Carpinteria, California USA on Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I read this book years ago in college for a women's history course. It is an autobiography about one woman's "harrowing 18 year odyssey through Russia's prison and labor camps" (quote comes from the back cover of this autobiography) and what an interesting/harrowing account it is!

Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg was an educated woman and devoted Communist Party member, when she was systematically persecuted like so many others at the time without rhyme or reason.

"I don't want to sound pretentious, but I must say in all honesty that, had I been ordered to die for the Party - not once but three times - that very night, in that snowy winter dawn, I would have obeyed without the slightest hesitation. I had not the shadow of a doubt of the rightness of the Party line. Only Stalin - I suppose instinctively - I could not bring myself to idolize, as it was already becoming the fashion to do. But if I felt this vague disquiet about him, I carefully concealed it even from myself." (Page 3, Chapter 1 from "Journey Into The Whirlwind" by Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg)


"I do not want to sound like a heroine or a martyr. I am very far from thinking that my refusal to sign their lying records was due to any special courage on my part. Nor do I judge those comrades who, tortured beyond endurance, signed whatever was put before them.

I was simply lucky: the investigation of my case was over before the use of 'special methods' became widespread. My obstinacy made no difference to my sentence: I got the same ten years as those who were tricked into signing the lists of people they had 'suborned'. But I did enjoy the blessing of a clear conscience and the knowledge that no one else was caught in the satanic web through my fault or weakness." (Chapter 18, page 89 from "Journey Into The Whirlwind" by Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg)
 

Journal Entry 2 by FeistyPom2Love from Carpinteria, California USA on Saturday, July 18, 2009

I enjoyed reading this memoir... It was a good read of the labor camps/prison camps during Stalin's reign from someone who actually spent time in them as a prisoner. 

Journal Entry 3 by FeistyPom2Love at Ojai Arcade Plaza in Ojai, California USA on Sunday, July 19, 2009

Released 2 yrs ago (7/19/2009 UTC) at Ojai Arcade Plaza in Ojai, California USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Greetings Fellow Reader, I left this memoir next the floral water fountain in the Ojai Arcade Plaza after visiting the Ojai Farmers Market!!

I released this book as part of the "52 Towns in 52 Weeks Release Challenge 2009".

http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/23/6155582/2