Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag

This book kept my attention for all of it's 400+ pages and it one of the best I've read in recent memory. The account of Janusz Bardach is equal parts adventure and horror. The brutality of Communism is on display in graphic detail as Janusz transforms from a Communist idealist to a broken realist when exposed to the truth of Communism over it's theoretical ideals. This book has love, prison escapes, political and social philosophy, extreme brutality, suffering, and even black market reindeer blood (seriously). If you love WWII history, adventure, and real life stories of survival, please pick this book up.Memorable Points:- the realization of how quickly educated, hard working, honest families were massacred by both the Nazis and the Soviets.- the difference between political theory and reality and the importance of understanding how our ideas actually play out in the real world.- the escape from the prison transport.- the extreme use of fear as a weapon in Communist society.- the attack on female prisoners on the ship to Kolyma stuck with me due to the brutality.- the commutation of Janusz's death sentence from a "chance" encounter with an officer who knew his family.- the missed opportunity to escape after turning over the tank.- the strained relationship between Janusz and his brother Julek.- Janusz's return to Wlodzimierz-Wolynski after his release.- the revelation of his family's fate. The book tells it swiftly and without much fanfare. I think it translated the pain Janusz must've felt very explicitly.

This is an extraordinary book for several reasons. It torments us with calm descriptions of terrible events, challenges us metaphysically by covertly asking how we might retain our own dignity in the same instances, and still manages to leave us a sense of hope and encouragement that someone could have survived such depravities and remain a sensate human.Americans have never really appreciated the horrors visited upon the Soviet people by Lenin and completed by Stalin and Beria. Is twenty million dead an accurate number? How about thirty? The numbers are impossible for the mind to register. Dr. Bardach brings one of these experiences vividly into the reader's frame of references. I wondered several times during my reading, with an awful feeling of foreboding terror, whether it could ever happen here.Dr. Bardack's book is more than simply shocking. I am perfectly convinced that the author, by simple use of understatement, refrained from amplifying his personal set of horrors. His use of contrasting descriptions of beautiful scenes while on route-beaches, forests, mountain steppes-forces us to carefully reassess how men of reason could generate such hostility.This book is not light reading, yet it is difficult to put down. The writing style is excellent and is a pleasure-if one can describe terror as "pleasure." It is a forceful commentary, an unique historical document, and Dr. Bardach should be congratulated for his willingness to relive and present it to us.

I thought I knew Janusz, I met him in Iowa City. He got my Mom to do Luksusowa Vodka "shooters" when the hardest stuff she ever drank was a glass of wine. They then proceeded to have a conversation in Ukrainian. He was one of the most positive souls I have ever met. He did cleft palate surgeries for kids all over the world. I remember being in his kitchen with my brother when he walked in proclaiming that "Phyllis dropped the ball" by leaving the Lukisuowa out of the freezer. He them made us do shooters as well. His wife Phyllis was an educator of the deaf and also an amazing soul. This book tells the story of how low the world can take you and how how high someone can climb. Inspirational. This book made me really know him.

What a very gifted author this wonderful Jewish man was...Truly one of Gods' Chosen people...he tried so very hard to still stay nice in a den of iniquity if there ever was one..he was numerous time half killed by the merciless satanic communists while unjustly sent 14,000 miles from his home as a young man, to Siberia, no mans' land...this book will truly jhold your interest, I'm not much of a reviewer, but just wanted to assure my fellow book lovers, this is a KEEPER!!!

What a story! Boggles ones mind what man must go through in order to survive! I've read other books where former soldiers were sent to Lead Mines then escapes on epic journeys... But what this poor bugger went through and survived is, well it's hard to put my feeling in print. What's even more mind blowing is that he learned the beginnings of his future trade/profession in the camps. With Russian mentality it amazes me they ever defeated the Germans, shipping able bodied men off to camps in the vast wilderness on trumped up charges. It's worth reading, bet you can't put it down, a real story of human endurance. MG

This is a great, personal introduction to one of the last century's most terrible creations: Stalin's gulags, where millions were imprisoned and died. Unlike more general account, including Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece, this book makes the terror personal.

Dr. Bardach account of the adversity he faced and perservance has been very inspiring to me. Based upon his account I can now easly understand the compassion he demonstrated towards me during my lengthy hospital stay during my recovery from reconstructive surgery. Even though I was unable to speak for ten days. He stopped by my room each day taking time to hold my hand or touch my shoulder giving me encouragement that things would improve. He is the kindest and most skilled surgeon I have ever encountered.

This book should be required reading for every man, woman, and child in America, especially those who weren’t around during World War II time.

Having read several accounts of the experiences of victims sucked into the monstrous machine that was the Soviet GULag, Janusz Bardach's account stands out for its unflinching personal honesty. It is not for the faint-hearted, as Bardach never glosses over the atrocities committed. But he never appears simply as a witness, or victim, since his account is a true autobiography - he also describes the effects his experiences had on his own character.To the reviewer who felt the narrative 'petered out', I would recommend that they read Bardach's second volume "Surviving Freedom", which brings his personal history up to his emigration to the US. It also gives more detail about Bardach's youth, prior to his Soviet experiences. If you are interested in this remarkable man, rather than just his description of the GULag, then you should really read both books (he summarises the period covered by the first book in just a few pages of the latter).

This is an outstanding book taking us through a most remarkable life, of a man I'd never heard of, but who survived the inhumanities of Stalin's Russia and brought hope and comfort to many after he came through his ordeal. We see the young Janusz Bardach of the Red Army facing first execution and then a totally unjust sentence to labour in the gulag ; his long and horrendous train journey to the camp ; the brutality of camp existence and his will to survive intact ; and (briefly)his eventual release and the start of a new and distinguished career (just put his name in a search engine) transforming many people's lives. The brutalities of the Stalinist regime, and the human will to survive it, have rarely been detailed so well, and I can recommend this book without reservation.

I bought this book about a month ago based on an Amazon recommendation. I have found it a fascinating and compelling read.

stirring story of survival from the gulags

Have only started to read first 50 pages -