Jacques the Frenchman: Memories of the Gulag

Author:   Jacques Rossi ,  Michele Sarde ,  Golfo Golfo Alexopoulos ,  Kersti Colombant
Publisher:   University of Toronto Press
ISBN:  

9781487506049


Pages:   368
Publication Date:   28 February 2020
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Our Price $170.00 Quantity:  
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Jacques the Frenchman: Memories of the Gulag


Overview

Jacques Rossi is one of Stalin's most well-known victims. Author of The Gulag Handbook, a fascinating encyclopedia of the Soviet forced labor camps, Rossi spent twenty years in interrogation, prison, and Gulag detention. Born to a prominent Polish father and French mother, the young Jacques became attracted to communism as a blueprint for radical social reform. He spent years in the communist underground in interwar Europe, agitating for the revolution, but he was arrested during Stalin's Great Purges in 1937. This book represents a conversation between Jacques Rossi and Michele Sarde, professor emerita at Georgetown University, and weaves together personal reflections and historical analysis. Rossi's remarkable life (19092004) spanned the twentieth century and sheds important light on the tumultuous history of Europe the appeal of communism in the interwar period and beyond, the mentality of party members, the effects of mass repression, everyday life in Stalin's Gulag, and the problem of rights for former prisoners during the Khrushchev era. As he abandoned his internationalist communist beliefs, Rossi increasingly identified as French, embracing the name his fellow prisoners gave him in the Gulag, ""Jacques the Frenchman."" Rossi's reflections on his own political beliefs, his frustrations with those who could not accept the truth of his brutal experiences in the Soviet Union, and his life as a witness to one of the twentieth century's worst crimes offer a fascinating history of Stalinism and its legacies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jacques Rossi ,  Michele Sarde ,  Golfo Golfo Alexopoulos ,  Kersti Colombant
Publisher:   University of Toronto Press
Imprint:   University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.90cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.660kg
ISBN:  

9781487506049


ISBN 10:   148750604
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   28 February 2020
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Meeting   Part One: Before 1. Never again 2. The established order 3. The future of the worldwide proletariat is more important than one’s career! 4. Fugitive 5. Secret agent 6. Let them stuff themselves with caviar! They won’t grow old! 7. Early indications of an announced arrest 8. The trap Part Two: During 9. From the dog house to the train station 10. We don’t torture foreigners 11. Confess, filthy fascist! 12. On interrogations 13. Daily life at the Butyrka Prison 14. The story of a blind man and coffee with milk 15. The verdict: now we’re going to put into practice Marxist-Leninist theory 16. Destination unknown 17. Transit. May your memory be your only travel bag! 18. An operatic voice on the Yenisei 19. Dudinka: the end of the world 20. The polar night 21. Surviving 22. Yes I am a communist and you are too; only between us there is barbed wire 23. How Jacques, the Frenchman ceased to be a communist 24. The friends of the people 25. Continuing in spite of oneself 26. The rebel: the first hunger strike 27. In the central prison of Alexandrovsk 28. The beginning of the end 29. “I Choose Samarkand” 30. “But sir, you are dripping snow on my floors!” 31. In Central Asia: the man who came from a country with no collective farms 32. To Nikita Khrushchev, [stop] I, Jacques Rossi, [stop] a Free Citizen, [stop] Am Starting a Hunger Strike, [stop] With No Time Limit and Until Death Part Three: After 33. Communist Poland: Origins of The Gulag Handbook 34. Seeing Paris again 35. Life after communism In Place of an Epilogue Afterward to the English Edition

Reviews

Jacques Rossi stands perhaps second only to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his contributions to our anthropological understanding of the Gulag [...] Rossi's detailed descriptions of Gulag life near Norilsk, from intimate portraits of fellow prisoners to an analysis of whether a damaged can or a hat was better for receiving one's soup ration, are endlessly fascinating. -- Jeffrey S. Hardy, Brigham Young University * <em>The Russian Review</em> *


""Jacques Rossi stands perhaps second only to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his contributions to our anthropological understanding of the Gulag […] Rossi’s detailed descriptions of Gulag life near Norilsk, from intimate portraits of fellow prisoners to an analysis of whether a damaged can or a hat was better for receiving one’s soup ration, are endlessly fascinating."" - Jeffrey S. Hardy, Brigham Young University (The Russian Review) ""The keen observations and reflections of a highly intelligent and educated man, committed to social justice."" - Katherine R. Jolluck, Stanford University (Journal of Modern History)


A cross between a memoir and a conversation, Jacques the Frenchman is a fascinating story that details both Jacques Rossi's career as a Soviet spy and his experiences as a Gulag prisoner. Rossi's keen abilities of observation shine through the pages, seemingly unclouded by decades of persecution. - Alan Barenberg, Department of History, Texas Tech University Shedding light on issues such as criminal subculture, Jacques the Frenchman provides rare and astounding insights into the Gulag, the pre-Gulag detention prisons, and, particularly, the mindset of someone who went from a strong believer in the communist system to, eventually, someone who rejected that system. - Wilson Bell, Department of Philosophy, History, and Politics, Thompson Rivers University


Author Information

Jacques Rossi was a Polish-French writer and polyglot. Rossi was best known for his book, The Gulag Handbook. Michèle Sarde is a French writer and professor emerita at Georgetown University. Golfo Alexopoulos is a professor of History at the University of South Florida and founding director of the USF Institute on Russia. Kersti Colombant is a French translator.

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