Journey into the Land of the Zeks and Back is a vivid, first-person account of life in the Soviet Gulag, a work that has never appeared before in English. It was one of the earliest published accounts of the Soviet camp system when it was published in France in 1949 and became an established classic in the Russian-speaking world, influential in the formation of the genre of Gulag memoirs.

Acknowledgements Glossary Foreword by Timothy Snyder Introduction by Katherine R. Jolluck Prologue Chapter 1 September 1939 Chapter 2 Encircled Chapter 3 The Story of a Disillusionment Chapter 4 Pinsk Intermezzo Chapter 5 Elijah the Prophet Chapter 6 The Pinsk Prison Chapter 7 The Wandering Coffin Chapter 8 BBK [Baltic-White Sea Canal] Chapter 9 "Square Forty-Eight" Chapter 10 Rabguzhsila [Man/horsepower] Chapter 11 Conversations Chapter 12 Karelin's Brigade Chapter 13 Dehumanization Chapter 14 Wood Felling Chapter 15 The Medical Sector Chapter 16 My Enemy Labanov Chapter 17 Gardenberg's Brigade Chapter 18 Evening in the Barrack Chapter 19 People at Square 48 Chapter 20 Spring 1941 Chapter 21 Etap Chapter 22 Amnesty Chapter 23 "You Must Work" Chapter 24 Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov Chapter 25 A Letter to Ehrenburg Chapter 26 KVCh [Cultural-Educational Sector] Chapter 27 Isaac the Fifth Chapter 28 Camp Neurosis Chapter 29 In the Bathhouse Chapter 30 In the Office Chapter 30a Three Chapter 31 Maksik Chapter 32 The Doctrine of Hate Chapter 33 An Invalid's Lot Chapter 34 The Brigade Leader of Chronic Invalids Chapter 35 The Road to the North Chapter 36 Kotlas Chapter 37 Block Nine Chapter 38 Block Five Chapter 39 Release Chapter 40 Conclusion The Road to the West Chapter 1 Slavgorod Chapter 2 The Freedom Train Chapter 3 Non Omnis Moriar Chapter 4 The End of Maria Chapter 5 September 1946 Chapter 6 Heliopolis

"Margolin's memoir presents a heart-wrenching account of hunger and cold, alongside numerous reflections on the Soviet camp system....What makes...[it] so compelling is its ground-breaking immediacy and urgency. This is direct report from Soviet camps, unencumbered by postwar interpretations and taboos....While it is too late to alter the fate of Margolin's fellow prisoners, this English edition of his memoir may play an important role in preserving the memory of millions of people of various nationalities and religions who perished in the Gulag." -- Lidia Zessin-Jurek, East European Jewish Affairs "This is a superbly edited academic edition whose excellence is praised in the foreword by the celebrated historian Tim Snyder. Journey to the Land of the Zeks with all its horrifying details, philosophical insights, and superb literary style, will finally receive the honor and attention that it deserves." -- Mikhal Dekel, Haaretz "But now we have the first English translation of the book, and in our current political climate it behooves people on both sides of the political aisle to read it." -- Franklin Freeman, America Magazine, The Jesuit Review "An incisive, harrowing, and absorbing eyewitness account of the Gulag....Journey into the Land of the Zeks and Back acknowledges the scale of the catastrophe, but the volume focuses on its impact on humanity." -- Harry C. Merritt, Arts Fuse "Beautifully written, incredibly detailed and moving - an important historical document." -- Kirkus, Starred Review "More than just a Gulag memoir, this book includes an excellent and unusual portrait of Poland in 1939, encompassing an account of the occupation and Sovietization of its eastern territories after the Red Army's invasion in September. Margolin observes the impact of major political changes on different people and social classes; he has a strong sense of history, and his language has a literary flavor. This book is important for anyone interested in Soviet history, but also for anyone interested in a full account of the Jewish experience of the war. While the story of the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe is well known, the fate of Jews in Soviet-occupied Europe is still obscure. This is a story that will seem fresh and unusual to many." -- Anne Applebaum, author of Gulag: A History "Julius (Yuli) Margolin DL clairvoyant Jewish writer and passionate political polemicist DL fought to open the eyes of the world to Stalin's crimes and, specifically, to the Soviet system of slave convict labor. The long-awaited English-language publication of Journey into the Land of the Zeks and Back is a game changer in both Soviet studies and Jewish studies." -- Maxim D. Shrayer, editor of Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature and author of A Russian Immigrant "This is a powerful, fine-grained account of war, occupation and the Gulag from an extraordinarily gifted writer. Margolin vividly details the Eastern European world of Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Belarussians and others living in fear under the German and Soviet occupation of their countries. His searing description of Gulag servitude is a ghastly refresher on mass dehumanization and how it robbed the prisoners of their identity, family, memories, health, and sanity." -- Deborah Kaple, Princeton University "It's hard to believe that this publication marks the first appearance of this remarkable story in English. Back in 1949, this thoughtful, detailed compelling memoir was the first of what ended up being many diaries of reluctant travelers sent to this awful Kafkaesque world of the Soviet Gulag. The author thus became the first of many witnesses who exposed the natural consequences of the Marx-Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin ideology of imposing forced equality on the masses...this book can serve as a fresh and welcome reminder of a long-forgotten warning to beware the tyranny of even lovely-sounding ideas." -- Natan Sharansky "Ably translated by Stefani Hoffman, the new volume includes helpful introductions by Timothy Snyder and Katherine R. Jollock that describe the work's publication history, provide necessary background information, and underscore what is most significant in the book." --Mosaic Magazine "This is a book that demands to be read." --Times Literary SupplementR

Selling point: The first full English translation of a masterful Gulag memoir that preceded Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago by decades Selling point: An established classic in the Russian-speaking world that influenced the writing of Gulag memoirs after its first publication in French in 1949 and in Russian (in the United States) in 1952 Selling point: A moving, highly readable, ironic account of the Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland, life in the Gulag system, and the eventual return to the West of a survivor Selling point: Features a foreword by Timothy Snyder and introduction by Katherine R. Jolluck

Julius Margolin (1900-1971) was trapped in Poland by the successive Nazi and Soviet invasions in 1939 and was arrested by the Soviets in June 1940 for refusing to accept Soviet citizenship. From 1940 to 1945 he served time in the Soviet Gulag. Upon his return to the West, he wrote his memoirs, Journey to the Land of the Zek, and a description of his return via Europe, The Road to the West. Stefani Hoffman is the former director of the Mayrock Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Research at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has translated numerous works, including Fear No Evil by Natan Sharansky. Timothy Snyder is Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University. His award-winning works include The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999; Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin; and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. Katherine R. Jolluck is Senior Lecturer in History at Stanford University. She is the author of Exile and Identity: Polish Women in the Soviet Union During World War II and the co-author of Gulag Voices: Oral Histories of Soviet Incarceration and Exile.

Selling point: The first full English translation of a masterful Gulag memoir that preceded Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago by decades Selling point: An established classic in the Russian-speaking world that influenced the writing of Gulag memoirs after its first publication in French in 1949 and in Russian (in the United States) in 1952 Selling point: A moving, highly readable, ironic account of the Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland, life in the Gulag system, and the eventual return to the West of a survivor Selling point: Features a foreword by Timothy Snyder and introduction by Katherine R. Jolluck