Coercion and Coerciveness in the Politics of Cold-War Ukraine and Taiwan

The present study is devoted to an examination of the prison memoirs by the Ukrainian writer, Mykhaylo Osadchy (1936–1994) and the Taiwanese writer Tsai Tehpen (b. 1925) from the perspective of coercion. Osadchy was a member of the Sixtiers, a group of young Ukrainian intellectuals who brought about cultural renaissance in post-Stalin Ukraine. Their writings marked a strong reaction against Moscow’s policy of great-power chauvinism at the onset of the regime change that marked the end of Khrushchev’s liberalizing campaign. Osadchy was one of the victims of the subsequent wave of arrests of dissidents in the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, in 1965. His memoir, Cataract (1971) is a powerfully evocative response to trumped-up charges of subversion, anti-Soviet agitation and bourgeois nationalism, and a riveting description of life in a Mordovian labor camp, a work that posed a strong attack on official Soviet culture.

ACTIVITIES OF THE FORCED LABOR CAMP IN THE CHUVASH AUTONOMOUS REGION IN THE TOWN OF CHEBOKSARY

The article attempts to analyze the activities of forced labor camps using as an the example the functioning of the Forced Labor Camp of the Chuvash Autonomous Region (ChAO) in 1920–1921. The work is based on previously unpublished sources of the State Historical Archive of the Chuvash Republic. The study shows the features of classifying the prisoners, their number in the forced labor camp of the Chuvash Autonomous Region in the town of Cheboksary, the regime restrictions imposed on them, it also analyses the most frequent violations of discipline in the camp, shows the issues of the camp organization and the conditions of service in it, the system of employees’ remuneration, as well as the difficulties in the institution’s functioning under existing socio-economic situation during the years of mass famine in the Volga region. The history of establishment and operation of forced labor camps is currently poorly covered, especially at the regional level. Basing on the results of the study, the author makes a conclusion on the reasons for liquidation of forced labor camps, as well as on the need for detailed studying the regional aspects of the problem under consideration.

Perception of the Space of Bondage in the Poetic Works by A.I. Solzhenitsyn

The article examines the psychological situations in which A.I. Solzhenitsyn puts the lyric character of the poem “Dorozhenka” and poems in order to reflect the degree of his freedom and lack of freedom in the surrounding space. The perception of places of captivity is conveyed by the author not only through images of a prison cell, a prisoner transport vehicle, a prisoner train car, a barrack, a labor camp zone, but also through a generalization – the territory of the country surrounded by barbed wire. The space of enslavement appears in the form of concentric circles: the character himself is in the center, the next circle is a prison cell or a barrack, further is the GULAG zone and all of Russia, which is thought of as a large labor camp. The lack of freedom becomes the inner state of the lyric character, but at the same time it is aimed at achieving freedom of the spirit. According to Solzhenitsyn’s views, one can feel psychologically free only in the labor camp, having lost everything that is dear in ordinary life, and therefore losing fear, because, being out of prison, a person is crushed by suspicion and Stalin’s ideology, he is constantly under the threat of arrest.

Autobiography and Self-Reflection in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “The GULAG Archipelago”

“The GULAG Archipelago” is based on historical and autobiographical material. Autobiography is a key feature of the works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. This style trait manifests itself in the plot, composition, is expressed in the ways of self-reflection, methods of self-identification, in the functions and role of the author-narrator. The retrospective component, as well as the identity of the author and the narrator, the identity of the author and the character, are of fundamental importance. The type of narration chosen by Solzhenitsyn for “The Archipelago” opened up inexhaustible possibilities of fictional and documentary prose as a genre that conceals a way of correlating autobiographical and factual material. At the same time, the author was also a witness to what was happening and conveyed the details, the spirit of his time. Solzhenitsyn’s autobiography is special: it is not only the use of the facts of the writer’s biography, it is the desire to convey their thoughts as a result of the experience through the psychological experiences, thoughts and feelings of the author. The writer draws a spiritual rebirth of a person in the labor camp, reveals moments of repentance, the development of spiritual stoicism. Hard labor elevated Solzhenitsyn and became the highest point from which the most important stages of his life can be counted.

Perception of the Space of Bondage in the Poetic Works by A.I. Solzhenitsyn

The article examines the psychological situations in which A.I. Solzhenitsyn puts the lyric character of the poem “Dorozhenka” and poems in order to reflect the degree of his freedom and lack of freedom in the surrounding space. The perception of places of captivity is conveyed by the author not only through images of a prison cell, a prisoner transport vehicle, a prisoner train car, a barrack, a labor camp zone, but also through a generalization – the territory of the country surrounded by barbed wire. The space of enslavement appears in the form of concentric circles: the character himself is in the center, the next circle is a prison cell or a barrack, further is the GULAG zone and all of Russia, which is thought of as a large labor camp. The lack of freedom becomes the inner state of the lyric character, but at the same time it is aimed at achieving freedom of the spirit. According to Solzhenitsyn’s views, one can feel psychologically free only in the labor camp, having lost everything that is dear in ordinary life, and therefore losing fear, because, being out of prison, a person is crushed by suspicion and Stalin’s ideology, he is constantly under the threat of arrest.