“I purchased this book at the Portland Airport location of Powell's Books. It was one of those books located on the staff recommends table and the hand written note described the book as something of a moving tribute to the strength of the drive for freedom and a must read.
I will agree with both of those comments. This is the story of Slavomir Rawicz, a pre-WWII Polish Cavalry Captain that is arrested by the Stalin Soviets in 1939 and spends 18 months suffering in Moscow prisons until they sentence him to 25 years of hard labor. Slav, as he refers to himself, then begins a journey that surrounds him with 4,000 + fellow convicts, a trip across Russia, a chained march of more than a thousand miles to a Siberian prison camp.
We wouldn't be reading his story if he hadn't made it out, and that is the story. The formation of colleagues with a desire for freedom. The escape. The ultimate year plus walk from northern Siberia, out of Russia into Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert, through Tibet, over the Himalayas, and into India.
The journey is almost beyond comprehension. The brutality of the Soviets under Stalin. The luck of connecting with the one person who could help his escape. The shear ability to survive. The push for freedom. The value of sacrifice for the dream.
Although I haven't been to Mongolia, nor across the Gobi, I have spent time deep and high in the Himalayas. I was well fed, well clothed, and with new equipment. I had a guide. They had heart and the direction of the sun.
I had a sleeping bag - they slept in caves. I had boots. They had moccasins made from Sable fur and other animals. How they crossed is amazing to me. How they lived for days upon days without food and water. Their ability to stretch few ingredients for months and months and over a year still amazes me.
This is a great story. It is one of love and pain. It is one of grandeur and sorrow. It is one that reminds us that our ability to understand that Freedom is worth the effort and the rewards. That together we can defeat the evils that may have entered our lives.
Read this story - it will stay with you and remind us to be kind to all of those in need. ”
Daniel M wrote this review Saturday, August 8 2009.
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