Keeping Faith with the Party: Communist Believers Return from the Gulag

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Frontispiece

with the KEEPING FAITH PARTY INDIANA UNIVERSIT Y PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis KEEPING FAITH PARTY with the Communist Believers Return from the Gulag NANCI ADLER This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931© 2012 by Nanci Adler All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system , without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalogingin -Publication Data Adler, Nanci. Keeping faith with the Party : Communist believers return from the Gulag / Nanci Adler. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-35722-9 (cloth : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-22379-1 (paperback : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00571-7 (electronic book) 1. Ex-convicts—Soviet Union. 2. Exconvicts —Soviet Union—Attitudes. 3. Kommunisticheskaia partiia Sovetskogo Soiuza. 4. Allegiance—Soviet Union. 5. Political persecution—Soviet Union. 6. Labor camps—Soviet Union. 7. Communism —Soviet Union—Psychological aspects. I. Title. DK268.A1A35 2012 364.80947—dc23 2011037563 1 2 3 4 5 17 16 15 14 13 12 For Zoë and Noah Party official turned inmate: “When they chop down the forest, the chips fly, but the Party truth remains the truth and it is superior to my misfortune. . . . I myself was one of those chips that flew when the forest was cut down.” Fellow prisoner Ivan Grigoryevich’s response: “That’s where the whole misfortune lies—in the fact that they’re cutting down the forest. Why cut it down?” Vasily Grossman, Forever Flowing (1972) ...