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Part 1, Chapter 1

• The book opens with a description of the different ways that prisoners were arrested and sent to the Gulag prison system. Because most prisoners were arrested not for crimes, but for their ethnicity, many thought the arrest was a mistake.

• Families tried to quickly pack bags for their family members and to write letters, keeping in correspondence. Usually, around a year after the arrest was made, the family learned that the prisoner had lost his right to correspond, meaning he had been executed.

• The Gulag prison system was overcrowded during the years of 1945-1946. Many prisoners thought they were too good to be arrested and that those around them were guilty of violent crimes. There was not a sense of camaraderie among the prisoners.

• Many prisoners were unprepared for what prison life would be like. Because most thought their arrests were mistakes, few tried to run...

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