Points of View

Applebaum uses a third person perspective in the Gulag. We occasionally get glimpses of the author as narrator, but for the most part she relies on an omniscient, historical voice. Using prisoner memoirs, official documents, archival material, and interviews, she weaves together a history and description of the Gulag system and what life was like within the camps.

Applebaum's voice sets the contemporary stage for the reader, describing what certain prisons look like now and what the present landscape is in the areas that she visited. Overall, however, she lets the voices of the prisoners and sometimes officials tell the story. Particularly in the second section of the book, which describes life within the camps, the prisoners' voices (through memoirs, letters, and interviews) are used to illuminate life in the camps and exemplify the themes that Applebaum develops.

Setting

The Gulag system was located in Soviet...