In this episode of The Liberal Soul I begin the book The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, essayist, dissident and one of the great moral titans of the twentieth century. Largely thanks to his courage the rest of the world learned in depth what was going on behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union during the Stalin years. In part one I talk about Solzhenitsyn's observations on:

- How the Party would arrest people - and how eventually people felt relief at being arrested

- That this was happening from the start - group guilt was an essential part of the Soviet Unions ethos

- The performative and theatrical nature of the Soviet Union - because its not easy in a bureaucracy when you are bringing value

- Soviet relativity - but the bullet is absolute.

- The people who don't think or feel - these will be the interrogators in your society.

- The line of good and evil runs through everyone's heart. Ideologues don't think this.

- Insight on ideology in general - the ability to justify beliefs and behaviours.

Thanks to everyone who listens to this podcast. I will be back with more episodes on The Gulag Archipelago.