''Journey into the Whirlwind'' is the English title of the memoir by

Eugenia Ginzburg Yevgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (December 20, 1904 – May 25, 1977) (russian: Евге́ния Соломо́новна Ги́нзбург) was a Soviet writer who served an 18-year sentence in the Gulag. Her given name is often Latinized to Eugenia ...

. It was published in English in 1967, some thirty years after the story begins. The two-part book is a highly detailed first-hand account of her life and imprisonment in the Soviet Union during the rule of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

in the 1930s. Although Ginzburg sought to have the manuscript published in the Soviet Union, she was turned down. The manuscript was smuggled out of the country and later sold in many different languages. The first volume was published in 1967 and the second volume was published in 1979 two years after Ginzburg's death. A copy would not be published by a Russian publisher until 1990. In the book, Ginzburg discusses a variety of her experiences. Throughout her experiences with the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

, Ginzburg was able to form friendships, cultivate a love of poetry and reunite with her son

Vasily Aksyonov Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the autho ...

, after her release. Readers have found these messages to be powerful and inspiring. Ginzburg wrote a sequel, ''Within the Whirlwind'' that continues from the point where she left off in the first instalment of her autobiography. It was republished in the UK by

Persephone Books ''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. Th ...

in 2014 as ''Into the Whirlwind''. The sequel to this book is ''Within the Whirlwind'', which was published two years after Ginzburg's death.

References

Books about Soviet repression 1967 non-fiction books {{lit-bio-book-stub