''Man Is Wolf to Man'' (1998; ) from the Latin

Homo homini lupus ''Homo homini lupus'', or in its unabridged form ''Homo homini lupus est'', is a Latin proverb meaning "A man is a wolf to another man," or more tersely "Man is wolf to man." It has meaning in reference to situations where people are known to ...

is a memoir by

Janusz Bardach Janusz Bardach (July 28, 1919 in Odessa – August 16, 2002 in Iowa City) was a gulag survivor, author, and noted plastic surgeon. He was the younger brother of Polish legal scholar Juliusz Bardach. Survivors include: his wife, Phyllis Harper- ...

, primarily surrounding the years during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It was co-written with Kathleen Gleeson. The book tells the story of Bardach's transformation from placid student in pre-war Poland, to a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

convert after the Soviet Union's bisecting of the country with

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, and then follows him through his trial for treason and sentence of forced labor in the camps in the

Kolyma Kolyma (russian: Колыма́, ) is a region located in the Russian Far East. It is bounded to the north by the East Siberian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and by the Sea of Okhotsk to the south. The region gets its name from the Kolyma River ...

region of

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

. Throughout, Bardach's accounts show the sacrifice, toil, and luck necessary to survive in a Stalinist-era labor camp.

Prologue

The memoir opens in Poland in July 1941, during

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Bardach, a member of a tank crew, is digging his own grave in anticipation of his execution for treason. During the war, treason was an all-encompassing offense that could be applied to a litany of offenses, ranging from something as small as dereliction of duty. In Bardach's case, he was charged with treason for the belief that he intentionally wrecked his tank, when in fact it was simply rendered inoperable while fording a river. Bound and thrust into his self-made grave, Bardach waits for the impending shot, all the while wondering how it was that he had come to this place. "The night and earth and sleep and death had merged. All felt the same."

Reviews

In so far as ''Man Is Wolf to Man'' is the story of man's brutality to man, popular criticism tended to compare it favorably to similar historical works, most notably

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repr ...

's ''

Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' (russian: Архипелаг ГУЛАГ, ''Arkhipelag GULAG'') is a three-volume non-fiction text written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr So ...

'', while at the same time pointing toward its ultimately uplifting tale, not only of man's ability to survive, but also to assist others when seemingly at their worst. Perhaps most damning is Bardach's transformation from earnest Communist sympathizer to witness to its greatest atrocities. Paul Goldberg said in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', "''Man Is Wolf to Man'' presents an eloquent account of Bardach's transition from naivete to wisdom."Goldberg, NY Times
/ref>

References

{{reflist 1998 non-fiction books Political autobiographies Gulag memoirs