First Circle

At the Height of Stalin's Postwar Terror, Innokenty, a Young Diplomat and Scion of a Corrupt Ruling Class, Discovers an Earlier and More Spiritual Tradition Than That Adopted by the October Revolution, the Beginning of a Process Which is Solzhenitsyn's Basic Theme the Individual's Experience of Acquiring an Immortal Soul. Unwisely but Generously, Innokenty Helps a Friend in Danger of Arrest, Only to Be Arrested Himself and Sent to a Special Prison. This, the Archetype of the Gulag, is Described With Masterful Psychological Insight. There Are No Heroes and Hardly Any Villains; Oppressors Are No Less Victims Then the Oppressed. in the Great Tradition of the Russian Novel, the First Circle is Both a Brooding Account of Human Nature and a Scrupulously Exact Description of a Historical Period.