The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom Biography & Memoirs: Amazon.co.uk: Slavomir Rawicz: Books

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Product Description
First published in 1956, an account of a young Polish cavalry officer who was arrested by the Russians, tortured and sentenced to 25 years forced labour. Describes his 3 month journey from Moscow to the prison camp in Siberia, his escape with 6 companions and their journey across the Gobi desert to Tibet and freedom.

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Customer Reviews

78 Reviews

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

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4.5 out of 5 stars (78 customer reviews)

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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From paranoid nightmare to a triumph of survival., 30 Jul 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom (Hardcover)

From page one this is a gripping and absorbing read. We start off with the capture and imprisonment of Polish cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz, an ordeal that Franz Kafka would have been proud to have written. Accused of spying on the Russians, Slavomir is brutually tortured and beaten before being given a farcical trail that ends up with him being given the sentence of 25 years in a Siberian forced labour camp, on the basis of no evidence and a forged confession. It is here that the action begins to kick in to a more gung-ho spirit. Loaded into freezing cold railway cars and then slowly "chugged" across Russia, almost four thousand miles, to what was thought to be the prison. More agony is piled onto the men as they are chained together and frog marched hundreds of miles through bitter winds and biting snow blizzards until many weeks and many deaths later, prisoners and guards alike, the men finally arrive at their destination. It is a tribute to the writer that while writing of his tribulations he never once seems to feel bitter outrage or acrimony against his Siberian jailers, rather he feels an apathy for them as it seems to be indicated that even the guards here are victims of some small fault against the Russian mother state. Once the prison camp is reached, fans of great escape stories will become gripped as allegiances are formed and slowly an escape plan is hatched. To write too much would be to give too much away, but surfice to say that the team of seven men escape with some help from a very unexpected source and the escape is well and truly underway. From the freezing savage Siberian snow plains to the complete opposite but perhaps more unbearable searing heat of the Gobi, with only a couple of sticks and a tin mug between them, the story will simultaneously make you cry, laugh and occasionally feel proud to be human as the better sides of a man's personality and being are brought to light in a truly touching way. The end of the book comes all too soon, and one feels saddened that we do not learn more of our heros, but perhaps the story needs to finish there as perhaps to learn too much of what happened later might take some of the power from the story; and although part of me would like to know for certain the eventual fate of our intrepid adventurers, I feel they are given a more mythical stature by only existing up to the point of thier journeys completion. Forget trashy, clever, oh so chic summer novels about marketing executives trying to find their Mister Right whilst obsessing about everything they possibly can and lose yourself in a good old fashioned ripping yarn that deserves to go down as one of the greatest stories ever told.

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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Fiction not fact., 25 May 2008

By	Michael Gale (Dorset) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom (Paperback)

There was a huge wave of disappointment when I realised that this story was pure fiction. I later read Anne Applebaum's Gulag where Slavomir's tale is exposed as being a rehash of Rudyard Kiplings short story The Man Who Was. The point I tumbled it was when the camp comandant's wife decided to aid our hero's escape, its 1941 and Stalins Great Terror was in full swing for goodness sake!not the time for helping out a bunch of prisoners and earning you and your husband a few grams of lead behind your ears. Then there was the incident of the elfin Polish girl bumps into them as they are wandering around Lake Baikal and joins their quest only to die in the Gobi desert after melting their hearts and becoming a mascot for them all. The group then miss out a desert and spot some yeti before arriving somewhat smaller in number into the hands of the British.
It is however a well written, gripping adventure of the Boys Own variety. Know it for what it is though, fiction.

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41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspirational story of human courage., 22 Jan 2001

By	john mccullough (Belfast, N. Ireland United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom (Paperback)

Once I started to read this book I quite literally couldn't put it down. Slavomir's inhuman treatment in Russian prisons after his arrest was quite graphic. The 3-week rail journey taken by the prisoners to Eastern Siberia in the depths of winter with almost no food or water meant that older or weaker men died quickly in the icy cold box-cars. Those who survived that ordeal then had to walk 1000 miles to their camp in the far north. The story really begins with the escape-an adventure of truly epic proportions follows as they journey to India some 4000 miles away. Always they meet with people who have little themselves but are willing to share their homes and their food with the strangers. Several of them die on the journey. The crossing of the Gobi Desert made me wonder how they could possibly survive for 12 days without water in that environment. The encounter with yeti in the Himalayas caused me to question how much of the story was fact and how much was fiction. But that doesn't spoil a story that will remain in readers hearts for long afterwards. Has anyone thought of turning this amazing story into a feature film?

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
This book is a great read of an epic walk. Is it true I could not say but I would not rubbish it because of a few things that might not ring true. Read more

Published 7 days ago by L. Richardson

3.0 out of 5 stars LONG WALK, TALL STORY
What might be the kernel of truth behind this story, I wonder? I know it has been alleged to be plagiarised, but I can't confirm this from my own reading. Read more

Published 7 days ago by DAVID BRYSON

5.0 out of 5 stars The Long Walk
I read this book some years ago and am re-reading because it is such an amazing story. I didn't know the first time that there is some controversy surrounding the author, Slavomir... Read more

Published 23 days ago by V. Walker

1.0 out of 5 stars Rawicz is not the one who did the long walk
"In 2006 BBc discovered the document in Rawicz's own hand showing that he was with the Polish army in Persia when the book said he was crossing the Himalayas. Read more

Published 2 months ago by I. Kacerova

5.0 out of 5 stars Reason for purchase.
I read this book many years ago, in the days when my daughter was a friend of the author's daughter at Nottingham College of Art (I believe they are still in occasional contact)... Read more

Published 3 months ago by J. R. Woolsey

5.0 out of 5 stars the long walk
my father made the long walk.the authors didn't.many facts are true, some of the story is fiction.

Published 9 months ago by Sn Glinski

5.0 out of 5 stars Facinating
I was drawn to this book and found it to be a compelling read. A lot of little things reveal themselve in the book - like how walking through Siberia as a guard can be more... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Stewart Edwards

3.0 out of 5 stars Misleading
This book is OK for what it is though rather dissapointing at times. This is mainly because it is supposed to be a true story rather than fiction. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Leigh Harwood

5.0 out of 5 stars The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
A lot of people say its far fetched and missing bits and bobs, but it is a true story as i have been told it first hand by my grandfather who was part of the party that escaped.

Published 14 months ago by Mr. N. Glinski

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting
An exceptional insight into man's inhumanity to man - and its converse in the assistance of the poorest. If this was fiction it would be described as "far-fetched". Read more

Published 17 months ago by The armchair observer

› See all 78 customer reviews...

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	92% buy the item featured on this page: The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom (Biography & Memoirs) 4.5 out of 5 stars (78)
	3% buy Shallow Graves in Siberia 5.0 out of 5 stars (7)
	2% buy Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving Stalin's Gulag 5.0 out of 5 stars (9)
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The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom (Biography & Memoirs) (Paperback)

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