2006 [1956]. 245 pp. Polish Cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and was sent to the Siberian Gulag along with other captive Poles, Finns, Ukranians, Czechs, Greeks, and even a few English, French, and American unfortunates who had been caught up in the fighting. A year later, he and six comrades from various countries escaped from a labor camp in Yakutsk and made their way, on foot, thousands of miles south to British India, where Rawicz reenlisted in the Polish army and fought against the Germans. The Long Walk recounts that adventure, which is surely one of the most curious treks in history.
This is the harrowing true tale of seven escaped Soviet prisoners who desperately marched out of Siberia through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India. In 1941, the author and a small group of fellow prisoners escaped a Soviet labor camp. Their march out of Siberia, through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India is a remarkable statement about man's desire to be free. With a new Afterword by the author, and the author's Foreword to the Polish edition, this new edition of 'The Long Walk' is destined to outrank its classic status.
'One of the epic treks of the human race. Shackleton, Franklin, Amundsen... history is filled with people who have crossed immense distances and survived despite horrific odds. None of them, however, has achieved the extraordinary feat Rawicz has recorded. He and his companions crossed an entire continent - the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert and then the Himalayas - with nothing but an axe, a knife, and a week's worth of food... His account is so filled with despair and suffering it is almost unreadable. But it must be read and re-read.' - Sebastian Junger, author of 'The Perfect Storm.' The classic reissue is now available in paperback with a new Afterword. New paperback.
