An internationally renowned historian of Stalinist Russia, Nicolas Werth felt a need to go and see the traces of the 20th century's largest concentration-camp system for himself. This book is his account of that unprecedented and fascinating journey into the vast hinterlands of eastern Siberia, nine hours by air from Moscow. The gulag was synonymous with this now desolate region and its deserted towns. Nicolas Werth sets out with two friends to meet the last living survivors of the camps as well as the odd self-proclaimed "rememberers" who wage a stubborn war for this dark page of history not to be forgotten.