University College is proud to announce the completion of a new book by Professor Polly Jones, the Schrecker-Barbour Tutorial Fellow in Slavonic and East European Studies and Professor of Russian. Titled Gulag Fiction: Labour Camp Literature from Stalin to Putin, the book is released on 14 November and explores a critical, yet often overlooked, aspect of Russian literature: the representations of the Soviet labour camp system, or Gulag, across a range of literary genres and across the 20th and 21st centuries.

A unique exploration of the legacies of the Gulag in Russian prose fiction, Gulag Fiction examines works spanning the Stalin era through to the present, analysing their representations of identity, memory, and ethics. The book provides a comparative study of Soviet, samizdat, and post-Soviet literature, focusing on themes such as selfhood, survival, perpetration, responsibility, and post-memory. Professor Jones’ work adds to the growing body of scholarship that seeks to understand the cultural and psychological impact of one of the 20th century’s most notorious systems of repression.

Professor Jones dedicated the book to Dr Michael Nicholson, former Tutorial Fellow in Russian at Univ and a much-admired figure in the academic and cultural life of the College. Dr Nicholson, who passed away in 2022, was instrumental in shaping Russian studies at Univ and was widely known for his scholarly expertise in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his deep, abiding contributions to the College community. His memory continues to inspire those who knew him.

The Gulag, a vast network of penal institutions scattered across the Soviet Union, affected millions of Soviet citizens and left an indelible mark on Russian culture and society. As Professor Jones notes, its legacies remain prominent today, even as survivors of the camps grow fewer and as the Russian government has been reluctant to fully engage with the history of the Gulag. In this important work, she brings attention to the ongoing relevance of these legacies and their depiction in literature, underscoring how they are woven into the fabric of contemporary Russian memory and culture.

Professor Jones has dedicated much of her academic career to studying how citizens of authoritarian regimes, particularly writers and cultural practitioners, navigate political controls and censorship to express themselves. Her expertise lies in examining Soviet and post-Soviet literary and cultural history, with a special focus on memory politics and the intersections of literature and trauma.

In addition to her new book, Professor Jones is also working on a collaborative project, The 101st kilometre: Provincial Marginality from Stalin to Gorbachev, which looks at migration and settlement patterns produced by Soviet restrictions on residency for Gulag returnees and other “marginals.” Her research continues to shed light on the complex ways in which Soviet and post-Soviet cultural narratives intersect with historical memory.

Professor Jones’ contributions to the field of Russian studies are also complemented by her wide-ranging teaching responsibilities at Univ. She teaches 19th- and 20th-century Russian literature and culture, including courses on Gulag literature, late Soviet literature, and authors like Solzhenitsyn and Petrushevskaya. Professor Jones is also a sought-after graduate supervisor for students working on projects related to Russian literature, memory studies, and cultural history.

Gulag Fiction is set to make a significant impact in the field of Russian literary studies, further cementing Professor Jones’ reputation as one of the foremost scholars in the field. We look forward to its release in autumn 2024 and to the ongoing academic contributions that emerge from her rigorous and insightful research.

Published: 13 November 2024

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