The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom | 
 enlarge | Author: Slavomir Rawicz
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  292 reviews
Sales Rank: 165894
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1558216847
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5472470957
EAN: 9781558216846
ASIN: 1558216847
Publication Date: December 1, 1997
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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.
Product Description
The harrowing true tale of escaped Soviet prisoners desperate march out of Siberia, through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 287 more reviews...
 Outstanding Read! July 26, 2008
Rawicz's trek is an amazing story, and a great read. His voice comes through so strongly, and authentically that you find ourself with him almost every step of his journey.
 An Amazing Story, If True July 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book has been thoroughly reviewed on Amazon already. I add this review in the hopes on contributing something to the discussion.
This is the story of Slavomir Rawicz, a Polish cadet who was arrested by the Soviets on false charges and sentenced to prison in Siberia for 25 years, and of his amazing escape south, across 4,000 miles past Lake Baikal, through Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert, over the Himalayas, and finally into British India. The book is engaging, extremely well-written, heart-breaking and inspiring.
The problem is that it may not be true. I agree with other commenters that the book loses all of its value as an inspirational story if it was fabricated. My five-star review assumes that it is true.
Critics of the book can rely on two types of evidence: internal and external. (I reject objections that such a journey is impossible. Modern adventurers have retraced Rawicz' steps; granted, they were much better equipped, but they also weren't fleeing for their lives).
The external evidence shows that Rawicz was released from prison and sent back to Poland; that the British (probably) have no record of Rawicz or his companions arriving from the Tibetan plateau; that no one has ever located or identified his companions. The first objection can be met by pointing out that the Soviet Cheka was not necessarily above forging documents, especially if necessary to avoid a humiliating admission that seven prisoners escaped. The second objection is undermined by the history of the book's criticisms -- for years, people pointed out that the Soviets had no record of Rawicz' imprisonment at all. The discovery of his papers is a dramatic illustration that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
The final point is simply a mystery. One would expect that Rawicz's companions would try to contact him after the book was published. But that assumes his companions survived long enough to do so -- they arrived in India in 1942, and the book was not published until 1956. It is possible they died, or returned to their homes in communist countries and never saw the book, or were imprisoned again. Of course, all we can do is speculate.
For me, the more interesting question concerns the internal evidence. Is Rawicz' description of a Soviet prison camp consistent with actual practice? When Rawicz crossed the border into Mongolia, he described a series of signs marking the border -- is his description accurate? He describes the clothing, houses and certain material culture in Mongolia, China and Tibet -- is it consistent with local practice at that time?
Adventurer Peter Fleming supposedly challenged the internal evidence as unrealistic shortly after the book was published, but I have not found a copy of Fleming's specific charges, so I cannot evaluate them. In addition, according to a wikipedia article on Rawicz, Fleming supposedly discovered military records that contradicted Rawicz' claims. One must wonder why Fleming would bother with such external evidence if he thought the case against the internal evidence was so clear.
Fraud or Not, It's Compelling-as July 24, 2008
Well, the story itself may be untrue, and come to a point where it's even farcical in what it tries to put over on readers (seeing a pair of menacing yetis in the Himalayas while crossing the mountains in winter with all of rusty wire and animal dung as provisions). But! This is a moot point, because as a tale, it's first-rate. If you can allow the fraud (and there's no real reason to get upset about it), there are large rewards to be had from The Long Walk. The story of the trek to freedom is incredible and very compelling, page b' page. The prose isn't the best, but it serves its singular point well in keeping the action moving and gripping. It's entirely designed in this way, to be a terrific story, and true or not, it only assists itself with all its narrative tendencies.
A good read. July 13, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading snippets of this book for years, I finally got it. The story was interesting and entertaining from the initial captivity in the European prisoner camp, through the trek to the Siberian camp, until the end of the long walk that led from Siberia to freedom.
Human endurance is unbelievable July 10, 2008
This book was impossible to put down. If I hadn't known it was a true story, I would have thought it fiction. The human spirit and longing for freedom is truly the basis for their endeavor.
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