"The Long Walk" is Polish Army officer Slavomir Rawicz's gripping account of an escape from a Soviet labor camp in Siberia in 1941. According to his story, Rawicz and his comrades walked South across the interior of Asia to freedom in British India. This journey across a winter landscape in Siberia, the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, and the mountains of western China and Tibet, is, if true, an unparalleled acount of suffering and human endurance. The BBC claims to have found records indicating that Rawicz was in fact released by the Soviets to a refugee camp in Iran during the Second World War. If these records are accurate, the main event of "The Long Walk" is an enthralling work of fiction. Readers will have to make their own judgement.

Rawicz was a young Polish Cavalry officer taken prisoner by the Soviets when Hitler and Stalin divided Poland in 1939. He is tortured by the Soviets and sentenced as a spy to 25 years in a labor camp in Siberia. The suffering of the winter journey to the labor camp is bad enough, but once there, Rawicz and six of his fellow prisoners hatch an escape plan. One night, they slip away, carrying a small amount of food, a hand axe, and an improvised knife. They will travel cross-country South to Mongolia, along the way picking up a young Polish female who has also escaped from detention. The eight will dare unbelievable hazards, including a chronic lack of food, water, and shelter, to steer more or less South toward India. Only four people will reach safety in India.

Rawicz's narrative is rather bare bones, possibly the result of translation from his native Polish. Traveling by the sun, the small group never has much more than a general sense of where they are or what is in front of them. Their survival is the incredible result of ingenuity and pluck, as the travelers plumb the absolute limits of human endurance and receive timely help from strangers along the way. The reader cannot help but be caught up in the terrible suspense of the story.

Other reviewers have commented that Rawicz's story seems a little too good to be true. Certainly the hazards of the journey would have killed many parties far better prepared; Rawicz and his comrades seem to enjoy astonishingly good luck. "Mr. Smith", the Russian-speaking American in the group, seems especially mysterious and preternaturally self-possessed in the face of their many obstacles. The alleged encounter with two Yeti in the Himalayas strains credibility. Perhaps the best advice for readers is to put aside their skepticism and enjoy the story as presented.

I bought this book with great anticipation, having read and enjoyed other survival tales such as "Endurance" and "In the Heart of the Sea." I've been slogging through the uninspired language for the past month with great difficulty. The lack of passion Rawicz brings to his writing is perhaps a clue that this is not a true story, as some have attested. Or maybe it's a problem with the translation. Either way, I don't find this to be the gripping tale it could have been.

I should add that I have been reading this under the assumption that it was true. So discovering now that it may not be true has not in any way affected my review; I thought it was boring before then. I wish I had known about the controversy and had picked a different book. Other reviewers have stated that it is an exciting and remarkable story, true or not. I disagree. If it is true it is a dull and lifeless transcription of a remarkable feat. If it is fiction than the author has not only lied but written a boring book.

Sunday, March 26, 2006
"The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz, © 1956
This is an amazing story. It is incredible that the torturers in the U.S. Army did not read this or take lessons from the KGB, because some of their tortures are very similar to what is described in this book. But that is only in the first two chapters. The rest of the book is the story of Mr. Rawicz's walk with his cohorts from United Soviet Socialist Republic labor camp in Siberia to India. The walk starts with advise to walk south, not east, to avoid the obvious route and, therefore, obvious pursuit.
The oddest part of this story is that one of the particpants is known only as Mr. Smith. He is an American of unknown origins. No one on this trek is cognizant of the reason of their incarceration, but Mr. Smith is so unknown that even his Christian name is never known. The next oddest part of this story is in the preface. It was supposed to be a story about people who have encountered Yeti. These fellows saw some on their walk through the Himalayas, so the assistant to the author, Ronald Downing, reseaching for a story about the Yeti, came across this amazing story.

I really enjoyed this book. although i have read many other concentration camp books, this one is by far the greatest journey. it really puts you in the perspective of this poor man and when something bad happens to him you seem to feel it for yourself! very descriptive!!
P.S. whoever said "just a story" is utterly wrong and has no brain at all!! it is "just" a gripping story of a man making his way form a concentration camp, all the way down to india. so i do not see how tis can be "just a story"

This is by far one of the best books I have ever read in my short life. It tells the story of a... well I'm sure you already have a basic gist of what it is about. I digress. It is an increadible read. From page one you are captivated and it is difficult to set down. A great story. As a side note you should most definately read the preface.

In 1941 as the rest of Europe was entering WWII, we learn that in the Siberian Gulag there are political prisoners sentenced for 10-25 years for offences such as being nationality other than Russian. These are mostly young men, strong, educated and smart. Qualities that present a threat to Stalin's new world where only Russians are to be trusted and all others are representation of threat to a New World he was building in that part of the world. Story about seven men of different nationalities who amongst themselves speak Polish, Russian, French, English and German languages. They all want their freedom more than anything else. Even death seems a better option than spending the rest of their lives in humiliating conditions of a political prisoner in the arctic pole. This group of men decides to make an escape during snow night of early April 1941, hoping that snow will cover their tracks and give them a lead for their escape plan. They head south and start their facinating journey thru Mongolia, China, Gobe desert, Tibet and India. Their determination to escape and survive is mesmerizing. I could not put this book down. The book written in 1956 still has magnificent impression on anyone who reads it. It is a story of human triumph in the face of diversity that is indescribeable. Small kindness of village people they meet along the way is heartbreaking. These people instictively know that the group is the "unfortunates" - title reserved for Siberian prisoners. But they are not judgemental and they help in the only way they can by providing food, shelter and clothes to them to help them on their journey to the south. This book will help anyone to be reminded of the small things we have to be thankful for in our everyday lives. It is a book of human bonding, friendship, endurance, bravery and determination. This book is a must read no matter what generation, gender or social standing a person is. It will make you humble and grateful for the little things in life. The book will change you and the perception of limits of the human will.

Amazing story of incomprehensible hardship and persistence. A story about the march to a prison camp in siberia, and the subsequent escape and run to freedom of the Slav and his group. plus they swear they saw a Yeti.

Buyer beware! This book is presented as a true story, but the fact is that it is fictional. There is no evidence for its truthfulness, on the contrary. Which is a pity since the book is a good read and is hard to put down once a person gets into it. Which makes it that more unfortunate as people who enjoy biographical accounts read them to help them shape their view of events and of the world. Since this is a made up story, it is also misleading in many ways, although there are things that Rawicz got right as the story is based in a real-life context.

It is entertaining, but due to the misleading information about its fictional basis I have a hard time recommending it.

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz was first published in 1956 and was an
immediate sensation. I came across the book after reading an obituary of the author a short while ago. The Long Walk should rank among the most
extraordinary true adventure stories ever written.

Mr Rawicz was a Polish Army officer who was arrested on a trumped-up charge by the Soviets soon after the defeat of Poland by Nazi Germany
when the country was divided between the Germans and the Soviets.

The first third of the book deals with his ghastly interrogation by the Soviets after which he is sentenced to 25 years in a Siberian Labour Camp
located near Yakutsk north of Lake Baikal. The rest of the book covers his
escape in April 1940 together with 5 others including an American Engineer
who had been employed in construction of the Moscow Metro rail system.

The escapers elect to travel south to the safety of British India. This
4000 mile journey is walked every inch of the way across some of the
world's bleakest and most difficult country including the Gobi Desert and
Tibet. Of the group of 6 escapers, 2 succumb to the arid desert and the
mountains. A girl of 17 years had joined them in Siberia; she had escaped
from a co-operative farm where she had been sentenced to lsbour. She dies
in the Gobi Desert.

Four of the escapers finally reach India in April 1941. They are warmly
welcomed and initially confined for convalesence at a Calcutta hospital.
The author eventually rejoins the Free Polish Army in the Middle East
and later arrives in England where he is trained for the airforce.

The book is strongly recommended to any reader interested in adventure in
a remote area of the world.

Outstanding book. Hard to believe he survived. Shows how things were in USSR and cruelty of humans. Also, kindness displayed by strangers.

This book was published in 1956 and hard to believe that I hadn't heard of it before. It is a quick read, maybe because it is so interesting & it is true. It does leave you with a lot of questions of what happened back at the concentration camp when their escape was discovered, and the lives of the other survivors. I borrowed this book from a friend & then bought five copies - - loaned a copy out & each person who read it, bought at least one copy.

This is the heartfelt memoir of a Polish man who escaped from a Russian work camp. What a wonderful thing it is that an account like this is now preserved in published form! This is a very emotional work and also a very well-written one. The writing style is rather vivid and even to a degree poetic. Either the author is a very talented writer or he got some good assistance! I'm afraid this review can't do justice to the book. Get it and read it yourself!

This book is incredible, incredible not as a true story that is. I must say, after reading this book I was intrigued with the subject matter and went on to read other non-fiction books about the Gulag system in the USSR (the best of these is the Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn and Gulag by Anna Applebaum).These two books are much more accurate.

The Long Walk is not a true story. There are no records of such people mentioned in the story as existing, and more importantly, nowhere is there any record of a group of soviet prisnors entering India.

This does not mean that the story has no meaning. It is a story of survival and a story of legal manipulation and savagry on the part of the USSR under Stalin.

There is controversy surrounding this book, as you can find on the web. Read this book for what it is, a cleaverly written and exciting piece of non-fiction, and nothing more than that.

Absolutely amazing story and a bit hard to fathom and to believe but a great story nonetheless. Who cares even if it is a "hoax" - which I don't believe, - it's a great book. I highly recommend it. They all would have died had it not been for the welcoming Tibetans they kept meeting. What was Mr. Smith's first name? Where in America was he from?

How much of this adventure is indisputable fact? And how much is recalled in the mind of a man mostly crazed by thirst and hunger and thus distorted by the nigtmares suffered on the journey? I give literary license to the author and say it was a fantastic adventure. Shame on the doubters!

I am an avid reader, and this is by far one of the most fascinating books I have read. It shows the strength and willpower of a human's will to survive in the most horrific condtions. A must read.

I would have admired this book without reservation if it were represented as a work of fiction, but since its supposed to be a true story, I can't be as positive. Even without the information about the author uncovered by the BBC, which pretty much ends the debate regarding the veracity of this account, I would have questioned the authenticity of this story anyway.

I can believe most of the horrible things described about the author's arrest, interrogation, transport, and incarceration in a work camp (though the forced march seems less plausible, but we should never underestimate the cruelty of the gulag camp system). If anything, the way he describes the work camps sounds too tame in light of what we know about the gulag. He describes a work camp without criminals (most gulag inmates were classed as criminals, not politicals) and with very relaxed boundaries between the commandant and the inmates. This sounds more like Hogan's Stalag 13 than a real gulag. (read Anne Applebaum's remarkable book on the gulag.)

What seems most implausible to me is the novelistic quality of the book. First, there are the supporting characters - in true hollywood fashion, each of whom has a characteristic that distinguishes him or her from the others - toothless guy, the gentle giant, the wisecracker, and most implausibly, a beautiful young escapee who miraculously crosses their path amid the vast wastes of Siberia. Next, there's the dialogue (always recalled by the author verbatim), which reads more like a hollywood script than actual conversation between people (e.g., each of the wisecracker's quips is recalled verbatim). Finally, there's level of detail that no memory could recall, such as who found what kind of snake on which day.

Read this book side by side with real stories of survival, accounts of undisputed veracity (omit those written by journalists or authors who kept a notebook during their travels). Next to a book like Herzog's Annapurna or Worsley's book on the Endurance, the Long Walk reads like a very good novel, but not a true account of survival.

Frankly, I'm surprised that so many people have accepted its authenticity over the last several decades. Credit should go to the journalist who wrote the book with the help of the "author." The true story I would like to read is how a journalist and a Polish camp survivor cooked up this tale and sold it to the public. The author's tells us that he donated his time to good causes. I have to wonder if he was trying to ease his sense of guilt or rationalize his long involvement in this hoax.

What an amazing life. I was expecting another "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" or "Gulag Archipelago." But this story is different -- there is very little bitterness, very little savoring-of-the-details. Instead, it is cleanly told and incredibly true. It is a simple book, not much complexity, just human nature laid bare. Amazing.

There is some debate as to whether or not this story is true, but it is not at all improbable. Sentenced to 25 years in the Soviet gulag system, Polish cavalry-officer Rawicz was determined to escape from the remote Siberian labor-camp, somewhere north of Lake Baikal. The brutality Rawicz experienced at the hands of the communist government is typical of such accounts from this era. It reminds one of the memoirs of Alexander Solzhenitzyn.
Rawicz assembled a group of six other prisoners: two more Polish soldiers, a Latvian, a Lithuanian, a Yugoslavian, and ...an American! They made their break in early 1941, during a winter storm. Along the way, a teenage Polish girl also joined the party. The resulting narrative (if it is all true) is a harsh tale of survival as they trekked across some of the most rugged and dangerous terrain on Earth: frozen pine-forests, open plains, the Gobi Desert, and the mountains of Tibet.
Sadly, only half the party made it to the objective, which was India. Had they been less hasty in their trek once free of Soviet territory, the entire party could have survived. Had they planned more, traveled with caravans, and learned some basic survival skills, they could have brought everyone out.
The crossed Siberia, Mongolia, north China, and Tibet, cut off from all civilization and news of events abroad. They passed through lands where life was largely unchanged in a thousand years, and oblivious to the titanic events of World War II. Had Rawicz's party stopped in Lhasa, they surely would have met the famed mountaineers Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschneider (read "Seven Years In Tibet").
The most sceptical account, is a sighting of the "Yeti", while in the Himalayas. Did they really see some as yet unclassified primate? Who is to say?
Regardless, the story is profoundly fascinating...I hope its all true! The only improvement to the tale: what happened to the survivors after they left India? Unfortunately, thats where the story ends.

I'm reading the book for the 3rd time and I question a number of items Rawicz mentions. For one, he says they walked during the heat of the day in the Gobi so as to follow a due south direction judging by the sun. Tempretures in the Gobi during the day run over 45C and coupled with walking, there is no way any human can survive without water for more than 3 days under those conditions. Rawicz claims they went as many as 6 and 7 days without water. Secondly, his party found Lake Baikal without any compass. Add to this the many references Rawicz makes about the geography of the area. He keeps mentioning Lhasa. Yet they enter the Gobi without any provisions for water. How is this possible when they had ample opportunity to prepare during their numerous encounters with the local tribesman as they headed into the Gobi? It's also interesting that the one person in his party who would easily be tracable is Mr. Smith - a fictitious name. Surely, after such an encounter and the bonding that takes place under such conditions, Rawicz would know the name of this man from the United States? Even later in life, Rawicz made no mention of this person's real identity. Sadly, I believe The Long Walk is a fictional account. I believe Rawicz suffered through difficult times, but he also fooled a generation of readers.
For those who would like to read a true account of one man's walk to freedom, then I highly suggest "Long Walk To Freedom" by Nelson Mandela. There's no doubt about the authenticity of this wonderful and inspiring book.

What a great story of humanity's drive for pure survival and freedom. What this man and his friends encountered and went through to survive is nothing short of a miracle. It's one of those books that was hard to put down, and when its finished, you want to cry.

As I read the book, I kept on going back to my belief for the last 30 years that most Americans do not understand just how evil the old Soviet Union was. It was a remarkable story about to what lengths a person can go to resist evil, and communism is certainly the greatest evil in world history except for Nazism.
Unfortunately, as much as I understand how horrible the USSR was, and to what lengths someone would go to escape the brutality, I had my doubts when reading the book. I was especially surprised that no one has ever heard from the American who was in the Gulag, Mr. Smith, and escaped with the author. It is not unbelievable that an American was imprisoned or that an American escaped. American born individuals who were in the USSR were terrorized by Stalin in the 1950s. However, it is difficult to imagine that there would not be any documented evidence, including anything from Mr. Smith or his survivors of his involvement in this tale.
Therefore, I regretfully conclude that we, the readers, have been had.
For readers who are interested in further exploring the evil of the Gulag, and the power of the human body and soul to survive, I would highly recommend Menachem Begin's "White Nights" and Natan Sharansky's "Fear No Evil".

This book is almost certainly NOT TRUE! I am unhappy that the front cover says "true story" as it has been shown the story is not true. As written in the other comments, the BBC has researched this and has strong evidence of it not being true. The fact there is no evidence supporting the story is susipicous to me, there is no prison or hospital records of the trek and no word from his fellow trekkers in the intervening years! I feel a little gullible as I only started having doubts until the Gobi desert section of the story where they go multiple days (eight I believe) without water. What is also dubious other than the incredible endurance required is: why take such a difficult path after leaving Russia? once your fellow companions are starting to die, wouldn't a more safe path be prudent, especially since you are no longer in Russia. If you go through such an ordeal, and made such strong friendships, I would think his companions would have at least tried to find one another in the intervening years? or his companions would have talked about there ordeal at least to someone else.

There is something deeply contemptible about this book's publisher labeling this traveler's tale "a true story". Shortly after the book was first published in 1956 to widespread acclaim, a review appeared in the London "Spectator" by the explorer Peter Fleming (brother of spy novelist Ian) flatly dubbing the book "moonshine". Fleming concluded this not only on the basis of the Rawicz's description of the terrain he claims to have traversed, but also on the complete lack of corroboration from his supposed three surviving fellow-escapees, or the staff of the Calcutta hospital where he claims to have recovered from his ordeal.

"The doctor and nurses who looked after him, the officers who interrogated him or studied the reports of his interrogation have remained silent." Fleming wrote. "Both the then-Director of Military Intelligence and his principal subordinate in Calcutta have no recollection of an incident which might have been expected, even after fourteen years, to leave some impression on their minds."

In the half-century since Fleming's original review, no credible source who might reasonably be expected to corroborate the author's account has come forward.

Anne Applebaum reports in her superb 2005 book, "Gulag: A History" that "One of the most prominent Russian students of the Gulag, Veniamin Ioffe, the director of St. Petersburg Memorial, tried to find Rawicz's files and failed. He was further thrown into doubt (about Rawicz's bona fides--my note) after carrying on a correspondence with the late author, which he felt was unconvincing." (Page 622, Notes, no. 59).

Most recently, in a published report "Walking the talk?" dated October 30, 2006 and archived on the BBC News website, Hugh Levinson, producer of a program about the book for BBC Radio 4 found that Rawicz's military record, found in the archives of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, "clearly says he had rejoined the Polish Army in Russia. We wondered how this could possibly fit with the story of The Long Walk."
As well they might, for the report also cites "documents discovered by an American researcher, Linda Willis, in Polish and Russian archives. One, in Rawicz's own hand described how he was released from the gulag in 1942, apparently as part of a general amnesty for Polish soldiers. These are backed up by his amnesty document and a permit to travel to rejoin the Polish Army....These papers make it almost impossible to believe that Rawicz escaped, unless there is a case of mistaken identity. However, the name and place and date of birth all match."

Having read true accounts of the Soviet Gulag through the years (beginning with John Barron's book, "KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents" in 1974), it is grossly offensive to see the subject trivialized by a spurious account that is a confabulation at best--and is most likely a fantasy hatched in the mind of the book's original British co-author. No one should have the slightest compunction about calling this book a fraud, and its publisher an accessory to fraud.

This is one of the most riviting books I've ever read. It's so rare to read about true courage and selfless patriotism, but you'll find this in Rawicz's remarkable journey with fellow escapees through the Gobi Desert and over the mighty Himalayas. Rawicz true account exposes the brutality of Communist tactics and after reading it with my daughter's middle school class, one child asked: "How come we always hear about Hitler, but never about Stalin?" Good question! The west seems to have a blind eye (and even a "love affair") when it comes to Stalin, Castro, and other "red fascists" of the "left/socialist leaning" persuasion. It sounds trite, but this book "pulls no punches", and is impossible to put down.

Rawicz grips the reader in each of his book's three stages: 1) his time in Soviet prison, 2) his time in a Soviet slave labor camp, and 3) his time walking from Siberia to India.

Remarkably, in any one of these stages, the reader is apt to wonder how anyone could have lived through it. But Rawicz lived through all three and does a wonderful job telling about them.

Despite the book's fairly short length, it boasts great fullness. Rawicz slowly introduces his co-fugitives and he sucessfully conveys the emotions he felt along each portion of his journey.

These men's walk was out of necessity; however, to the reader, their journey is an adventure, as they move through strange lands, the terrain and climate of which were brutal but not nearly as brutal as their Soviet captors in hot pursuit.

Great book. Highly recommend.

Outstanding account of what it takes to survive adversity and continue on to the end no matter what it takes.

In the world of modern Hollywood the Suspension of one's disbelief seems to be a critical skill. However, no matter how highly honed one's "suspension" skills they are likely inadequate to carry a reader through this saga.

In 1939 Cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was arrested by the NKVD and taken to Moscow. At Kharkob he was interrogated, tortured, and poorly fed before his trial. Afterwards Rawics is imprisoned in Lubyanka in Moscow where the torture continued. Rawics, convinced that a confession would mean certain death, resists his captors. Rawics is found guilty of spying and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor in a Siberian prison camp. His journey to Irkutsk is a multi-week ordeal alongside thousands of others. This journey involved a, a train car where men are packed so tightly that one cannot sit, followed by a multi-day hike at gunpoint across a snowy landscape to the location of camp 303. Once there Rawic and other survivors are asked to build the camp from the ground up.

Pg 80+ or so

At this point I put the book down. I could not longer suspend my disbelief. With the assistance of Google it was not hard to discover that the veracity of the "The Long Walk" has long been in question. It is also not difficult to find evidence that disproves, or at least seriously questions, much of what is claimed in this book ([...]).

However, hard evidence is not really needed unless a reader is in the market for a Bridge in Brooklyn. Comic books are well written, but we all know that there is no man faster than a speeding bullet, and Rawics, in "The Long Walk" comes close to such imagery, by making an incredible journey, building his own prison, planning an escape in short order, and then an incredible escape that involved a 4000 miles journey across the Gobi dessert, across the Himalayas in the middle of winter, and a sighting of a Bumble. Lucky for Yukon Cornelius - Bumbles bounce...oh sorry, getting confused.

This Story gets three stars, but minus 2 for the derogation of the publisher The Lyons Press. There is no recorrd of camp 303, nor is there any record of Rawics seven compatriots Zygmunt Makowski, Anton Paluchowicz, Anastazi Kolemenos, Eugene Zaro, Zacharius Marchikovas, Smith, and a Polish women named Krystyna. In short the publisher took the uncorroborated story of one man and pased it off as fact.

I read 1/2 of this book and loved it. What an incredible adventure.

I then googled the author and found several stories, including a special BBC investigative piece, that showed evidence that the author completely fabricated the story. Polish soliders were given a general amnesty and released from gulags in order to assist the Russians in fighting the Germans.

Very dissapointing.

I think I have read this book four times now, and will read it again in a year or two. After seventy years of reading books, this stands out among the "ten best." Like the other nine well read books, it will grow dog-eared from frequent use. I had to buy a new copy, as I loaned out the last one and didn't get it back. I can't say anything better.

My husband liked this book so much he had to have the companion Walker book too.
It is a good story with great information about the will to survive.

Vivid and alive with description of their journey. It was painful to read. Absolutely speaks to the human will to live!

The story was fascinating and hard to put down. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because several times during the story, I had a hard time believing certain events were true. So when I finished the book, I googled the author and found that records discovered since his death indicate that at least some of this story (maybe a lot of it!) is pure fiction. That was disappointing to find out because you're led to believe that it all really happened (even the title says "The TRUE Story of a Trek to Freedom"). But it's still an exciting and interesting book to read, and many people certainly walked vast distances during the war.

_The Long Walk_ is a testimony to how much the human spirit can endure in order to survive. The struggle for freedom keeps one reading. I find myself pondering his words and images he gives as he describes his experience. His story will stay with me forever.
The construction of the American is also an interesting facet of this book. The American seems to be this heroic figure who escapes illness and death in his quest for freedom and in his contribution to the group's goal for freedom. The construction is contrasted with the construction of the Russian, as the author does not hide his contempt for the nation or its citizens, which also pulls the tension of the book much tighter.

A truly fantastic book....one that is extremely difficult to put down. An amazing story about survival, that also educates the reader. I loved this book and highly recommend it. This book certainly deserves a spot as one of the top 10 books I have ever read.

I've read quite a few true adventure/survival stories: Into Thin Air, The Last Place On Earth, Shackleton, but never have I read such a harrowing story of strength and perseverance. The real question is, why hasn't anyone made this into a film? Once you start, you won't be able to put it down.

The story told in this book did not happen. In October the BBC
and an American researcher revealed that they have found records in the
former Soviet Union that conclusively prove that Slavomir Rawicz while
imprisoned in the Soviet Union did not escape. Rather he, like so many
other poles was released by the Soviets after the german invasion
and was sent directly to a refugee camp in Iran. The documents that
prove this are written by and bear the signiture of Slavomir Rawicz.
While the book was the subject of debate for many years, the debate is
over. Its a work of fiction.

However, those who found the book inspiring should take heart in
understanding that even though this man did not walk from Siberia to
India, he still suffered terribly in the Gulag and he lived through a
painful experience that was no less heroic than the false story written
in the book.

It is also important to understand that some parts of the book are
probably true or have grains of truth in them. Rawicz was a polish
solider and he was arrested by the NKVD. He was in prison camps in
the soviet union. He did join the Free Polish Army after he left
the Soviet Union and he did serve in Palestine and Britain during
the war. Its even still possible that a "long walk" to India actually
happened but with others as yet unidentified taking part with this
book being a confused echo of real events. The world now knows that
Rawicz didn't make the long walk, but this still may not be the end
of the story.

Even though the book is strictly speaking not factually true, that
doesn't mean that is a bad story. As a story it can be inspirational
and it stands as a tribute of sorts to hundreds of thousands who
passed through the Gulag who lived amazing stories that will never
be told.

Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader Views (10/06)

From the very beginning of "The Long Walk," the reader will know immediately that the author is no ordinary person. After reading the book, you will truly understand the abilities of the human soul to overtake the human body and survive, literally.

The true saga of a man who is imprisoned in Russian work camps, the author takes you from the beginnings of his capture. His writing style, including the translation process, seems to give you an even more authentic appreciation of the trials and tribulations he and the many others he was with went through. You will see determination, human pride and utter miracles as they unfold throughout the story, touching you so deeply within, that you will never be able to simply walk away from this story. You will carry a piece of it deep within your heart and soul and be able to pull it out whenever you need to be reminded of the human spirit.

As a former Polish soldier, he was taken prisoner under false pretense. Accused of being a spy against the Russians he was given a trial, basically as a front to say he was justly accused and tried for his wrong doings. Having no truth to the matter, they found most all men in his situation, former Polish military men, guilty and quickly condemned them to work camps.

One of the most touching moments of the book was when the men, all gathered tightly in a train car, realized that it was Christmas Eve. Keeping the true spirit of Christmas in their hearts, they banded together and sang to celebrate the birth of Jesus together, ending with most men in tears as they remembered the families they left behind. Those that made the trek through the first part quickly came to realize that survival was going to be something that they had to do themselves, as their capturers were not going to be of any help in keeping them alive.

Marching by gunpoint across the cold Russian terrains, they fought freezing temperatures, horrible weather conditions, plagues, lack of food and much more as they were forced to continue on their route to their literal death camp. Eventually, trekking across many miles after a heroic escape from their camp in Yakutsk the author shares every minute of their life with the reader. While some of it can be almost unbearable to read, you simply cannot turn away as you know you have to see what happens to these brave men who escape their assured fate of death.

As they come across many people who are so kind and generous, they realize that perhaps not the whole world is cold and evil as they have come to expect. Meeting village after village as they walk carrying what little they have to their name, including their own few articles of clothing that sparsely covers them, they literally walk out of Siberia and through China, Tibet, The Gobi Desert, across the Himalayas, over ice covered waterways and finally into British India. As they watch their friends and colleagues die in front of their eyes, combat such amazing conditions that no human being should ever be able to overcome, they begin to realize that perhaps freedom will be theirs.

Touching, amazing and literally breath holding moments will make you want to share this story with others simply to share your sudden awareness of mankind's ability to overcome the impossible. The touching moment when he and his fellow survivors say goodbye from their final ending place, an Indian hospital, you can feel the pain and loneliness in the author's heart. Written with an amazingly poignant touch that will make you not only sympathize but truly feel the pain of all those involved. As you read the special "Afterword," added to the 1997 edition of the book, you will realize that this man is truly someone you would want to use as a role model. "The Long Walk" shows readers a man of men, a man of courage and a man of heart. Not only will you celebrate his ending, you will cry with him as he realizes he truly is alive with life.

A wonderfully powerful testimony to the courage of humans placed in horrific conditions.

i read this based on a suggestion from a friend and just loved it. i cant believe i have never heard of it before. i think i put this book down once since i started reading it. this is a great survival story and you feel like you are with slavomir during his party's trek.

There are many verifiable facts that seem too incredible to be true. Just one- a huricane striking Washington, D.C. shortly after the invasion of British forces during the War of 1812. The performance of American Forces was (excepting the Battle of Baltimore and the Battle of New Orleans) absolutely abismal. Had it not been for that huricane...who knows?

I am willing to forgive Slav for some factual errors. We all make them and we all accept exagerations in the telling of a good story, even when the story is mostly true. Crossing the Gobi and the Himilayas is not a problem.

The fact that no one has been able to verify any portion of Slav's life, seems to me. the worse problem. Records can be missing here and there, but every single record and every single person who may have known him? That seems too fantastical.

Another curiosity to me, though, is the ghost writer. If the story is fiction he must have known it and probably made inbellishments to improve the flow, but what would be the advantage to him? If it were published as fiction, it is still a very well written book and a good story. Where is the greater advantage for him to write this book, have it discredited as a hoax and never tell the truth?

I purchased this book in a National Park bookstore. Given its glowing reviews I plunged in and read it in just a few days. It's a stunning
read - - well written and understated. Several times during the process I was puzzled; eight days in the Gobi without water, thirty miles per day in rough going, etc. However, so absorbing is the book that I suspended
my better judgment in the rush to advance the story. Only upon completion did the doubts surface. Upon rereading certain sections, it now seems clear that the story is a hoax. Furthermore, it is written by
someone without much experience in hiking/walking in wilderness. I also
wondered why the USSR would "waste" one year in trying to get one individual to confess before shipping him to Siberia. I leave this to experts on the Soviet Union, but as one who has done just a bit of hiking in warm climates, I can say the "long walk" portion of this book is more
of a comic book story than a real one. A pity.

I can't reccomend this book strongly enough. A stunning unusal memoir. The authour presents an epic journey of incredible daring and endurance as a matter of fact everyday adventure.
Well written and briskly paced I couldn't put it down. A somewhat short book I got bummed out as I got about 3/4 through it simply realizing this great story was coming to it's end.
I was also very amused by the fact that the whole reason for the telling of this story(a glimpse of a yeti) was dealt with in three paragraphs.

I read this book as an autobiography and I have given five stars because it is an excellent read. However, I read it as a true story not knowing anything about it. When I discovered it was a hoax and pure fiction (and I did begin to wonder after the crossing of the Gobi desert) I felt somewhat cheated. I felt very cheated after completing the book to find there was nothing at all about what happened to the men when the event was over. That is why it is without doubt a fictional work.

A true biography would have left a verifiable thread about what happened when the men returned home - but there is nothing!

In 1939, the Third Reich invaded Poland. If you are looking for a book on the holocaust, then do not read this book. If you want to know the risks people will take to regain their freedom, then pick up this book and start reading a story of courage, will power, and determination. The author of this book was an officer in the Polish Cavalry but his greatest battle would not be fought in his own country. It would be fought in a Soviet Gulag where he and serveral other men decided to take a desperate gamble. I belive that it was Rudyard Kipling who wrote the following words. "He either fears his fate too much or thinks himself too small, who will not put it to the test to win or lose it all." I doubt that the author of this book ever read those words when he and his friends chose to escape. With scant supplies and very little knowledge of what they were up against, they escaped from the Gulag to which they had been sentanced. They headed south because they knew that somewhere south of where they were, the Soviet Union ended and freedom would be their's when, and if, they crossed into another country. But this is not just a story of men willing ro risk their lives. It is a book that make the reader think about the choices we must make, the beliefs we cherish, and raw courage

I have read several review stating that this must be a fictional story. It is my belief that this not a work of fiction. I am a librarian and I checked the cataloging done by the Library of Congress. This book is cataloged as an autobiography. In addition, at the time it was first published, the record which could verify the author's claims would have been easily accessible, but I do not consider those facts the true test of this books validity. The proof is in the story told in this book. It is in the authors words. It is in the deep seated belief that you must be willing to take the greatest gamble on earth, to hold onto your beliefs and, ultimately, if you truly believe it, you must be willing to either live free or die.

Rawicz describes his experiences from the beginning of the war, providing fine details that would be virtually impossible to fake were one not actually there. During the German attack on western Poland, he was a lieutenant in the Polish cavalry. His testimony contradicts the usual ridicule of Polish cavalry. In fact, even though the German army was more mechanized than the Polish army (owing, of course, to the larger industrial potential of the former), the Wehrmacht was not fully mechanized, and there was also a German cavalry. In any event, Rawicz describes a successful attack of the Polish cavalry against the Germans. The German position was overrun. Scores of Germans were killed and other German surrendered to the Poles.

Then the Soviet Union stabbed Poland in the back. Rawicz was captured, and eventually spent time in the dreaded Lubyanka Prison, and then Kharkov. He was subject to the standard trumped-up charges of being a spy. He was tortured, including by being subject to drops of hot tar put on him. He ended up in Camp 303 in Yakutsk, Siberia.

His escape led to an over 4,000 mile trek to freedom. He only had an axe and homemade knife. The privations were appalling. One by one, his co-escapers died. For fire, he used dried fungus lit by flint. He had to cross the Lena River, the Lake Baikal area, the trans-Siberian railway, and much more. He ate snakes in the Gobi Desert. He describes the Mongols and then the Tibetans as being hospitable. Eventually, he had to cross the Himalayas, where he lost yet another member of the crew. Finally, he was safe in India.

The story just doesn't add up. The ghostwriter has gone off on a tangent and created a compelling story out of whole cloth. He did a lot of research, but not quite enough! The escape was made with only a few weeks preparation instead of the months of careful planning used in successful escapes. There is no mention of how they planned to get out of the camp until the night of the escape, and then it is so simple and easy as to defy belief. In the Gobi they go on walking twenty miles a day and more for six to eight days without water-not once but several times in succession. Not likely to be true even for men in the best of health let alone men who have already been on a semi starvation diet for years. Then they cross the Himalayas in the dead of winter and encounter the abominable snowman! Give me a break!
As others have said, there is no record of Rawicz or any of his companions that anyone has been able to find. In the epiloque written to the 1997 republication of the book, Rawicz offers a lame explanation as to why he has never kept in touch with his fellow escapees. The most likely reason is that they don't exist. Finally it was telling to me that writing for publication in 1956 he glosses over much of the story claiming loss of memory. Assuming he worked on the book a year or more prior to publication, many of the events would have been less than ten years in the past. My own war expperiences- including my time as a POW are quite vivid after many more years than that.

The story in this book is just that: a story. There is no record of anyone named Slavomir Rawicz existing before the post WWII era. Though he claimed to be a free polish veteran who was personally recommended by General Anders to be a pilot, his name cannot be found in a single record from that time. There are not even records of how or when he arrived in the UK let alone any trace of him in India. His "companions" on his journey have no records anywhere at all. Nobody has ever met any of them aside from Rawicz. Its not details like what happened in the Gobi thats questionable. Its everything about the person who called himself Salvomir Rawicz.

Second, this book was not written by Slavomir Rawicz as he was barely literate in english when it was written. It was ghost written by a British Reporter named Ronald Dowling whose primary interest was Yeti sightings.

This book made me put my life on hold for one day until I read it cover to cover. Very seldom have I ever encountered a book that can make me want to read it from start to finish and just escape from the world until I have finished it. After completing it, I then had to ask myself if everthing in the book was 100% true as written. I am sure there had to be a few little exaggerations in some of the events to make it extra dramatic, but I am sure this story is basically true. This book will leave a great impression on all readers. I can not believe this book has not been made into a movie. Of course, Hollywood would take away most of the truth of the story if it did turn it into a movie but still it could be a great movie.

I read this book many years ago, and passed it around throughout our family and those who read it found it enjoyable and inspiring. Eventually it got lost, and no one of us could locate it, but in our conversations we referred to the story many times, and lamented our loss. Recently I was able to locate two copies and bought them (one for a backup to ensure against another loss. I reread the book with great enjoyment. It is the story of a handful of brave men who yearned to be free of their captive oppressors, and undertook a very difficult journey in order to secure that freedom. The journey itself is quite interesting in its details and it was hard for me to put it down. It seemed that I always needed to get into the next chapter to see what was going to happen. And the end of the story is quite satisfyling in itself.