The Long Walk The True Story of a Trek to Freedom

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.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars A Cult Favorite with Kids in 1958
I’m not sure that every guy at McClintock Jr. High School read “The Long Walk” in 1958, but Slavomir Rawicz’s 1956 book definitely enjoyed a cult following there. After all, almost every kid’s old man had played some part in the War, South Pacific or Europe; and there was a ton of wartime pulp to be read, and I believe we must have read the better part of it. We read books like: “God is my Co-Pilot,” “Thirty Seconds over Tokyo,” “The Longest Day,” “Guadalcanal Diary,” “The Naked and the Dead.” The list could go on. There were the books with a slightly forbidden flavor by our former enemies: “Zero,” “Commando Extraordinary,” “The Road to Stalingrad.” But “The Long Walk,” stood in its own special category. I found it hard to put down at age fourteen, and, rereading it fifty jaded years later, I still couldn’t put this one down.

Only now I’m wondering if perhaps I’ve just read a great novel by a certain Ronald Downing.

Back in ‘58 we didn’t have the 1997 afterword in which Slav Rawicz uses the term: “read between the lines.” We didn’t have the 1993 introduction to the Polish edition in which Slav writes, “If this little book has served in a small way as propaganda to understand the past years of our history under the Soviets, then my words will have achieved their purpose.” The structure of the book does make for the perfect road story, a framework upon which to hang a string of episodes: capture, imprisonment, torture, deportation, the camp, the escape, the journey. The assemblage of seven compatriots is reminiscent of the “Seven Samurai,” or “The Magnificent Seven.” Consider the character types of the escapees: the gentle giant, the little jokester, the American–and the girl Kristina. Add the superbly generous character of the Tibetans–by then weren’t the Chinese kicking them around? In short: read this book and you will not like communists, but then, you didn’t in the first place, did you?

Having said all that, what a pleasure it is to learn that Slav lived to a ripe old age, raising five children with a devoted wife, living to see Poland independent again, living to see the USSR dissolve. And if Slav and Ronald Downing chose to insert a few whoppers along the way, I say: who are we to let facts stand in the way of a good story?

Slav wrote in his 1997 afterword that he had received many letters over the years, and that he enjoyed answering them. I wish I’d been a little sooner rediscovering “The Long Walk.” I might have written Mr. Rawicz myself, and here’s what I would have said:

Dear Mr. Rawicz, I know you have received many letters over the years and mine will probably eco much of what those others have said. However, if I might add anything, it is that since reading your book fifty years ago at age fourteen I have never to my memory left a plate of food un-cleaned; countless times I have been disgusted by the sight of unfinished plates being scraped into the garbage by others. Many times I have thought of you and your companions as I passed trash left by the roadside, trash that you could have used. (A few plastic soda bottles might have made all the difference on the Gobi.) I like to wear a thing out before discarding it. I do hate to be cold, but I try to refrain from complaining about it. So thank you, Mr. Rawicz, for inspiring the boy I was fifty years ago to take up frugal ways. I’m sure my bankroll is thicker for it. I would observe that, while you may have aimed a blow at communism, you also made a good hit at consumer capitalism!

5 Stars Book was as described, in GREAT condition.
It’s a wonderful book (so far). Easy reading, very moving. It’s quite inspiring to know what people are willing to struggle through and endure for freedom and will to live.

1 Star A great story but Unture!
Although I really enjoyed reading this book, I was extremely disappointed to find out later that it was an unture story. The BBC investigated this story several years ago and found it was false. The title of this book should be changed so future readers will know it is fiction before they pay their money to purchase it.

3 Stars Interesting but should be fiction
This is a very interesting story, and although parts of the story may be based in fact, it is clear that large portions of the book are fabricated. It should be read as a work of fiction.

1 Star Made up
Walking through a blazing desert for days without food or water, crossing mountain-terrain in minus degrees for days without food or water. The author was probably a prisoner who managed to escape a Gulag-camp, but after that the book is made up fiction, and when I read a book stating it’s a real life memoir and it becomes painfully obvious it’s not true I rate one star everytime.

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