"the long walk" Book

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patrickjames

Joined
Feb 11, 2006
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I just finished reading a book that I will never forget.It was written in 1956 about a group of prisoners that escaped a Soviet prison camp in WWII.With nothing but an ax and a knife they walked thru China,the Gobi Desert,Tibet And over the Himalayas to India.I read many books a year on history and this is one of the best.The author name is Slavomir Rawicz (Polish)
PJ
 
Another one for my "gotta read" list!

EDIT:Maybe not, made the mistake of doing a quick websearch, it appears the story is fiction.
 
It brought tears to the eyes,
more than once.

Prisoners escaped from a Siberian Soviet prison camp.
Where to go, in a completely controlled society?
East or West along the transport routes, or South
into a thousand miles of wilderness?

Some survived. They were safe and recooperating
in India.
The hospital workers were amazed to find that the
escapees would hide pieces of bread in thier bed
matresses. It was hard to dissuade these survivors,
no matter how much food they were offered.

frank
 
Hey patrickjames, that one's been on my list to read for a long time now, just haven't gotten around to it yet. What type of history do you usually read, I read quite a bit of it myself. If you're into the survival/military history themed stuff you need to read 5 Years to Freedom by Nick Rowe, and also check out Behind Hitler's Lines by Thomas Taylor. To get back on track, wasn't there a scene in the long walk where the survivors have to cross the himalayas on foot and encounter a yeti like creature? Reinhold Messner refers to that incident in one of his books.

Lagarto
 
I encourage others to do a "web search". It doesn't matter what can be done in life, whether it's to go to the moon or or save yourself from disaster or evil. There will always be doubter. I have read hundreds of books on everything from the Bataan Death March to the 1909 Cherry Coal Mine disaster in Illinois; stories of the human will to survive or achieve. There's always no shortage of critics.
PJ
 
Yup. Walked across a trackless, killing desert with no water and crossed the highest mountains in the world in the dead of winter with no proper gear -- and saw a Yeti on the way.
 
From:Wikipedia

Sławomir Rawicz (1915-2004) by his account, was a Polish cavalry officer who was captured by Soviet troops during the German-Soviet invasion of Poland and was exiled to Siberia. In a book he participated in writing, he claimed that he and six others escaped and walked over 6500 km (4000 miles) south, through the Gobi desert, and over the Himalayas to India. None of the others who escaped with him have ever been identified or come forward. No evidence beyond the account of Slavomir Rawicz himself exists for the journey.

His story is chronicled in a ghost-written book The Long Walk, whose veracity has been controversial since the book was published.
 
I first read The Long Walk when I was a kid in the 1950's. I have used it in a Wilderness Literature course that I teach for 20 years. I have lots of history with it. Completely true or not it is a great read. It speaks to the essence of survival, that of determination, comradship and compassion. The journey seems impossible but ancient peoples travelled migration routes that also seem impossible but they did it. Deciding what people can do and what they can't from the comfort of our modern world underestimates the reality of what history and archeology teaches us. The Long Walk is about human potential in the extreme.
 
I read the condensed version in Readers Digest's True Stories of Great Escapes. It was a really good book. I need to find the unabridged version and read that some time.
 
If anyone is interested... the other books along with The Long Walk, I'll use this year in my course are
Into The Wild by Krakaurer
A Death on the Barrens by Grinnell
Stories by Jack London
Into the Forest by Hegland
 
Stories do not have to be true to have value in teaching, and lots of excellent stories are pure fiction.

This book came to my attention in the late 1950's. It was brought up as proof of the horrors of the Soviet system.

The reporter who ghost-wrote the thing was apparently a Yeti nut case.

Critics have pointed out that the geography described is simply incorrect and that no one and no records could be found to confirm that the hero was ever in the Polish military or ever in a Soviet prison.
 
Thomas Linton said:
no records could be found to confirm that the hero was ever in the Polish military
Click to expand...

Dead give away right there, less than 10 years after the war, he couldn't remember what unit he served in.

How many war veterans does anyone know that can't tell you what unit they served in during the war???????????????:jerkit:
 
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