Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom

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. I remember reading another book of fiction that was passed off as a true story entitled,"As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me, by Josef M. Bauer which was almost identical to this work or fiction. The title of this book should be changed so future readers will know it is fiction before they pay their money to purchase it.

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".

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.

There is a silver lining to being a former prisoner of war - the story. Many hostages have told their narrative in the form of a book, but few have obtained the prestige of The Long Walk. The Long Walk was ghostwritten by Ronald Downingin 1956 based on conversations he had with Slavomir Rawicz. Rawicz has never actually written a book of his own, and his story of escape from a Siberian gulag has many critics. But, regardless of the criticisms, The Long Walk delivers both historical and philosophical knowledge in a way that is both endurable and entertaining.
When Downing wrote The Long Walk Rawicz was the only primary source, leading to widespread suspicion among scholars; possibly none more damning than Russian historical records. Rawicz's story begins with a detailed account of an interrogation he endured at a Soviet prison camp, which closely parallels the torture endured by Winston Smith in the fictional novel 1984. While the records do show that Rawicz had been imprisoned in 1942, they contradict Rawicz's claim as to why he was being interrogated. Rawicz claimed that he had been accused of being a Polish spy, while the records show that Rawicz had been accused of killing a NKVD officer. After being imprisoned, according to the book, Racowicz devises a successful strategy for him and six others to escape the Siberian gulag he was forced to labor in.. But, Soviet records, including statements allegedly written by Rawicz, show that Rawicz had been released as part of the 1942 general amnesty of Poles in the USSR, negating the possibility of a "trek to freedom".
Of course there is little doubt that the Soviet officials had fabricated or destroyed many legal documents in an attempt to marginalize the many war crimes that had been committed. In fact, at the beginning of The Long Walk, Rawicz allegedly was subjected to torture as an attempt to coerce him into signing a document professing his own guilt. Therefore, theoretically, compulsory signing of documents also may have been used to debunk any future claims of Soviet cruelty.
Despite the attacks on the validity of Rawicz's story, the book raises critical philosophical questions. The fugitives' entire quest forces the reader to explore the endurance of their own determination. The tenacity of Rawicz and his six friends spawns the question of just how valuable freedom is. Were these escapees' extraordinary humans, or is liberty so essential to happiness that weeks of unfathomable torture are not even substantial to dissuade man from achieving it?
Since there is no inherent value that each person places on freedom, the claim cannot be made that freedom is essential to each individual. In fact, because of the controversy regarding the validity of Racwicz's story, we cannot certify that Racwicz himself actually had the determination to accomplish the feat told in the story. Therefore, does someone exist that actually does have the determination and will power to face nearly impossible odds in order to achieve freedom? Are there people that are so uncompromising that liberty becomes indispensable to them?
Fortunately, Captain Rupert Mayne, an intelligence officer in Calcutta, said that in 1942 he had debriefed three emaciated men claiming to have escaped from a Siberian camp, adding to the probability that at least three men carried out the dubious feat. Also, Witold Glinski, a Polish WWII veteran living in the UK, claimed that the story was true, but it had actually happened to him, not Racwicz. Therefore, most likely, Racwicz was either telling the truth about his experience, or had stole the story from Glinski. Either way, Racwicz did deliver it to a mass audience, and reflected to that audience just how precious freedom can be.
Although Racwicz does answer some exceptionally beneficial philosophical questions, the relation between The Long Walk and history is severely impeded. Raciwicz's reliability is not definitive and, therefore, neither are the events described in the story. But, although the relation to history has been damaged, it is not destroyed. Some exceedingly valuable historical knowledge can still be salvaged from the wreckage. Even if Raciwicz was being dishonest, he did get his facts straight. Many former prisoners have testified that the conditions and treatment endured in gulags correlate with Raciwicz's description. Secondly, the book recounts the atmosphere of animosity that prevailed during 1940's Europe. Europe was in the middle of World War II, and Racwicz's account does a tremendous job of presenting the alliances and general dispositions that people had toward others outside their nationality. Lastly, The Long Walk gives
the reader a description of the cultures of Mongolia, China, and India. In each country Raciwicz encountered natives, and described the rituals and customs of those natives, in turn broadening the culture of the reader.
Therefore, even if the story is untrue, Racwicz delivers historical knowledge in an entertaining way. Any teacher knows that people enjoy digesting what captivates them, and it is difficult not to be captivated by The Long Walk.

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!

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.

Slav Rawicz, a polish calvary officer, who fought against the Germans in western Poland when they invaded his home country, told his story to a British writer with help from his English wife who spoke three languages. Slav returned home to his eastern home from the fighting in the West only to be "kidnapped" by the Russians for spying. They tortured him and drugged him in order to coerce a confession out of him. He was then sentenced and transported to Siberia by train (3000 miles) and by walking (another near 1000 miles through the snow - including fighting through three blizzards). He escaped a few months later with five others and walked nearly 4000 miles to India (four made it) through the snow, the Gobi desert, and the Himalayas. They went for days without food and water, lived on the land and tried to avoid contact with people. This book is his 18 month story. He eventually moved to the U.K., remarried and had five children. I was unable to put this book down and read it in one day.

Poorly written story of events that never occurred...a yeti? I was thinking the story seemed to fantastic as I read it. Then, you get to the end and the author claims to have seen a yeti/big foot creature. A waste of a read.

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 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.