# Is "The Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (YMCA-Press, Paris, 1973) is identified by: Russian true first: Arkhipelag GULAG 1918–1956, YMCA-Press, Paris, under the direction of Nikita Struve. The census claim is confirmed.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Russian true first: Arkhipelag GULAG 1918–1956, YMCA-Press, Paris, under the direction of Nikita Struve
- Volume 1 (parts I–II) appeared 28 December 1973; volume 2 (parts III–IV) in 1974; volume 3 (parts V–VII) in 1975 — a set dated 1973 throughout is therefore impossible, and the three volumes must be assessed individually
- Octavo (approximately 19.3 x 13.6 cm), issued in the publisher's illustrated wrappers, NOT in cloth, with black-and-white illustrations in the text; any hardcover Russian-language copy is a rebinding or a later issue
- ABAA/ILAB dealer cataloguing records the printing as Imprimerie Moderne for volume 1 and Impressions Internationales for volumes 2–3, both for YMCA-Press
- The Russian first-edition text follows the author's 1968 redaction with his refinements of 1969, 1972 and 1973, and closes with two authorial afterwords dated February 1967 and May 1968
- The print run reached about 50,000
- Publisher imprint reads YMCA-Press, Paris

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn |
| Publisher | YMCA-Press, Paris |
| Year | 1973 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Russian true first: Arkhipelag GULAG 1918–1956, YMCA-Press, Paris, under the direction of Nikita Struve |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Russian true first: Arkhipelag GULAG 1918–1956, YMCA-Press, Paris, under the direction of Nikita Struve. Volume 1 (parts I–II) appeared 28 December 1973; volume 2 (parts III–IV) in 1974; volume 3 (parts V–VII) in 1975 — a set dated 1973 throughout is therefore impossible, and the three volumes must be assessed individually. Octavo (approximately 19.3 x 13.6 cm), issued in the publisher's illustrated wrappers, NOT in cloth, with black-and-white illustrations in the text; any hardcover Russian-language copy is a rebinding or a later issue. ABAA/ILAB dealer cataloguing records the printing as Imprimerie Moderne for volume 1 and Impressions Internationales for volumes 2–3, both for YMCA-Press. The Russian first-edition text follows the author's 1968 redaction with his refinements of 1969, 1972 and 1973, and closes with two authorial afterwords dated February 1967 and May 1968. The print run reached about 50,000. One ILAB dealer records a small advance issue of volume 1 of roughly 200 copies ahead of the regular issue; that claim is not independently corroborated here and should not be repeated as settled. First English edition: Harper & Row, New York, June 1974, volume 1 translated by Thomas P. Whitney — "First Edition" stated on the copyright page, 660 pp., priced jacket with the price present at the front flap.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed. The Paris YMCA-Press Russian émigré edition is the true first and preceded every Western translation; it was pushed into print under emergency conditions after the KGB seized a manuscript copy. The English and French translations of volume 1 followed in the spring and summer of 1974. The census's ordering of the two English editions is NOT established by the sources consulted: Harper & Row (New York, June 1974) and Collins/Harvill Press (London, 1974) both issued the Whitney translation in 1974, but no source consulted fixes the month of the London edition, so state both as 1974 and do not assert that Harper & Row precedes Collins/Harvill. Both English editions are collected; the Russian Paris volumes are the edition of record.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the YMCA-Press Russian volumes is documented — they were émigré-published in wrappers and smuggled, not club-distributed. On the American side the tell is the copyright-page "First Edition" statement, which later Harper & Row printings drop. Two reprint traps: sets offered as "the 1973 first edition" that in fact combine a 1973 volume 1 with 1974 and 1975 volumes are correct as issued, but a volume 2 or 3 dated 1973 is not; and the widely circulated later one-volume abridgement is a first thus, not a first edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Gulag Archipelago* by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-gulag-archipelago
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.