Book dossier

The long walk

by Slavomir Rawicz

This book is a real good read as they say. I found it on the sad side...even brings a tear to your eye. This book should be relegated to the fiction section of the library. There is much in Rawicz's story that makes no sense. For example, Rawicz admitted that he had come out of the USSR with the Poles who were released after the Soviet-Polish pact, and went to Palestine where he joined the British forces. But he says that this happened after he went back to the USSR after exiting through India with his two companions. This makes no sense whatsoever. Nobody in his right mind would return to Soviet territory after escaping a Soviet camp. Another aspect that I find problematic is his companion on the trek, Mr. Smith, an American. I should think that Mr. Smith would have become famous post war given the Cold War of that era. Nor have I ever read any account by an American who was in Russia at the time who knew of an American engineer who worked on the Moscow subway. Several thousand Americans moved to the USSR in the 30's, and several of them wrote books about their lives there.