best thru hiking book?

The Long Walk By Slavomir Rawicz

Not exactly a thru hiking book, but definitely a very long, very difficult walk. If you haven’t read it, you should. It’ll make you think twice the next time you feel sorry for yourself because the weather is bad or your feet hurt. The writing style is understated and refreshing – he let’s the story speak for itself.

For a short summary, it’s the story of several WWII prisoners of war who escape a Soviet prison in 1941 and walk from Siberia, thru Mongolia, thru the Gobi desert, thru China, thru Tibet, across the Himalayas, to India, with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

I don’t want to pee on anyone’s parade, but I’m pretty sure that the story behind The Long Walk was proven to be fabricated. My Russian history professor in college spent a week debunking Russian non-fiction myths (i.e. The Zadonschina) and told us that The Long walk was mostly made up and did not match the other survivor’s accounts. Apparently their escape was still impressive, but they did not actually transect all of Asia, not even close.

I would greatly appreciate any references you might have on this matter. I had heard a rumour that the book was contentious, but I have no information either way.
Thanks.

Roger, i work with a number of Russian engineers (meaning that they were born and educated in Russia, but living in the USofA now) – all to young to be alive at the time of the Long Walk, but some nearly my age. I’ll ask them about this story when they get in to work this morning. If they have heard of this story and its veracity, i’ll post back with a synopsis of their comments.

Sorry Roger that it took so long to get back to you. It looks as if my history professor was wrong as well. The Long Walk wasn’t exagerrated, it was completely faked and it turns out that Rawicz was released from the gulag under a general amnesty for Poles. He didn’t walk to India, he took a train home. I just googled the subject and found a BBC article about the story recently being discredited:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6098218.stm

Gosh, I hadn’t heard that before. That’s dissappointing. Humans are an odd lot.

Write your own thru hiking book.

Vlad

Vlad,

can others read any of your hiking books?

my favorite is…

“Hiking Maine through Pain”

and no one should neglect your classic work, a truly weighty tome…

“The Basics of Trekking for Wimps and Gimps”

Just kiddin’ you buddy. Hope you don’t mind. My sincere apologies if you do. i never like to have a laugh at another’s expense; my own expense i don’t mind [tough skin], but NOT at another’s. i figure you too were in the military, so, a good day is when you’re NOT taking any fire. my jokes were just “blanks” – a lot of noise; no blood; no harm done.

Actually, your suggestion of writing our own books is spot on. However, for those new to L/UL though and trying to understand its unique philosophy and principles (e.g. dual-use, etc.), they might appreciate reading a good book on the subject.

Vlad,

can others read any of your hiking books?

my favorite is…

“Hiking Maine through Pain”

and no one should neglect your classic work, a truly weighty tome…

“The Basics of Trekking for Wimps and Gimps”

Just kiddin’ you buddy. Hope you don’t mind. My sincere apologies if you do. i never like to have a laugh at another’s expense; my own expense i don’t mind [tough skin], but NOT at another’s. i figure you too were in the military, so, a good day is when you’re NOT taking any fire. my jokes were just “blanks” – a lot of noise; no blood; no harm done.

Actually, your suggestion of writing our own books is spot on. However, for those new to L/UL though and trying to understand its unique philosophy and principles (e.g. dual-use, etc.), they might appreciate reading a good book on the subject.

No insults taken! Yes, I like to kid around and even insult people sometimes in a joking type way. In fact, the more I insult someone, a lot of times the more I like them…LOL

Yeah, I have a thick skin. I’m just a gruff old backpacker I suppose.

Vlad

> The Long Walk wasn’t exagerrated, it was completely faked and it turns out that Rawicz was released from the gulag under a general amnesty for Poles. He didn’t walk to India, he took a train home.

I did a search myself, and don’t entirely agree with you. What I found was as follows:
* The book was ghost-written for him as he did not speak good English at the time, and the writer was a yeti-enthusiast
* The bits up to the gulag were most likely fairly correct.
* He was probably released from a gulag along with many other Poles late in the day, but in general they all had to make their own way from Siberia to outside the Iron Curtain, and there were many EPIC voyages made, even close to the route described. He would probably have known of some of these stories from other Poles.
* I suspect the ghost-writer melded the lot together.

So, while the escape route as described may not have been a journey literally made by Slavomir himself, the gist of the story does describe what many Poles experienced during the war when ‘escaping’ from the Russians.

Quite frankly, given the hardships which so many Poles suffered from the Stalin era, I think the book can stand as an indictment of the Stalinist system.

I understand he died in 2004, in the UK. The book has sold millions of copies and remains in print even today. Incredible.