Menachem Begin. White Nights: The Story of a Prisoner in Russia (Paperback)

Author: Menachem Begin,  Israel's Former Prime Minister

The title of this book has two interpretations.  The first is the well known French phrase, "Les nuits blanches," meaning "night without sleep."  The second derives from the nights of Northern Russia where, in midsummer, there is no darkness at all.

The first sequence of these "white nights" was experienced by Menachem Begin at the fortress of Lukishki where, when he was not being interrogated, he was kept awake forcibly by the shining of floodlight directly into his eyes.  A second series followed when he was sent to a Russian Correctional Labour Camp, to expiae his "crime" of being a Zionist in a regime where any "-ism" except Communism was considered to be counter-revolutionary.

This is a book of infinite hman appeal, and every reader will be enthralled and moved by Mr. Begin's experiences, the courage and ironic humour with which he faced his persecutors, and by his vivid description of the life of a prisoner behind the Iron Curtain until its fall in the last decade of the 20th century.  This "modus vivendi" had hardly altered at all except for the changes which occurred after Stalin's death and which are forecasted with almost uncanny prescience in the last chapter of the book, written two months before Stalin died.

The Hebrew edition of White Nights was a record-making bestseller in Israel, and this first English translation - beautifully handled by Katie Kaplan - will prove of absorbing interest to all peoples of all nations who are intrigued by the implications of Communism as practiced in the USSR.

Paperback, 304 pages