The long Walk is a story of one man and his magnificent walk to freedom. The book is about a man named Slavomir Rawicz and how he escaped the Russian soviets. It begins by Slavomir talking about himself and telling of the role he played before arrested by the Russians. Slav was a Polish man who served in the Polish army. But according to the Russians Slav was a polish spy and they arrested him. After interrogating him in 1941 he was sentenced to do 25 years in prison in Siberia. Without being able to say goodbye he was put on a Russian train with many others and was sent to Siberia. After a few days they arrived in Siberia not knowing what was ahead of them.

Arriving in Siberia was just the beginning of his treacherous journey. What he did not know was that he would be about to embark on a journey on foot with very little food to northern Siberia. This journey to northern Siberia would take nearly 2 months. After those two months of a treacherous journey they arrived at a prison camp called Camp 303. At this camp the prisoners worked to build their own shelter. After this was done they worked to improve the camp. Later on the camp needed people to make skis and Slav volunteered. This job was much easier and the people who did it were given more food. But Slav knew that he could not stay at the camp for 25 more years. Slowly but effectively he started devising a plan to escape bringing along half a dozen with him. He gained the trust of a few and together they picked out the rest. They waited for a blizzard to escape during the night so their tracks would be covered up. Sure enough they escaped but they had no idea what to expect.

It took the seven men a couple months to finally reach the border of Siberia and Mongolia. Although the men had food they often went without it sometimes for many days on end. Shortly after crossing the border into Mongolia they met a woman named Kristina whom they took with them. Approaching Mongolia and the Gobi desert at the beginning of summer was deadly. Before the Gobi they started to come across a few Mongols who gave them food and shelter. All of the villagers would give them the same treatment of food and shelter. Soon after entering the Gobi they ran out of food. All of them on the brink of death god saved them and they came across an oasis. But about ten days after leaving it Kristina died. And a few days after that one of the men, markowski, also died. The remaining six got through it and made it into Tibet. They came across many many villagers in Tibet who gave them food and shelter. But that still wasn't enough.

Tibet was much easier than the Gobi but it was no walk in the park. They knew they would eventually come across the Himalayas but they had no idea how challenging they would be. To make it more challenging they arrived at the Himalayas we'll into fall and on the brink of Winter. Crossing the mountains was hard enough and the snow made it ten times harder. They were warned before they entered to be careful because if you fall asleep not in the right conditions you may not wake up. They entered with six and came out with five. A man named marcinkovas had died. Just about to reach India, which was where they were headed, they were climbing down a slope when Paluchowicz, a Polish man fell and vanished. About to reach India they were given a break when meeting Soldiers who brought them to their base and basically save the remaining four men. After being cared for there they were sent to an Indian city were they were taken into a hospital. After a month Slav was no longer sick and requested to be sent to the nearest Polish army base. He said his goodbyes and was on his way. I definitely recommend this book! The End.

Nice that this book received such rave reviews over the decades, but it has been largely debunked as fiction. Even the most casual reader will observe wildly implausible claims, such as walking across the Gobi dessert for 11 days with no water at all. Or claiming to have swum a river south...and later stating that there had been no travel but on foot. What happened to all the goods in the backpacks during the "swim"? At the start of the book, the named author has most of his teeth knocked out...yet eating though bread and meat is no problem for him at all, sans teeth.
As for fact checking...both Soviet records and the author's own notes acknowledge that Rawicz was released from the gulag in 1942 (after his alleged 1941 "escape") and transported to Iran. Doesn't square in any way with this narrative.

A story about a Polish cavalry officer captured by the Russians in 1939 and sentenced to 25 years in a Siberian prison. Escaping in late winter with six companions of varied nationalities, they deal with cold and hunger (they took food but had a meager diet before leaving and had little to hunt with). Along the way, they find a “girl” (as he calls her, but it seems she is more likely a young woman) who is also a fugitive, and they encounter individuals and civilizations that help them with food (willingly or unwillingly).

Winter turns to spring, and soon afterward, the Mongolian springtime gives way to the heat and aridness of the Gobi Desert, and the ordeal becomes tragic. By autumn, the little band reaches the higher elevations (and cold weather, again) of Tibet.

It wasn’t until after I finished that I read of a controversy that Slavomir Radicz may have fabricated the story or stolen it from another person who claims to have actually made the journey. I happen to believe it was real, but even if it is fictional, it was a great adventure.

I found this to be more than just a survival story when I read it years ago. Now a new Peter Weir (remember when Master and Commander came to the screen)? movie titled The Way Back is based on the book and attention is being drawn to whether Rawicz's account was a hoax or a rip off.

In a CS Monitor Movie Review of The Way Back The reviewer states: "He was indeed forced-marched by the Russians to a Siberian gulag but he didn't escape, he was amnestied.". At the other end of the spectrum, a UGO review says "The press notes are very sketchy as to whether or not The Way Back is a true story. . . .Frankly, it can't be true. But, for many years, it was believed to be true, and I believe at least parts of it to be true. And when you see the amazing, Lord of the Rings-like struggle of this group, that'll be impressive enough."

If it's good enough for male audiences 18-34 it should be good enough for me, right? The question here on GR is, should I change my rating from 5 stars to 3 or is it a great story EVEN IF IT ISNT TRUE?

After Rawicz died in 2006, a BBC radio documentary uncovered military records that showed that Rawicz was serving in Persia (now Iran) at the time of the escape.

Witold Glinski, in Cornwall, UK has made a public announcement in May 2009 as reported in the British tabloid newspaper The Daily MirrorExclusive: The Greatest Escape - war hero who walked 4,000 miles from Siberian death camp
that similar events DID happen, but to him (not Rawicz)!

The likeliest explanation accepted by today's reporters and media is that Rawicz read Witold’s genuine account of the escape, in official papers that he found in the Polish Embassy in London during the war and then Rawicz's ghost writer embellished the story that would be sold in 1956 as The Long Walk. I has kept on selling for years, right up to the present time when the story is being brought as The Way Back on film to the theater.

The wikipedia article on Slavomir Rawicz references an Outside Oline article titled To Tell the Truth
Is it fact or is it fiction? The perplexing story behind The Long Walk.
from 2003 and a BBC story titled Walking the talk? from 2006 each calling Rawicz's account into question.

I find it hard to believe the details of the walk were not real . . . why would you make up something as mundane as some of their hiding places and what they stole to eat? The majesty in the story was that they kept on and that their will to get back to friendly territory kept them moving? Is that part of the story on the scrap heap of history now too?

Here's a promo shot from the Peter Weir's new movie based on the book titled: The Way Back, but now I don't want to see it half as much as I did before I was wondering who really made the walk, how do they know who to cast? This is who they've got:


Playing either Witold:


or Rawicz:

Thanks to my son for recommending this book to me. I enjoyed this book so much I felt sad when it ended. I listened to the recorded book version, which sounded like the narrator was talking to me about being unjustly imprisoned by the Russians early in WWII, tortured, sentenced to 25 years hard labor in Siberia, the harrowing journey to the prison, the escape with some fellow prisoners and a long, difficult trek to India to freedom. I want to see the film (The Way Back) that was made based on the book.

Note: There is evidence that this story is a fabrication. Whether it is or not, I really enjoyed reading it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sławomir...

http://www.mikaelstrandberg.com/2011/...

Listened on audio and got halfway through before giving up. I don't doubt that Rawicz has a powerful, important story to tell; it was just far too depressing for me. Even knowing there's a light at the end of the tunnel didn't quell that sense of despair hanging over the narrative.

I've read lots of non-fiction leading up to and during World War II -- and am typically both fascinated and horrified by it. The Long Walk drew me in initially, but the descriptions and subdued tone of the narrator couldn't hold my interest. The story became tedious -- and mixed with the unpleasant subject matter, there wasn't enough to inspire me to hang on.

“Дългата разходка” може да бъде истинска – 6500-те км на Славомир Равич
http://www.knigolandia.info/2011/09/6...

Сибир. Гоби. Хималаите. Концлагер. Глад. Жажда. Студ. Жега. 6500 км. Това е истинска история, ако щете вярвайте.

Да, знам, “Дългата разходка” = Кинг. И на мен ми е сред най-любимите ми негови романи, наред с “То” и “Гробище за домашни любимци”. Но тази дълга разходка е на Славомир Равич и е много, много по-сериозна – това е всъщност и единствената ми критика – рисуваната корица не пасва на тази книга, просто историята на Равич е твърде сериозна и силна, за да бъде показана по този начин.

3/4/2011 Now for film time...

Dragos Bucur t... tZoran
Colin Farrell t... tValka
Ed Harris t... tMr. Smith
Alexandru Potocean t... tTomasz

Trailer here

Fantastic film, authentic landscapes. Things left out:

-The beginning of the book where the long journey to the gulag was explained.
-Inside the gulag where a favoured existence helped accrue certain objects
-That Yeti moment.

NB I have softened to the yeti thing - after such a gruelling trip it is entirely possible that the brain plays tricks. Swirling snow can look like a lot of things, trust me.

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October 2006 - Blurb from BBC: Later this year, the celebrated Australian director Peter Weir will release his latest film. Titled "The Way Back" it is based on a book which has puzzled the world for 50 years. In 1956, a Polish officer called Slavomir Rawicz caused a sensation with "The Long Walk," his account of a his dramatic escape from the Soviet Gulag and a 4000-mile trek on foot to India. The book was a bestseller and has remained in print for over half a century. Rawicz describes how he his fellow escapees slogged across the Siberian tundra, traversed the Gobi Desert and scaled the Himalayas. Along the way they faced hunger, exhaustion, disease and even a couple of yetis. A thrilling story: but was it true? Many have doubted whether this extraordinary tale can really have happened. Four years ago, Tim Whewell investigated for a Radio 4 documentary and discovered evidence that decisively proved whether Rawicz really made his amazing journey. Now there's further evidence which adds another twist to the tale - including a meeting with the man who might really have made this epic trek. This updated version of the programme proves once again that truth is truly stranger than fiction.

Producer: Hugh Levinson.

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First read January 2003

I really enjoyed this memoir of a Polish man who was sentenced to 25 years in a Soviet prison camp in 1939. The story begins with his recollections of the torture he endured as the Soviets attempted to get him to admit he was a spy (he wasn't) and his trial. Then we learn about the journey to get to the prison camp and the months he spent there. The bulk of the book, however, is the long journey from Siberia to India that he and 7 companions undertook after escaping from the prison camp. The journey demonstrates what hardship humans can endure to obtain their freedom and illustrates the kindness that many humans will extend. Great read.

The story of a Polish prisoner in a Soviet Gulag who escapes and walks with several other escapees from Siberia, through the Gobi, over the Himalayas and into India. Sounds great right? And with a name like The Long Walk: The TRUE Story of a Trek to Freedom you might think this was a true story. Well it's not. It's certainly passed off as a true story though.

I started getting suspicious when Slav (the narrator and supposed author) explains the grievous wounds he endured in the Gulag, including getting most of his teeth knocked out and his hand terribly burned. The injuries themselves didn't make me suspicious, I'm sure Soviet prison guards did shit like that, it's that I knew he ended up walking all the way to India, and the amount of damage he took would have crippled him enough to make walking that far impossible, esp with hardly any teeth left to chew food with. But I kept reading. Then they find a young polish girl in the wilderness and adopt her. Yeah, ok. THEN they walk 13 days through the fucking Gobi desert without water. Like none. That's just too much, but it actually gets worse. They saw a pair of Yeti in the Himalayas. Yeah.

There were lots of other weird points that seemed impossible or were stupid that I'm not gonna bother listing, just take my word for it, it didn't take me any research to realize this book was fake. Is it based on a real story? Maybe. Did the writer just seriously embellish it? Maybe, but honestly it was so unrealistic it wasn't fun at all to read. Like if this was presented as a fiction I would have been annoyed that the author thought people could live without water for 13 days, let alone WALK ACROSS A DESERT FOR 13 DAYS WITHOUT WATER.

Anyways, I don't recommend this to anyone. The story itself is so ridiculous that it's not fun to read and also it's for sure fake.

So...here's the deal...

I totally would've given this 5 stars because it was an amazing story of survival and the human will to overcome difficult challenges. That being said, when I had like 30 pages left, I googled the author to see if he was still alive and what I discovered were a whole bunch of articles (including a BBC documentary) that exposes him as a fake! It said he could never prove that he was there when the story takes place and all this other stuff, so I don't know if it's true or not. The author passed away in 2004 and the documentary was in 2006, so I don't know if we'll ever know. There is also a movie with Colin Ferrell coming out this year that is supposed to be based on the book. I don't know if I'll see it or not.

Anyway, after reading all that, I was ticked and was going to only give it 3 stars, but decided that I really enjoyed it, and if it IS fiction, the man had quite the imagination, so that warrants 4 stars to me.

Oh, the drama this one has caused me!

Suppose to be TRUE. I don't know. Google'd the book but recently some critics are skeptical on how TRUE the story plays out.
Seven inmates from a Soviet labor camp in Siberia escape and WALKED thousands of miles thru bitter cold and then later thru the Gobi Desert,Tibet then finally made it to India seems far, FAR fetched. Again it could be True. It is NOT written anywhere near Laura Hillenbrand"s book,UNBROKEN. It had some of the same elements - one trying event after another - but it still is a decent read. Just decent.