Eugenia Ginzburg's Journey Into The Whirlwind

In Journey into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Ginzburg retells her unfortunate story of imprisonment through Article 58 in Soviet Russia under Stalin’s rule. Before her trial, she spent two years in solitary confinement in a prison in Yaroslavl. The United States has a history with isolation and it is still used as a punishment today through the new name Super Max prisons. In the 19th century, many critics and reformists like Charles Dickens and William Crawford arose and solitary became a much discussed issue until it lost its popularity much later. In the late 20th century solitary regained its popularity and was institutionalized and re-criticized by people like Atul Gawande. Ginzburg directly states the beneficial effects of solitary following …show more content…
She and her cellmate, Julia, are allowed a few books each and are both clearly excited to gain such a privilege. She goes on to say that “when a human being is isolated from the ‘rat-race’ of everyday life, he achieves a kind of spiritual serenity,” (205). She asserts, without the call to “pursue the phantom of worldly success, to play the diplomat or the hypocrite,” allowed her to become “more intelligent and perceptive,” than any other point in her life (206). Crawford believed solitary confinement would aid the criminal in a similar way it changed Ginzburg. Without contact from the outside the criminal would be forced to face the error of his ways but would also be kept away from society. Deterrence from society was necessary to prevent a “contagion” of immoral values analogous to Ginzburg’s imprisonment under Article 58. Although both Ginzburg and Crawford feel serenity is a product of solitary, their ideas originated differently. Ginzburg experienced this serenity herself and Crawford referred to the religious idea of penance for one’s sins. Ginzburg may directly support solitary, but through her gruesome physical experiences, she indirectly says