Read Soljenitsin’s (spelling?) ‘The first circle’ to get a good idea of sharaskas.
http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-solzhenitsyn-the-so...
http://www.econtalk.org/kevin-mckenna-on-characters-plot-and...
Also, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a much shorter, more easily digested, novel by Solzhenitsyn.