MOSCOW — A Russian news agency says parts of the once-banned book "The Gulag Archipelago" have been declared required reading for upper-level students in the country's schools.
The sprawling book, regarded as Alexander Solzhenitsyn's masterwork, recounts the brutality and despair of the prison camp system set up under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The book was banned in the Soviet Union and Solzhenitsyn was forced into exile.
According to the state-run news agency RIA Novosti, the Education Ministry on Wednesday ordered that passages from the book become required reading in order to deepen students' understanding of Russia's history. A ministry spokesman did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
The move comes despite Russian moves over the past decade to restore some Soviet symbols and defend some of Stalin's actions.
