Return to the Gulag
Jon Utley’s search for his father
Jon Utley was two years old in Moscow when his father, Arcadi Berdichevsky, a Russian trade official, was sent to a labor camp by the Soviet secret police. His mother, Freda Utley, escaped with Jon to England and then to America.
In 2004 and 2006, Utley, a well-known journalist, embarked upon a search to learn of his father’s fate. This documentary traces Utley’s journey through former labor camps and cities in northern Russia and his final uncovering of the horrible truth at the dreaded camp city of Vorkuta within the Artic Circle.
Directed by John J. Michalczyk, Return the Gulag is a small but revealing window into Russia’s turbulent 1930s.
Reason.tv is proud to present this Etoile Production, which was funded by The Freda Utley Foundation and the Jacques Salmanowitz Program For Moral Courage in Film at Boston College. Thanks also to the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation.
For more information about the documentary, visit http://fredautley.com/Berdichevsky.htm.
For a DVD version of this program ($15 donation, plus shipping), please go to the website of The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation or email vocmemorial@aim.com.
Approximately 28 minutes. ©2008 The Freda Utley Foundation.
Leave a Reply