Your list is great. Unfortunately, in my opinion, some of the most important books regarding communism have never been translated into English. When I say this, I mainly think about the countless memoirs written by former communist political prisoners. I was born in Romania and moved to the US in my early twenties. I read probably more than 15 such memoirs, I even had the opportunity to meet a few survivors. Saying these books are chilling is understating them. It is such a disservice to humanity that these books don't get an international readership. And I bet other Eastern European countries have their own such books.
The Gulag Archipelago author, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, described the "Pitesti Phenomenon" (one of the experiments done by communists on young people in the Romanian prisons) as the
"most terrible act of barbarism in the contemporary world".
Since you would use a translator app, I would recommend to at least read "Fenomenul Pitesti" by Virgil Ierunca. It is a short book (37 pages) that describes what happened during the youth reeducation program in the Pitesti prison. It uses quotes from memoirs, but it is not 1st hand account.
(There is a PDF on milisoft.ro - just search virgil ierunca fenomenul pitesti pdf).
Now, a true memoir I found in PDF version is "Marturisiri din mlastina disperarii" (Confessions from the swamp of despair) by Dumitru Bordeianu. It is a 350+ book, but it is worth at least reading the forward to the book (3 pages) where the author talks about the ideology of "hate, lie and bestiality" (communism) and succinctly describes why he wrote the book, after doing hard labor and being tortured in Romanian prisons for more than 15 years. This is a memoir written from the point of view of a Christian dealing with the satan that is communism.
"Communism is only the presence of satan on earth. The Communists have made of their ideology a religion, which, in opposition to the Christian one, is the religion of hatred, and of crime, elevated to the rank of virtues; and it spreads only through lies, distrust, terror, and fear. " (from the forward to the book).
I read a collection of short stories from the author's experiences in a Soviet work camp. The book is called Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov. It's been translated into English, and I have no idea of how moving they are in Russian, but the translation seems to be very good, because the stories in English still sink into your mind and open your eyes to the insanity of communism.
Your list is great. Unfortunately, in my opinion, some of the most important books regarding communism have never been translated into English. When I say this, I mainly think about the countless memoirs written by former communist political prisoners. I was born in Romania and moved to the US in my early twenties. I read probably more than 15 such memoirs, I even had the opportunity to meet a few survivors. Saying these books are chilling is understating them. It is such a disservice to humanity that these books don't get an international readership. And I bet other Eastern European countries have their own such books.
The Gulag Archipelago author, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, described the "Pitesti Phenomenon" (one of the experiments done by communists on young people in the Romanian prisons) as the "most terrible act of barbarism in the contemporary world".
I wonder if any of them (that you read) are online? Online translating isn’t perfect, but I would read through that.
Since you would use a translator app, I would recommend to at least read "Fenomenul Pitesti" by Virgil Ierunca. It is a short book (37 pages) that describes what happened during the youth reeducation program in the Pitesti prison. It uses quotes from memoirs, but it is not 1st hand account. (There is a PDF on milisoft.ro - just search virgil ierunca fenomenul pitesti pdf).
Now, a true memoir I found in PDF version is "Marturisiri din mlastina disperarii" (Confessions from the swamp of despair) by Dumitru Bordeianu. It is a 350+ book, but it is worth at least reading the forward to the book (3 pages) where the author talks about the ideology of "hate, lie and bestiality" (communism) and succinctly describes why he wrote the book, after doing hard labor and being tortured in Romanian prisons for more than 15 years. This is a memoir written from the point of view of a Christian dealing with the satan that is communism.
"Communism is only the presence of satan on earth. The Communists have made of their ideology a religion, which, in opposition to the Christian one, is the religion of hatred, and of crime, elevated to the rank of virtues; and it spreads only through lies, distrust, terror, and fear. " (from the forward to the book).
(a pdf of this book is on marturisitorii.ro)
The Devil and Karl Marx is probably right up your alley.
I read a collection of short stories from the author's experiences in a Soviet work camp. The book is called Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov. It's been translated into English, and I have no idea of how moving they are in Russian, but the translation seems to be very good, because the stories in English still sink into your mind and open your eyes to the insanity of communism.
https://smile.amazon.com/Kolyma-Stories-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1681372142/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=kolyma+tales&qid=1600691851&sr=8-2
Closest we get to that in America is Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon.