Jacques the French is what fellow prisoners called Jacques Rossi (1909–2004). Linguist, polyglot, artist, committed communist, secret agent of the Comintern, a prisoner who served twenty years in Stalin’s prisons and camps, he gained fame as the author of the most valuable study, “Handbook of the Gulag,” which he conceived in the Arctic Circle, at logging sites and at the “construction sites of communism.” ”, managing at the risk of his life to hide the collected materials written down on scraps of wrapping paper. Returning to France in 1964, he considers it his duty to testify to what he himself saw and experienced, and tirelessly exposes the communist idea. In this book, co-authored with writer Michelle Sard, he spoke about his delusions, the price he paid for them, shared observations, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, and thoughts about what led millions of people to the dead end of a disastrous utopia.