Alexander Solzhenitsyn, RIP

[sailaway21]

The great Soviet dissident and author has passed on. That he outlived his persecutors is no doubt due to the Almighty's sense of justice. He lived in the US for some while but could not not live in Russia. He did not desire that Russia become like the West unless, perhaps, you we're talking about 18th century America. He was as hard on the West for it's lost ideals as he was on the Motherland.

The years have caused us to forget much of what was so powerfully said and written in those last decades of the Cold War. In fact, we have a whole generation to which the Cold War might seem a distant and meaningless event. They might fine it of more historical interest if they coupled the thought of that war's end with the concept of the end of western courage.

Here's a speech given to the 1978 graduating class of Harvard by the great man. It still makes for interesting reading as the author's words still find relevance in the world today.

Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Address

edit...I should note that the above is the famous World Split Apart speech. It did not receive universal acclaim. But then, the truth is rarely popular.

[DJEVANS]

Powerful...and frightening in its truth.
"Liberalism was inevitably displaced by radicalism, radicalism had to surrender to socialism and socialism could never resist communism."

And this isn't required reading in schools why? Oh, that's right--because it wouldn't have anything to do with the standardized tests and because there are some really radical thoughts included about--gasp--spirituality and the lack thereof leading to the decline of society.

Thanks for the read, Sway.

[camaraderie]

"Socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death."

Not a bad quote! Mr. S certainly went through a lot of suffering and was a grand voice against communism but he was also an anti-semite and a Russian nationalist who opposed the ambitions to freedom of the other soviet republics. Like all of us, he was not perfect and on balance was a force for good and a provocative voice who made us think outside our own little box. RIP

[jrd22]

Interesting and uncannily accurate in most of his predictions, which at the time certainly were contrary to common assumptions. Brilliant mind. Thanks for posting it.

John

[sailhog]

He had a crazy beard and an even crazier brain.

[sailaway21]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

"Socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death."

Not a bad quote! Mr. S certainly went through a lot of suffering and was a grand voice against communism but he was also an anti-semite and a Russian nationalist who opposed the ambitions to freedom of the other soviet republics. Like all of us, he was not perfect and on balance was a force for good and a provocative voice who made us think outside our own little box. RIP

Camaraderie damns with faint praise.

That the man could have been anti-semitic, unlikely given the pool in which he swam, would be no more unlikely than the anti-semitism of a Roosevelt, Churchill, or the vast majority of western thought throughout the majority of the twentieth century. It was then, and is now, exceedingly important as to which side of Manhassett Bay one grew up on isn't it? I'm afraid that the likes of Sharansky and thers might have a bone to pick with notions of Solzhynitsen's anti-jewry.

Apparently the dichotomy of one-world order versus nationalism escapes our reader as well. The World split speech still resonates precisely because of the prominence of the one-worlders, the EU, and the UN which only, in the end, are thwarted by nationalist, if not patriotic, forces. Solzhynitsen's Russian nationalism was to be quite expected. Denied his whole life a nation-state to call home, I'm hardly surprised.

Compared with his writings and resistance I'd say these were mere trifles, if even that. The editors of the National Review seem to agree: The Editors on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on National Review Online

The Cato Institute takes similar NPR ideas to task: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/...zhenitsyn-rip/

Norman Podhoretz, editor-at-large for Commentary magazine, and a man who knows a bit about anti-semitism, sees no sign of it other than in ther fevered imaginations of Russian historians: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/vi...rticle_id=6952

Likewise from Commentary, Jeri Laber explains his intense nationalism. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/vi...rticle_id=5365

That he was not a classic liberal democrat cannot be denied but then, we see how Russian attempts at liberal democracy are working out, don't we? He may have been prescient in this regard as well; Russia may be better governed authoritatively, at least as she now stands. That his vision for Russia or even some of his thoughts on liberal democracy rankle the modern sensibility cannot detract from the fact that before Reagan, before Thatcher, and before Pope John Paul there was Solzhenitsyn and he told "truth to power" in ways unimaginable to those commonly associated with the phrase. We forget to our cost that he lived in an era wherein appeasement and diplomacy were the watchwords of a good part of the world regarding matters Soviet. Much of western thought consisted of, "I've seen the future, and it works", regarding Soviet communism. Solzhenitsyn made sure that that lie would die the death it deserved. That he possessed human foibles and weaknesses cannot, and should not, be cited as detractions of the singular service he performed for mankind.

[camaraderie]

Try this Sway:
Traditional Prejudices: The anti-Semitism of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. - Reason Magazine
Let's not make the man a saint.

[sailaway21]

Thanks, I'd be inclined to respect the opinions of Richard Pipes and John Klier, both of whom found not a whiff of anti-semitism in the man. It is presumed anti-semitism or suspected anti semitism, and anti-semitic tradition that are always referred to regarding Solzhenitsyn. I'm not according anyone saint status; that's above my pay grade. But I'm not going to listen to unfounded and scurrilous suppositions about one of the great heroic figures of the twentieth century so recently deceased silently either.

"On balance" we should all be so lucky to be regarded as such "a force for good".

[sailaway21]

A eulogy worth reading:
The American Spectator