Solzhenitsyn Dies age 89: A life well spent
August 4th 2008 00:16
Solzhenitsyn Dies age 89: A life well spent
When it comes to dissidents of the former Soviet Union none was more famous than the author Alexandra Solzhenitsyn. At the height of the cold war in 1963 he publish ‘A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ to highlight the absolute distrust that the Stalinist Regime had for returned prisoners of war. Many of whom were accused of being spies because they had been captured by the Germans in WW2. Yet it was his book called ‘Gulag Archipelago’ in 1973 during the Brezhnev era that turned him into an enemy of the state. He was deported from his home land in 1974 as a result and remained in forced exile until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990.
‘Gulag Archipelago’ documented in fine detail the treatment of prisoner in the infamous Gulags of Siberia. The book was based upon his own experiences and those of over 200 other testimonies. The book was published in secret and was immediately condemned by the Soviets as counter revolutionary propaganda. Stripped of his Russian nationality Solzhenitsyn was then deported to West Germany and many of his friends were then targeted by the KGB.
Like a character from his books Solzhenitsyn’s life reflected many of the injustices that existed beneath the veil of ideological respectability of the Marxist regime. As a decorated soldier in the Red army fighting Hitler he was arrested over a trivial matter for daring to refer to Stalin as "the whiskered one" in a personal letter to a friend. After a decade of imprisonment he abandoned Marxism. He was give the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 but was unable to attend for fear of being denied re-entry to the Soviet Union.
He rejected the sanitized view that Lenin and Trotsky were ‘true communists’ who had their dreams ruined by Stalin. He pointed to the fact that Lenin was the person who started mass executions, founded the original KGB and created the Gulags. Trotsky had his own violent ambitions even during his exile in Mexico.
Beyond his suffrage, exiles and being considered a ‘Non-Person’ Solzhenitsyn did more to lift the self delusional sanctimony that many Western Leftists used to wallow in. The Great Utopian Empire was shown for what it was: a totalitarian state where all freedom was crushed. Perhaps only George Orwell had come close to denting this deception but Solzhenitsyn smashed it.
As such I am certain that for all the wrong that he may have done which give fodder to those that will pry over his imperfections, like vultures over a corpse. However there is more to this man’s life than what we can find wrong with it. Solzhenitsyn struggled hard for what he did and perhaps if a few more people struggled as hard then they could die knowing that they had lived a life well spent.
Solzhenitsyn: If you are this ugly then you had better be a great writer to compensate.
When it comes to dissidents of the former Soviet Union none was more famous than the author Alexandra Solzhenitsyn. At the height of the cold war in 1963 he publish ‘A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ to highlight the absolute distrust that the Stalinist Regime had for returned prisoners of war. Many of whom were accused of being spies because they had been captured by the Germans in WW2. Yet it was his book called ‘Gulag Archipelago’ in 1973 during the Brezhnev era that turned him into an enemy of the state. He was deported from his home land in 1974 as a result and remained in forced exile until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990.
‘Gulag Archipelago’ documented in fine detail the treatment of prisoner in the infamous Gulags of Siberia. The book was based upon his own experiences and those of over 200 other testimonies. The book was published in secret and was immediately condemned by the Soviets as counter revolutionary propaganda. Stripped of his Russian nationality Solzhenitsyn was then deported to West Germany and many of his friends were then targeted by the KGB.
Solzhenitsyn arrested and being sent to the Gulag.
He rejected the sanitized view that Lenin and Trotsky were ‘true communists’ who had their dreams ruined by Stalin. He pointed to the fact that Lenin was the person who started mass executions, founded the original KGB and created the Gulags. Trotsky had his own violent ambitions even during his exile in Mexico.
Beyond his suffrage, exiles and being considered a ‘Non-Person’ Solzhenitsyn did more to lift the self delusional sanctimony that many Western Leftists used to wallow in. The Great Utopian Empire was shown for what it was: a totalitarian state where all freedom was crushed. Perhaps only George Orwell had come close to denting this deception but Solzhenitsyn smashed it.
As such I am certain that for all the wrong that he may have done which give fodder to those that will pry over his imperfections, like vultures over a corpse. However there is more to this man’s life than what we can find wrong with it. Solzhenitsyn struggled hard for what he did and perhaps if a few more people struggled as hard then they could die knowing that they had lived a life well spent.
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Comment by tlcorbin
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Comment by Damo
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I quite agree.
Though I made a small post that hardly does justice to him I though that his passing should not go unnoticed.
Comment by Cibbuano
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Miss him? To me, he's almost a saintlike figure.
Comment by Damo
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"A Saint like Figure"
Certainly a great man.
Yet like all great people I am expecting a process of insignificant people trying to tear his memory apart. It is the habit of modern times to attack someone after they are dead so that they cannot answer the charges.
Comment by jon
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This post has been shared on NewsRope.com
Comment by Damo
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Thanks for your comments.
I think that perhaps after receiving the Nobel Prize he was protected by a layer of fear. A dead dissident is much more dangerous than a living one. You can't argue with a dead martyr but you can negotiate with a living one.
Yet I remember reading about his exile years ago and he was very cautious and careful with what he said even to Western Journalists.
I think there was a sense of "I just don't give a stuff anymore," to fire his belly.
And thanks for the link to newsrope.
Comment by S.L.
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Comment by Damo
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Thanks for your comments.
I think he be held up as the closest thing to Dostoyevski in the last 50 years. He methodically undermined the shallowness of totalitarian oppress dressed in a popular ideology.