Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Difference between revisions

| birth_place = [[Kislovodsk]], [[Russian SFSR]], Soviet Union

'''Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn'''{{efn|{{family name explanation|Isayevich|Solzhenitsyn|lang=Eastern Slavic}} His father's given name was Isaakiy, which would normally result in the patronymic ''Isaakievich''; however, the forms ''Isaakovich'' and ''Isayevich'' both appeared in official documents, the latter becoming the accepted version. His first name is often romanized to ''Alexandr'' or ''Alexander''.}}{{efn|{{IPAc-en|UK|ˌ|s|ɒ|l|ʒ|ə|ˈ|n|ɪ|t|s|ɪ|n}} {{respell|SOL|zhə|NIT|sin}},<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Solzhenitsyn,+Alexander |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411013540/https://www.lexico.com/definition/solzhenitsyn,_alexander |url-status=dead |archive-date=2022-04-11 |title=Solzhenitsyn, Alexander |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref><ref name="collins">{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/solzhenitsyn|title=Solzhenitsyn|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|access-date=27 August 2019}}</ref><ref name="longman">{{cite web|url=https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/alexander-solzhenitsyn|title=Solzhenitsyn, Alexander|work=[[Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English]]|publisher=[[Longman]]|access-date=27 August 2019}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|US|ˌ|s|oʊ|l|-|,_|-|ˈ|n|iː|t|-}} {{respell|SOHL|-,_-|NEET|-}};<ref name="collins"/><ref name="longman"/><ref>{{Cite American Heritage Dictionary|Solzhenitsyn|access-date=27 August 2019}}</ref> {{lang-rus|links=no|Александр Исаевич Солженицын|p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ɪˈsajɪvʲɪtɕɨˈsajɪvʲɪtɕ səlʐɨˈnʲitsɨn}}.}}{{efn|{{family name explanation|Isayevich|Solzhenitsyn|lang=Eastern Slavic}} His father's given name was Isaakiy, which would normally result in the patronymic ''Isaakiyevich''; however, the forms ''Isaakovich'' and ''Isayevich'' both appeared in official documents, the latter becoming the accepted version. His first name is often romanized to ''Alexandr'' or ''Alexander''.}} (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1970/solzhenitsyn/biographical/|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1970|website=NobelPrize.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2008/08/the_man_who_kept_on_writing.html|title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1918–2008.|author=Christopher Hitchens|date=4 August 2008|work=Slate Magazine}}</ref> was a Russian author and Soviet [[Soviet dissidents|dissident]] who helped to raise global awareness of [[political repression in the Soviet Union]], especially the [[Gulag]] prison system. He was awarded the [[1970 Nobel Prize in Literature]] "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature".<ref name="Noble">{{cite web|url= http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/ |title=Nobel Prize in Literature 1970|publisher=Nobel Foundation | access-date =17 October 2008}}</ref> His non-fiction work ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' "amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state" and sold tens of millions of copies.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Scammell |first1=Michael |title=The Writer Who Destroyed an Empire |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/opinion/solzhenitsyn-soviet-union-putin.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/opinion/solzhenitsyn-soviet-union-putin.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited |work=The New York Times |date=11 December 2018 |quote=In 1973, still in the Soviet Union, he sent abroad his literary and polemical masterpiece, 'The Gulag Archipelago.' The nonfiction account exposed the enormous crimes that had led to the wholesale incarceration and slaughter of millions of innocent victims, demonstrating that its dimensions were on a par with the Holocaust. Solzhenitsyn's gesture amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state, calling its very legitimacy into question and demanding revolutionary change.}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Solzhenitsyn was born into a family that defied the [[USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928)|Soviet anti-religious campaign in the 1920s]] and remained devout members of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]]. However, he initially lost his faith in Christianity, became an [[atheist]], and embraced [[Marxism–Leninism]]. While serving as a captain in the [[Red Army]] during [[World War II]], Solzhenitsyn was arrested by [[SMERSH]] and sentenced to eight years in the Gulag and then [[Forced settlements in the Soviet Union|internal exile]] for criticizing Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]] in a private letter. As a result of his experience in prison and the camps, he gradually became a philosophically- minded [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Christian]].

| isbn = 978-0-06-147901-4| date = 13 October 2009| access-date = 14 February 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140222125926/http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061479014/In_the_First_Circle/| archive-date=22 February 2014| url-status= live}}</ref> In 1950, Solzhenitsyn was sent to a "Special Camp" for political prisoners. During his imprisonment at the camp in the town of [[Ekibastuz]] in [[Kazakhstan]], he worked as a miner, bricklayer, and foundry foreman. His experiences at Ekibastuz formed the basis for the book ''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]''. One of his fellow political prisoners, [[Ion Moraru]], remembers that Solzhenitsyn spent some of his time at Ekibastuz writing.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.romanism.net/tag/sabia-dreptatii |title=Organizatia anti-sovietica "Sabia Dreptatii" |language=ro |trans-title=Anti-Soviet organization "Sword of Justice" |publisher=Romanism |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809121325/http://romanism.ro/tag/sabia-dreptatii |archive-date=9 August 2011}}</ref> While there, Solzhenitsyn had a tumor removed. His cancer was not diagnosed at the time.

Once back in Russia, Solzhenitsyn hosted a television [[talk show]] program.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/14/world/now-on-moscow-tv-heeere-s-aleksandr.html|title=Now on Moscow TV, Heeere's Aleksandr!|date=14 April 1995|work=The New York Times}}</ref> Its eventual format was Solzhenitsyn delivering a 15-minute [[monologue]] twice a month; it was discontinued in 1995.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://articleswww.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-09-26/news/-mn-50166_1_talk50166-showstory.html|title=Russian TV Pulls the Plug on Solzhenitsyn's Biting Talk Show|work=Los Angeles Times|date=26 September 1995 }}</ref> Solzhenitsyn became a supporter of [[Vladimir Putin]], who said he shared Solzhenitsyn's critical view towards the [[Russian Revolution]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1H_BgAAQBAJ&q=solzhenitsyn,+nationalist,+putin&pg=PA254|title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Cold War Icon, Gulag Author, Russian Nationalist?: A Study of His Western Reception|last=Kriza|first=Elisa|date=1 October 2014|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-3-8382-6689-3|pages=205–210|language=en}}</ref>

Solzhenitsyn also repeatedly denounced Tsar [[Alexis of Russia]] and [[Patriarch Nikon of Moscow]] for causing the [[Raskol|Great Schism of 1666]], which Solzhenitsyn said both divided and weakened the Russian Orthodox Church at a time when unity was desperately needed. Solzhenitsyn also attacked both the Tsar and the [[Patriarch]] for using [[excommunication]], Siberian exile, imprisonment, torture, and even [[burning at the stake]] against the [[Old Believers]], who rejected the liturgical changes which caused the Schism.{{cncitation needed|date=August 2024}}

Solzhenitsyn also argued that the Dechristianization of Russian culture, which he considered most responsible for the [[Bolshevik Revolution]], began in 1666, became much worse during the Reign of Tsar [[Peter the Great]], and accelerated into an epidemic during [[The Enlightenment]], the [[Romantic era]], and the [[Silver Age of Russian Poetry|Silver Age]].{{cncitation needed|date=August 2024}}

Expanding upon this theme, Solzhenitsyn once declared, "Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.' Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.'"<ref>Ericson, Edward E. Jr. (October 1985) "Solzhenitsyn – Voice from the Gulag,"</ref>

Solzhenitsyn made a speaking tour after [[Francisco Franco]]'s death, and "told liberals not to push too hard for changes because Spain had more freedoms now than the Soviet Union had ever known." As reported by ''[[The New York Times]]'', he "blamed Communism for the death of 110 million Russians and derided those in Spain who complained of dictatorship."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/22/archives/solzhenitsyn-bids-spain-use-caution.html|title=Solzhenitsyn Bids Spain Use Caution|work=The New York Times|date=22 March 1976|access-date=13 August 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Solzhenitsyn recalled: "I had to explain to the [[Spanish people|people of Spain]] in the most concise possible terms what it meant to have been subjugated by an ideology as we in the Soviet Union had been, and give the Spanish to understand what a terrible fate they escaped in 1939". This was because Solzhenitsyn saw at least some parallels between the [[Spanish Civil War]] between the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalists]] and the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republicans]] and the [[Russian Civil War]] between the [[anti-communist]] [[White Movement|White Army]] and the Communist [[Red Army]]. This was neither a popular or commonly held view at that time. [[Winston Lord]], a protégé of the then United States Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]], called Solzhenitsyn, "just about a fascist",<ref>{{cite news|last=Caldwell|first=ChrsitopherChristopher|date=10 January 2019|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/01/28/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-book-review/|title=Solzhenitsyn in Exile|work=National Review|access-date=13 August 2021}}</ref> and Elisa Kriza alleged that Solzhenitsyn held "benevolent views" on [[Francoist Spain]] because it was a pro-Christian government, and his Christian worldview operated ideologically.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kriza|first=Elisa|year=2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1H_BgAAQBAJ|title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Cold War Icon, Gulag Author, Russian Nationalist?: A Study of His Western Reception|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=235|isbn=978-3-8382-6689-3}}</ref> In ''The Little Grain Managed to Land Between Two Millstones'', the Nationalist uprising against the [[Second Spanish Republic]] is "held up as a model of a proper Christian response", to [[religious persecution]] by the [[Far Left]], such as the [[Red Terror (Spain)|Spanish Red Terror]] by the Republican forces. According to Peter Brooke, however, Solzhenitsyn in reality approached the position argued by Christian Dmitri Panin, with whom he had a fall out in exile, namely that evil "must be confronted by force, and the centralised, spiritually independent Roman Catholic Church is better placed to do it than Orthodoxy with its otherworldliness and tradition of [[Caesaropapism|subservience to the State]]."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=MacNeice|first=Louis|date=Summer 2010|url=https://drb.ie/articles/what-came-up-was-goosegrass/|title=What Came Up Was Goosegrass|magazine=Dublin Review of Books|access-date=13 August 2021}}</ref>

In some of his later political writings, such as ''Rebuilding Russia'' (1990) and ''Russia in Collapse'' (1998), Solzhenitsyn criticized the [[Russian oligarchs|oligarchic excesses]] of the new Russian democracy, while opposing any nostalgia for Soviet Communism. He defended moderate and self-critical patriotism (as opposed to [[Extremist nationalism in Russia|extreme nationalism]]). He also urged for local self-government similar to what he had seen in [[New England]] town meetings and in the cantons of [[Switzerland]]. He also expressed concern for the fate of the 25 million ethnic Russians in the "[[near abroad]]" of the former Soviet Union.{{cncitation needed|date=June 2024}}

Solzhenitsyn criticized the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] for not opening a new front against [[Nazi Germany]] in the west earlier in World War II. This resulted in Soviet domination and control of the nations of [[Eastern Europe]]. Solzhenitsyn claimed the Western democracies apparently cared little about how many died in the East, as long as they could end the war quickly and painlessly for themselves in the West.{{cncitation needed|date=June 2024}}

Solzhenitsyn was critical of [[Enlargement of NATO|NATO's eastward expansion]] towards Russia's borders and described the [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia]] as "cruel", a campaign which he said marked a change in Russian attitudes to the West.<ref name="bbc"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-alexander-solzhenitsyn-i-am-not-afraid-of-death-a-496003.html |work=Der Spiegel |date=23 July 2007}}</ref> He described NATO as "aggressors" who "have kicked aside the UN, opening a new era where might is right".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Myre |first1=Greg |title=War in the Balkans: Protest - Solzhenitsyn angry at attacks on Serbs |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/war-in-the-balkans-protest-solzhenitsyn-angry-at-attacks-on-serbs-1090243.html |work=The Independent |date=28 April 199}}</ref> In 2006, Solzhenitsyn accused [[NATO]] of trying to bring Russia under its control; he claimed this was visible because of its "ideological support for the '[[colour revolutions]]' and the paradoxical forcing of North Atlantic interests on Central Asia".<ref name="bbc">{{Citation | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4953690.stm | title = Solzhenitsyn warns of Nato plot | newspaper = [[BBC News]] | date = 28 April 2006}}</ref> In a 2006 interview with ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' he stated "This was especially painful in the case of Ukraine, a country whose closeness to Russia is defined by literally millions of family ties among our peoples, relatives living on different sides of the national border. At one fell stroke, these families could be torn apart by a new dividing line, the border of a military bloc."<ref name="Solzhenitsyn 2007" />

Solzhenitsyn gave a speech to [[AFL–CIO]] in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington, D.C]]., on 30 June 1975 in which he said that the system created by the [[Bolsheviks]] in 1917 caused dozens of problems in the Soviet Union.<ref name="Seventy five">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/SolzhenitsynTheVoiceOfFreedom|title=Solzhenitsyn: The Voice of Freedom |author=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|work=AFL–CIO|date=30 June 1975|access-date=22 June 2016}}</ref> He described how this system was responsible for the [[Holodomor]]: "It was a system which, in time of peace, artificially created a famine, causing 6 million people to die in the Ukraine in 1932 and 1933." Solzhenitsyn added, "they died on the very edge of Europe. And Europe didn't even notice it. The world didn't even notice it—6 million people!"<ref name="Seventy five"/>