
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself - chesterfield
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/solzhenitsyn-as-he-saw-himself/
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ericdykstra
Great profile of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; one of the most important writers of
the last century who was prolific up until his death. It's a shame that his
last non-fiction work has yet to get a proper English translation even after
all these years.

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asianthrowaway
Well, I heard it's rather... controversial, to say the least.

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enriquto
He's a writer, not an historian. Thus his non-fiction works do not have to be
read like history books, more like journalistic opinion pieces. In that sense,
the factual errors on this book are mostly irrelevant, and the work is still
very interesting and insightful.

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andrepd
But if it is not factual, what makes it insightful? If you're looking for
insights, aren't you better off reading an actual history, rather than the
text of an anti-semitic, nationalist, Putin apologist?

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enriquto
You can read both, and learn more.

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frereubu
Reading The Gulag Archipelago at university changed my life. I'd been reading
Dostoyevsky for a bit, which I was enjoying, but The Gulag Archipelago was the
book that opened my eyes to the idea that literature could have fierce moral
purpose. I also loved the fact it was dripping with deadpan sarcasm and irony.
A wonderful response for the powerless to take given the Kafkaesque situations
that people found themselves in under Stalinism. I'm in awe of the incredible
bravery of samizdat publishing given the horrific consequences that could
follow if you were caught.

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99052882514569
If you found the Gulag Archipelago insightful (the word 'enjoyed' seems wrong
in this context), I highly recommend The Kolyma Tales[1] by Varlam Shalamov.
Shalamov spent 17 years in 'hard labour' camps, in total. His work is more
like a historical novel, akin to "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", but
more raw and visceral.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kolyma_Tales](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kolyma_Tales)

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pmoriarty
_" Things I Learned in the Gulag"_, from _Kolyma Tales_ was on HN previously:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17298645](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17298645)

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otras
I highly recommend the article _A Tiny Village in Vermont Was the Perfect Spot
to Hide Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn_ [0] to learn more about his life in Vermont.
His relationship to the town is very interesting and particularly interesting
to me as I used to live near Cavendish.

[0]: [https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2018/summer/statement/tiny-
vi...](https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2018/summer/statement/tiny-village-in-
vermont-was-the-perfect-spot-hide-aleksandr-solzhenitsyn)

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FranzFerdiNaN
Shame much of what he wrote down was a lie, or at the very least fiction.
Which wasn't necessary, because the system was terrible enough. The Gulag
Archipelago is useful as a source for life within the system, but cant be
taken as truth. His wife is quoted as saying the book was meant as fiction,
but the West took it as fact (i'm sure they had no good reason at all to
promote the shit out of an anti-Soviet book). Solzhenitsyn also praised Franco
and his dictatorship, was fiercely anti-Semitic and would have preferred
Hitler winning the war against the Soviets. So yeah, stand-up guy overall.
Guess he simply preferred a different dictatorship than the one he to to live
in.

Current historical analysis places the gulag system in a different light, with
political opponents being a minor part of the population, sentences being much
shorter (less than 5 years) and general conditions being better than described
in the book. Solzhenitsyn talks about 50 million prisoners with a peak
population of 14 million, while current figures are somewhere around 14-18
million prisoners in total, with 2 million peak population at it's height.
Still really high, but really, compared to America in this day and age not
that shocking.

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asianthrowaway
I always wondered why Franco has such a bad rep. I'm not really knowledgeable
about the Spanish civil war but it seems he prevented Spain from becoming a
Stalinist totalitarian country, which is a good thing in my book.

I mean no doubt he was a brutal dictator but in the grand scheme of things he
was by far the lesser of two evils.

Edit: also I think your comparison of the American prison system and the gulag
to be rather ridiculous. Afaik, american prisoners aren't worked to death in
arctic conditions.

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jacobush
It was not all that clear at the time that communism would become as bad as it
turned out almost everywhere it was tried.

Edit: downvoted, but I think this is objectively true. The worst atrocities
hadn't happen yet in the 1930's. Hindsight is 20 20. A lot of people drew on
older ideals from the French revolution which we still celebrate today, not
the least in the US. (Do you really think the blood of tyrants can be spillt
without collateral damage?)

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rjplatte
I think you're getting downvoted because people today still haven't learned
their lesson.

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pmoriarty
Is there any way to read this that doesn't require javascript?

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nec4b
The sad thing is that while the soviet union has lost the old war
economically, it's ideas have been internalized by a great deal of western
"intelligentsia" voluntary with open hearths, instead listening to people like
Solzhenitsyn.

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CapacitorSet
Solzhenitsyn is an anti-semite, and blames atheism for the existence of the
Soviet Union and the problems in the modern world in general.

It is a great thing that he isn't being listened to - and yet, he is receiving
more attention than he's worth.

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nec4b
Yep, people surviving gulags (where btw. lot of jewish people died as well),
need to be called names, because they them selves were not saints and said
stupid things sometimes.

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varjag
When a public figure you used to support disappoints you in some substantial
way, it's best to change your views rather than paint yourself in the corner
by rationalizing their abhorrence.

All humans are fallible. There have been some regrettable Nobel Peace Prizes
out there, and Amnesty International had to call off some of their awards.

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nec4b
I don't know who he disappointed, but he didn't disappoint me. His analysis of
murderous regime is spot on, and there is no discussion about that. There are
only character assassinations and name callings for totally unrelated things
from his opponents. First discreditation, then disqualification and lastly
liquidation.

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varjag
There have been a number of notable Soviet dissidents who were no less apt in
their criticism of the regime yet did not descend to imperialism or anti-
Semitism.

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nec4b
How does the existence of more notable dissidents make his critique of the
regime invalid or less true? If you found out that Newton was a thief, would
that invalidate his laws of physics for you?

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varjag
Don't ascribe me your ideas please. Did I say anywhere that his critique of
regime wasn't true?

