
Review: Between Two Millstones: Sketches of Exile by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 80mph
https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-most-dangerous-man-in-the-world/
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wallace_f
>Solzhenitsyn reminded people that having the right to do something does not
make it right. What troubled him most was that elites trivialized the
civilizational struggle between freedom and tyranny.

>Under despotism, Solzhenitsyn could readily spot an informant or a self-
seeking careerist. In the West, where almost everyone seemed forthright and
earnest, he put his faith in people who let him down or took advantage of his
inexperience.

Wow this actually hits close to home.

I've certainly been a more naive type, and sadly fallen for the same kind of
thing even growing up here.

There are some good people, but I think we're falling apart without enough of
them and it is hard to talk about this.

~~~
Ygg2
In a society built on lies, truth is a powerful thing, and vice versa.

So I wouldn't say too few good people, just that they aren't in position to do
anything.

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squeezingswirls
Do yourself a favor and read 'Warning to the West'.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219822.Warning_to_the_We...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219822.Warning_to_the_West)

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tomlockwood
Reading a bit more about this guy he seems to have some interesting views. He
points to Atheism as a key reason for the death of 60 million people under the
Soviets, and states that America capitulated too early in the Vietnam war.

~~~
coldtea
> _He points to Atheism as a key reason for the death of 60 million people
> under the Soviets_

Not very far off. In their fervor, the soviets replaced a millennia old in
their parts known quantity religion, with an atheist cult of "communism", the
all-known "party", and the "new man". That strand of militant atheism operated
the same way, and worse, than actual religion.

One could e.g. murder people and let go of compassion, as that was a
"christian" thing. What supposedly mattered were the end results (the building
of communism). Heck, they even made mummies and pilgrimages of their supreme
leaders...

Dostoyevsky had already said pretty much the same (e.g. in the Possessed, and
in Crime and Punishment), regarding the new revolutionary fervor in Russia and
where Russia was headed, 100 years before Solzenyntsin.

~~~
tomlockwood
> Dostoyevsky had already said pretty much the same

Wasn't Dostoyevsky also religious?

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coldtea
Yes. His point wasn't that religion is bad.

His point was that the kind of revolutionary mania emerging in Russia was bad,
and a kind of atheist substitute of religion (which, in its fervor and
conviction lacks its controls and subtlety).

~~~
tomlockwood
I suppose though it'd be very in character for a religious commentator to see
religions as having controls and subtlety that atheism doesn't.

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cousin_it
Growing up in Russia, Solzhenitsyn was one of my childhood heroes and still
is. But I value him mostly as a reporter. The Gulag Archipelago was a success
of reporting. I'm less excited about his work as a writer (in the moralistic
Russian tradition which was always boring to me) or as a teacher (why did he
try to teach the West from a position of inexperience?)

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r-andrey
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190509004035/https://www.clare...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190509004035/https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-
most-dangerous-man-in-the-world/)

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CharlesDodgson
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of my all time favourite books,
it is as meaningful with words as the best works of Chekhov and shows the
power of the human spirit.

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nabla9
Heh.

>He decided not to settle farther north because he thought Canadians were too
nice and lacked spirit.

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supergirl
is this how assange will be remembered too?

~~~
Ygg2
Of course not. He'll die in jail, awaiting The Process. As a warning to other
journalists.

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amingilani
_Error code 16

This request was blocked by the security rules_

Does anyone have an alt link?

Edit: here it is: [https://outline.com/NbS3kF](https://outline.com/NbS3kF)

~~~
DoctorOetker
neither link works for me

