Feature Articles

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, 1918-2008
by Elena Knapp, PDS Assistant

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, 89, Russian writer, historian and philosopher, Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, died of heart failure on August 3rd, 2008 in Moscow.

Solzhenitsyn was and is probably the most polarizing author and figure in his homeland and in West countries and for different generations of people in Russia, Russian dissidents and the Russian Diaspora abroad. He was named an icon of freedom for his incredibly brave anti-Stalinist and anti-soviet dissident activities and for The Gulag Archipelago (1973-1978). He was reactionist, anti-democrat and a pessimistic critic of Western liberalism. He was called the consciousness of his nation, a monarchist, and a right-wing conservative for his cyclical history of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and WWI titled The Red Wheel in four parts/knots: August 1914 (1971), November 1916 (1985), March 1917 (1989), April 1917 (cir. 1991). Solzhenitsyn was proclaimed an anti-Semite and a Russophile for his highly criticized two-volume historical work of the Russian-Jewish relationship between 1795 and 1995 titled Two Hundred Years Together. He was equally considered a literary titan and a craftsman of poor literary skills. Russians named Solzhenitsyn a hero for rejecting the award from the hands of Yeltsin and a traitor for accepting the award from the hands of Putin. Solzhenitsyn’s philosophical statement of a distinct Russian path with its base in Orthodox religion, nationalism and imperialism, coupled with Putin’s development of this theory in his own way gave them the monikers of the Russian Ayatollah and his heir.

Among the diversity of the opinions and criticism, all voices agree that Solzhenitsyn was a very courageous person who fought both the soviet system and cancer, and demonstrated to the whole world that one man could break the system. He made the word GULAG (Russian abbreviation for corrective labor camps for political prisoners) known all over the world. The whole country was "the GULAG Archipelago" and there was no family that escaped the tragedy. Both my grandfathers were imprisoned for their foreign last names and origin and one of them I never knew. Neither my father nor I had real family names - that was the price for the survival of the family. I got to know about Solzhenitsyn’s first published book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) before I learned to read. It was published in the USSR during a short anti- Stalin period under Nikita Khrushchev and shortly this one day story in the life of a political prisoner in a labor camp became known world wide. When the short liberal period was over under Brezhnev’s regime my parents took a real risk not to destroy the publication as ordered but were hiding it for many years. But when they got a child like me it was impossible to hide anything. Isn’t it symbolic - one can not hide the truth. The works of Solzhenitsyn were the search for the truth. Mikhail Gorbachev, who restored Solzhenitsyn’s Russian citizenship in 1990, said that Solzhenitsyn’s books had "changed the minds of millions of people, making them rethink their past and present. . . . We owe him a lot."

"WE NEVER MAKE MISTAKES": TWO SHORT STORIES
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• PUBLISHER: W. W. NORTON
• $24.95 Paper (138. P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780393314748
• B&T • MAJORS • YBP

ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN: THE ASCENT FROM IDEOLOGY
• AUTHOR: MAHONEY, DANIEL J.
• PUBLISHER: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
• $24.95 Cloth (181 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780742521124
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ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN: THE ASCENT FROM IDEOLOGY
• AUTHOR: MAHONEY, DANIEL J.
• PUBLISHER: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
• $24.95 Paper (181 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780742521131
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AUGUST 1914: THE RED WHEEL
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• PUBLISHER: PENGUIN PUTMAN
• $24.95 Paper (832 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780140071221
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CANCER WARD
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• PUBLISHER: FARRAR STRAUS & GIROUX
• $24.95 Paper (536 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780374511999
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GULAG ARCHIPELAGO, 1918-1956
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• EDITOR: FRW: ANNE APPLEBAUM
• PUBLISHER: HAPER PERENIAL MODERN CLASSICS
• $24.95 Paper (V.1, 704 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780061253713
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GULAG ARCHIPELAGO, 1918-1956
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• EDITOR: FRW: ANNE APPLEBAUM
• PUBLISHER: HAPER PERENIAL MODERN CLASSICS
• $24.95 Paper (V.2, 752 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780061253720
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GULAG ARCHIPELAGO, 1918-1956
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• EDITOR: FRW: ANNE APPLEBAUM
• PUBLISHER: HAPER PERENIAL MODERN CLASSICS
• $24.95 Paper (V.3, 608 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780061253737
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INVISIBLE ALLIES
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• PUBLISHER: COUNTERPOINT
• $24.95 Paper (352 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9781887178426
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NOVEMBER 1916
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• PUBLISHER: FARRAR STRAUS & GIROUX
• $24.95 Cloth (1014 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780374223144
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ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH: A CRITICAL COMPANION
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• PUBLISHER: FARRAR STRAUS & GIROUX
• $24.95 Paper (188 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780374529529
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SOLZHENITSYN AND THE MODERN WORLD
• AUTHOR: ERICSON, EDWARD E
• PUBLISHER: REGNERY GATEWAY
• $24.95 Cloth (433 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780895265012
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SOLZHENITSYN FILES: SECRET SOVIET DOCUMENTS REVEAL ONE MAN'S FIGHT AGAINS THE MONOLITH
• EDITOR: MICHAEL SACMMELL
• PUBLISHER: QUINTESSENCE PUBLISHING
• $24.95 Cloth (472 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9871883695064
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SOLZHENITSYN READER: NEW AND ESSENTIAL WRITING: 1947-2005
• AUTHOR: SOLZHENITSYN, ALEKSANDR ISAEVICH
• EDITOR: EDWARD E. ERICSON
• PUBLISHER: ISI BOOKS
• $24.95 Cloth (634 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9781933859002
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SOLZHENITSYN: A SOUL IN EXILE
• AUTHOR: PEARCE, JOSEPH
• PUBLISHER: BAKER BOOK HOUSE
• $24.95 Cloth (334 P.)
• ISBN-13: 9780801012044
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