December 11, 2007

Solzhenitsyn's Birthday


[This commentary appeared on Vermont Public Radio on December 11. To hear the streaming audio, visit the VPR page.]

For 18 years, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - writer, Nobel laureate and political dissident - lived with his family in Cavendish, Vermont. Exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974 for cataloguing the crimes of the Gulag, he spent long days at the family's Vermont home, writing and researching, his isolation and seclusion protected by his wife.

I have been thinking about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn this past week. Not just because today (December 11) is his 89th birthday. No, I have been thinking about Solzhenitsyn because of Russia's recent election. I have been wondering why the 20th century's most famous dissident has not spoken out against the increasing intolerance of dissent in Russian society, against crackdowns on the media, against the liquidation of political opposition.

The answer, I believe, tells us much about where Russia is today, and about where it may be going.

In September of 2000, soon after Vladimir Putin was elected Russian president, Putin and Solzhenitsyn met for the first time. Back then, the Western press saw Putin as a Westernizer - moderate in his relations with the West, an advocate of human rights and of a market economy. Solzhenitsyn, in contrast, was painted as "a potential adversary" to Putin - what Russia-watchers call a Slavophile, someone who feels Russia has a special role in history, who feels Russia should not follow the same path as the "decadent West." He advocates a strong state and a powerful Orthodox Church. He sees Russia as encircled by hostile powers, and condemns the "moral vacuum" of secular Western societies.

Since 2000, the West has gradually come to realize that the Putin it saw back then was a figment of its imagination. In fact, over the last eight years, Putin's opinions and actions have increasingly reflected Solzhenitsyn's nationalistic, Slavophile views. This summer, Putin awarded Solzhenitsyn a State Award for humanitarian achievement, saying that "millions of people around the world associate" Solzhenitsyn's name and work "with the very fate of Russia itself."

But unfortunately the fate of Russia is this: yesterday's reformers now call for a Strong State and warn of Western conspiracies. Nationalistic youth groups harass minorities and foreigners. Politicial pluralism is ridiculed. Opposition leaders are imprisoned. Muckrakers are murdered.

To understand all this, we should remember that Russia never reckoned with its communist past, with the 40 million citizens murdered in Gulags, in state-orchestrated famines, genocides, war and deportations. In short, it never reckoned with the horrors Solzhenitsyn wrote about. Nazi Germany had the Nuremburg Trials, South Africa has its Peace and Reconciliation process. But the Soviet Union held no one to account.

Today, Russia chooses to look forward, not back. As a result, Russians do not feel the echo of history in today's rising intolerance and nationalism. Nor do they see the societal benefits of dissent.

Certainly this is something Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered much for his dissent, could speak to.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955