by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in 1970. But it wasn’t for his most famous work that he got the prize — The Gulag Archipelago was not released until 1973 (its first volume) and 1978 (its third).
Marxist- Leninism had only been afoot for a year when Aleksandr was born. His father had died three months before this child’s birth, and so he was raised by his mother in poverty. He became a dissident extraordinaire.
Gumshoe, a dissident website, happily celebrates the 101st anniversary of his birth next week — December 2019.
My contribution here will not be notable for its gaiety. I am always aware of Solzhenitsyn; he is so present in the atmosphere of both my countries, Australia and the United States. The title of this article reflects a well -known quote from The Gulag:
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?
“Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?…
The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
Note: The bolding above, and in other quotes below was added by me.
He Was also a Mathematician!
Solzhenitsyn did not collect his Nobel prize in person as he was still “iron-curtained” in 1970. In 1972, the West published part of his speech, excoriating his own nation. (He was later quite good at giving America a bawling out.)
“Woe to that nation whose literature is disturbed by the intervention of power … because that is not just a violation against ‘freedom of print,’ it is the closing down of the heart of the nation, slashing to pieces of its memory.”
[As for the united Nations] “it declines to undertake the investigation of private appeals —the groans, screams and beseechings of humble individual plain people—not large enough a catch for such a great organization.”
In 1974 he was kicked out of the USSR for treason! The following is autobiography, some of which got patched into the Nobel Prize speech:
“I was brought up in the town of Rostov on the Don, where I spent the whole of my childhood and youth, leaving the grammar school there in 1936. Even as a child, without any prompting from others, I wanted to be a writer…. I wanted to acquire a literary education, but [to] move to Moscow was not possible….
“I therefore began to study at the Department of Mathematics at Rostov University, where it proved that I had considerable aptitude for mathematics. It was to play a beneficial role in my destiny later on…. For I would probably not have survived the eight years in camps if I had not, as a mathematician, been transferred to a so-called sharashia….
“In 1941, at the beginning of the war, owing to weak health, I was detailed to serve as a driver of horse-drawn vehicles. Later, because of my mathematical knowledge, I was transferred to an artillery school [then] put in command of an artillery-position-finding company, and in this capacity, served, without a break, right in the front line until I was arrested in February 1945.”
The Various Punishments — for Writing
You have to give the Soviet Union credit for recognizing a troublemaker in their ranks. As soon as the war ended they got him for past sins. The censors had found, in his 1944-45 correspondence with a school friend, certain disrespectful remarks about Stalin, although they had referred to him in disguised terms. They also found reflections and drafts of stories, in his map case.
This led to his being sentenced in absentia to 8 years in a detention camp, based on a resolution by the OSO (the Special Committee of the NKVD). As from 1950 he was assigned to camps that were specifically for political prisoners. In one such camp, in Kazakhstan he worked as a miner, a bricklayer, and a foundryman. This is covered in his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Getting Published At Last
After he completed his 8 years, he was given, with no new trial, exile to Kazakhstan, for life. However, Stalin’s death in in 1953, making the situation less tense. Then Aleksandr got cancer and came close to death. Luckily he was able to go to Tashkent in 1954, and was cured!
“During my hard and lonely existence, I wrote prose in secret (in the camp I could only write down poetry from memory). I managed, however, to keep what I had written, and to take it with me to the European part of the country, where, in the same way, I continued to occupy myself with teaching and, in secret, to devote myself to writing, at first in the Vladimir district (Matryona’s Farm) and afterwards in Ryazan.
“Until 1961, not only was I convinced that I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared that this would become known.
“Finally, at the age of 42, this secret authorship began to wear me down…. In 1961, after the 22nd Congress of the U.S.S.R. Communist Party and Tvardovsky’s speech at this, I decided to emerge and to offer One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.”
He considered it risky to do this, as he could still lose all his manuscripts. Indeed even though Tvardovsky published One Day in the Life , the authorities stopped the press. They also forbade his plays to be performed.
Harvard Commencement
I was fortunate to attend Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 speech at the Harvard Commencement, entitled “The Exhausted West.” Admittedly, I was too young (age 31) and ignorant to get the point. The speech began with these profound words:
“How short a time ago, relatively, the small new European world was easily seizing colonies everywhere, not only without anticipating any real resistance, but also usually despising any possible values in the conquered peoples’ approach to life.
“On the face of it, it was an overwhelming success….. Western society expanded in a triumph of human independence and power. And all of a sudden in the 20th century came the discovery of its fragility and friability. We now see that the conquests proved to be short-lived and precarious, and this in turn points to defects in the western view of the world which led to these conquests….
“But it is difficult yet to estimate the total size of the bill which former colonial countries will present to the west, and it is difficult to predict whether the surrender not only of its last colonies, but of everything it owns will be sufficient for the west to foot the bill.”
People Power — The Power of Individuals
In a later, softer moment, the great writer praised his Vermont neighbors:
“[Vermonters] are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.”
You might start at 25 minutes.
So interesting. Thank you for posting this. The Dissident.
Progressive and prophetic
“But it is difficult yet to estimate the total size of the bill which former colonial countries will present to the west, and it is difficult to predict whether the surrender not only of its last colonies, but of everything it owns will be sufficient for the west to foot the bill.”
Dear Deb, who will foot the bill? Brits and Seppos can hardly bear to contemplate what they have done. In fact, I have almost never heard any official take the blame.
In her current presidential campaign, Tulsi Gabbard is dropping many hints and in general is introducing new terms into the language, notably “regime-change wars.” In yesterday’s poll she had only 4% of the Dem vote in New Hampshire. Ah, the power of the media to not let this chick get coverage.
Mary does not mention Solzhenitsyn’s “200 Years Together”, which to this day has never been officially translated into English:. now why is that, and who at which publishing houses decided against and when?
Those interested may, while duly adjusting for Wikipedia as a hasbara outfit, consult:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Hundred_Years_Together
The answer is most relevant to avoiding Clintonite nuclear war with Russia:
https://www.unz.com/ishamir/jews-impeach-trump-trump-woos-jews/
Dear Duns Scotus, Under yesterday’s Gumshoe article, Julius Skoolafish (aka Fish) offered a reference to Solzhenitsyn’s book “Two Hundred Years.” I was going to reply to Fish’s comment by asking him if he would kindly review Two Hundred Years for us, but when I went to look it up on Abebooks.com it seemed to be for sale at $800. I did not think I could ask Fish to spend the money, so I dropped it.
Now that you have made me take a second look, I consulted the website of The Solzhenitsyn Center in Massachusetts. Its director, Prof Daniel Mahoney, wrote this:
“Solzhenitsyn nonetheless hopes that historical understanding and mutual repentance can replace self-defeating historical conflict. His book [Two Hundred Years] is an act of statesmanship that aims to overcome ‘the anger of implacable extremists.’ He wishes ‘to find benevolent interlocutors among both Jews and Russians’.”
I can’t take any position on the book as I have not seen it. Solzhenitsyn’s article on the subject is available at Duke University but is behind a paywall. Possibly you can go to your local university and they will let you jump in to Duke’s copy for free. I have had that experience at Uni Adelaide.
Further to Mary’s response (thank you Mary) …
This is the version that I am reading (with footnotes).
https://archive.org/details/200YearsTogether
Too early to give a full review other than to comment that it is scholastic, statesmanlike and very conciliatory – more often quoting from Jewish historians and the Jewish Encyclopaedia. Any criticism (and some of it is quite blunt but fair) is certainly made in that spirit of conciliation and reconciliation.
I have not fully investigated why the following version is longer (appears to have a good table of contents and a couple of supplementary appendices including an interview with A.S. but this version is without footnotes which provide valuable sources of content).
https://archive.org/details/TwoHundredYearsTogether/page/n19
Mary, I’m a little confused why this video has been posted. Other than the recollections of a U.S. POW, what relevance does it have, or to put it more bluntly, what are you trying to say by posting it here today ??
Fair comment Ed, seems we all mindcontrolion(lol Google struggles).
If your confused, check yourself, all we got, trust u, can u trust me (rhetorical obviously).
That’s why Mary post’s, we trust her judgment cause the “track record”
Eddy,
Over 60 million people were murdered in the Soveit Union, between 1923 – 1968, by communists.
Mary, like many of us with you are exposing the head of the snake.
The lies are crushing the natural order that is trustworthy and true.
Unless one has lived under the oppression of communist dictatorships it is difficult to realise the terror people experience within it. The CCP is not something to admire, we must do everything we can to stop its advance to global domination. In essence it is barbaric paganism and is the reason why 100 million party members rule over 1.3 billion non members.
Here in Oz, our future does not look prosperous, as we have been handed to globalists.
Expose the lies for the wellbeing of all youth. We’re all getting on, we’ve had good lives, our children don’t need this dystopian hell approaching.
Great article – thank you as always, Mary.
There is much to be learned from pre-bolshevik as well as ‘dissident’ Russian literature (both fiction and non-fiction). I have only just started to take that tour.
Live Not By Lies – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/SolhenitsynLies.php
Featured here – Solzhenitsyn’s Very Christian Motto: ‘Live Not by Lies’
https://russian-faith.com/culture/solzhenitsyns-very-christian-motto-live-not-lies-n1128
AS: “And they put on trial anybody they want and they put sane people in asylums”
… a central theme in Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.
Dear Eddy, and Simon, and 56,
I can’t exactly say why I posted the POW item. It popped up as a sidebar on my computer because I had been researching the terrible case of Robert Garwood. (Hey Eddy, could you write a review of the book Monica Stevenson wrote about Garwood. It costs less than $10.)
Simon, thanks a mil for saying my track record makes me trustworthy.
56, I am with you on a dread of takeover, hence the title of my article — we will burn in the camps. In fact many are already feeling the heat. In my opinion (FWIW), the fact of China’s being “Commie” is not really the issue; it is lack of resistance by the people to any strong-arm tactics — as you say.
There was a moment at the Harvard speech that refers to this. If anyone wants to go to the Commencement speech on line and find it, please do. From memory, Solzhenitsyn mentioned US’s withdrawal from Vietnam (3 years prior, in 1975). The audience applauded — because they misunderstood him. They, being academics, were anti-war, and took him to say we should not have been in Vietnam. No, he meant we should have fought harder against USSR’s cruelty.
Of which he was uniquely aware! In the Gulag Archipelago, he mentions having insects put down his shirt, just one of so many gratuitous punishments. Fathom it — insects down one’s shirt.
AND IT WILL ALL HAPPEN TO US TOO IF WE DON’T JUMP ON IT NOW.
How We Burned in the Camps — the Musical:
.
I don’t think it’s humanly possible to completely overcome fear but anyone can learn not to be ruled by it and that tends to have a physically disabling effect on the source.
Yay Berry!
Berry, the terror is there, but one can learn to control the terror and convert it. I’ve heard it expressed as ‘Take all those butterflies in your stomach and get them to fly in formation’.
Omigahd. I went to fetch the lyrics, in English, for Va pensiero, and this is what I got:
.
“A hundred Chernobyls” says Gorby.
Better change H sapiens to H idioticus:
Somebody, stop me!
.
Mary, what’s with this?
Dee, I meant I was losing hours of precious campaigning time trawling Youtube for Verdi. OK never mind that.
Since this article has turned into a paean to Russia, or one Russian anyway, let’s link it back to Fish’s magnificent piece on the magnif Catherine:
https://gumshoenews.com/2019/09/12/concerning-catherine-the-great/
Gosh – thank you Mary, and I did promise you a second part focussing on the Nakaz (Catherine’s instructions for legal and social reforms) and the path to the abolishment of serfdom. I will get there (without a time commitment) but Solzhenitsyn brings out quite a bit more about Catherine not covered in other texts in the context of his theme. I must get back to that.
I left a teaser in that article with a link
Catherine’s Instructions (Nakaz) to the Legislative Commissioners for Composing a New Code of Laws (1767)
1 … do mutual Good to one another, as much as possibly we can
2 … we cannot but suppose that every honest Man in the Community is, or will be, desirous of seeing his native Country at the very Summit of Happiness, Glory, Safety, and Tranquillity
3 … every Individual Citizen in particular must wish to see himself protected by Laws, which should not distress him in his Circumstances, but, on the Contrary, should defend him from all Attempts of others that are repugnant to this fundamental Rule
The military industrial is satanic to it’s core.
Mike said,that one missile named satan has the destructive force of 100 Chernobyls.
How many have been manufactured? The people responsible cannot be human, only serpents do these things. The twentieth century produced the most evol minds the world has ever seen.
Their only achievements have been murder and destruction. As long as they remain at the top of the pyramid our children’s future may not be. Although, it seems too late to undo the damage purposely done by the demons in power.
Only miracles can save now. Jesus taught simply how to live in the world.
Do no harm to others, for doing that he was crucified.
Christian Faith is our only hope for redemption. If it is ignored all is lost.
Of all creatures created we are the most primitive, without any doubt in my mind.
A wolf kills only what it needs to eat, our race kills for perveted/inverted pleasures and abominations.
Notwithstanding e.g. Georgy Vladimov’s magnificent novel “Faithful Ruslan”:
When i read apparently Christian persons such as “56” on communist serpents and snakes and so on, I wonder what s/he was saying about Cardinal Stepinac and the Ustasha in WW2; the Vatican and General Franco pre-1975 ; the Catholic generals in the Seventies Argentine Dirty War “defending Argentina aganst communism” the Dutch Reformed Church in S. Africa pre-1994 keeping the Cape of Good Hope safe for the US Navy.
“The most devastating Godless movement on this earth is going to be ‘christian'” (14 – 18min)
I shall rephrase,
“Cristian Faith is our only……”
True intention is,
“Jesus Christ’s teachings are our only hope for redemption.”
History is being erased, as we speak, by the masters of deception.
Music for Mary. Here is something very pleasant and seasonal – and topical since Solzhenitsyn spoke of the region of Ukraine and Bulgakov was born there.
I am privileged to have a copy of the CD “Christmas in Ukraine” featuring the Kashtan Ukrainian Choir (a gift from a work colleague some years ago – he and his mother were singing in the choir).
Naturally I can’t find any videos of the actual performance but if you are in Adelaide you can apparently borrow the CD from the Barr Smith Library.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/172893756?q&versionId=188467473
Here are a couple of samples– a different performances of course but essentially representative of the CD.
Carol of the Bells – Ukrainian Bell Carol
Bless the Lord, O my Soul/Благослови, душе моя, Господа
I was scanning the day’s news and it was the same old thing, hate speech, toxic masculinity, pedophilia, preferred pronouns, evil Russians, regime change, judicial corruption, etc.
Then I saw an article that suggested that the Yellowstone volcano was getting ready to erupt – thankfully! some good news!
Turned out to be just a teaser of an article and there isn’t going to be an eruption.
I’ll take a look as some space news, perhaps there is an asteroid on the way. Failing that, I might go clean the toilet…
Don’t be silly Terry – for starters, Nibiru is not even an asteroid – and as we speak, scientists are working on ways to flip the planet on its side, thus lowering Nibiru’s impact profile.
And fear not – in any case, why would the messiah allow the planet to be destroyed when the construction of the third temple and the extermination of the Edomites are not yet complete?
(For the record: Fish is joking.)
Fish, I watched the video. Lots of quick action scenes that were void of freaky feminists, ‘Greta’, pink-hair SJWs, Antifa punks, Democrats and other assorted flotsam. An Annunaki (sp) growled something about the extinction of the human race, but I had the distinct impression it wasn’t related to ‘Extinction Rebellion’ and climate whatever.
Thanks, for the refreshing change. Now, to brace myself and take a look at today’s news – and hoping I won’t want to ‘neck’ myself…
Terry,
Fires burning out of control in Shoalhaven heading for Batemans Bay.
With single digit temperatures, cool enough for snow in the mountains.
Scientists say it’s climate change, more likely Geo-engineering with a few flame lighters in the mix.
Yeah, obviously ‘climate change’ with all the cold weather. – I’ll have the wood stove on tonight.
Here’s a bit from today’s ‘news’. I remember Paris back in the 1950s, it was a beautiful peaceful place.
https://www.newswars.com/paris-feminists-attack-other-protesters-for-highlighting-study-showing-52-of-male-rapists-are-migrants/
Hello, who are the ‘fascists’?
Thank YOU for the delightful wit Terry. (Mary, I thought it was a documentary. 😊)
Not really a documentary, but a Hollywood extravaganza of a ‘cometary’ approach that occurs every 3,600 years. It was Zechariah Sitchin that interpreted the Sumerian tablets that it was the planet Nibiru (the 12th planet) that made a close approach. Admittedly, it does look better on the big screen to see a planet 10 times bigger than Earth than a bunch of comets.
Here’s an article to help fill in the blanks for anyone not up to speed on this 3,600 year cycle – which, by the way, has just repeated and the next cycle of cataclysms is NOW.
https://www.sott.net/article/424968-Volcanoes-Earthquakes-And-The-3600-Year-Comet-Cycle
Throw in the Grand Solar Minimum, economic collapse, perhaps a very kinetic war and I doubt that too many people will be worrying about ‘personal pronouns’.
New to my lexicon, Terry — kinetic war.