Posted on 07/25/2007 1:38:48 PM PDT by Feldkurat_Katz
'I Am Not Afraid of Death'
In an interview with SPIEGEL, prominent Russian writer and Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn discusses Russia's turbulent history, Putin's version of democracy and his attitude to life and death.
SPIEGEL: Alexander Isayevich, when we came in we found you at work. It seems that even at the age of 88 you still feel this need to work, even though your health doesn't allow you to walk around your home. What do you derive your strength from?
Solzhenitsyn: I have always had that inner drive, since my birth. And I have always devoted myself gladly to work -- to work and to the struggle.
SPIEGEL: There are four tables in this space alone. In your new book "My American Years," which will be published in Germany this fall, you recollect that you used to write even while walking in the forest.
Solzhenitsyn: When I was in the gulag I would sometimes even write on stone walls. I used to write on scraps of paper, then I memorized the contents and destroyed the scraps.
SPIEGEL: And your strength did not leave you even in moments of enormous desperation?
Solzhenitsyn: Yes. I would often think: Whatever the outcome is going to be, let it be. And then things would turn out all right. It looks like some good came out of it.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
The assassination of Livenenko? Yushchenko? The murder of several dozen journalists critical of Putin?==
Yuschenko are really dead maybe you right:). I saw him lately on TV he looks like the living dead form scary movie:).
WHo killed Litvinenko? I heard from Brits that it is Lugovoi not Putin wanted for that. But even that isn’t proved in court of law.
the problem is that Solzi loves Putie who is trying to bring back communism.==
Communism back in Russia?:))) What you smoke?:)
Rus Ivan,
Long time no see! I see your syntax improved.
How is the quality of the vodka. Is it affected by the increasing stench in Russia?
I have read many of Solzhenitsyn’s books and I can say he is deeply patriotic and a devout Christian.
I do know that things have not gone well in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union (not that they were going well before), maybe Alexander is grasping at any straw that might get his beloved country on the right track.
Solzi has become a spineless old man who has sold out to the KGB - Russia had a chance to join the civilized world and they blew it.
A hero for all humanity!
SOLZHENITSYN speaks for humanity forever.
He is an idiot Russophile ...
These words demonstrate a despicable arrogance!
NO the idiot is you...but you know that ALREADY.
In fact the overwhelming number of victims of the Soviet Marxist Leninists WERE RUSSIANS.
10,000 Christian Orthodox priests ALONE were butchered in the first few years after the revolution.
I think spanaloni is a DU plant personally.
freepmail me
“In fact the overwhelming number of victims of the Soviet Marxist Leninists WERE RUSSIANS.”
Wrong again old man - the vast majority were Chinese.
Is there a Russian you dont like?
Your question reveals the paucity of your argumentation not to mention your logic.
This is not about ethnicity....it’s about ideology in this case marxist leninism and its horrible effects. In fact, ethnic Russian people did suffer disproproportionately as victims of the Soviet Marxists Leninists
“it’s about ideology in this case marxist leninism and its horrible effects”
The same bankrupt moral culture extends from Tsarist times to the present.
The Russian adage “One kopec, one life” is older than bolshevism and it explains Russia’s abject disregard for the value of life.
I would call you an idiot for such a statement, but the Russians understand the word idiot better than that. Their term is Balda, and seems to truly fit.
Solzhenitsyn is a true hero and in many ways a founder of the modern American conservative movement.
He reafirmed love for country
Seeking justice
Individual accountability
Individual self-will and inititive
Love of God
Strength of Character
Desire for a better future
The need for Freedom and Liberty
Government accountability
A strong nation and national will
Perservence
and many other things that our Conservative movement is all about.
I have always summed up America with three words - Life, Love and Liberty.
This is what he sought for his homeland and his people. Thru his eyes we learned that the Russian people are people that seek a better life. They are not to be confused with the government that kept them in tyranny.
Communism has been (and always will be) a great evil. The Russian people have thrown off its shackles, they seek the dream of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the vision of Ronald Reagan, the enlightenment of Margaret Thatcher. They have made and will continue to make mistakes as they move closer, but we should be helping them.
We shouldn’t throw money as did George H. W. Bush, which only grew the kleptrocracy and fed the mafia (we forgot about accountability). We shouldn’t attack their allies (especially when it serves us no national interest - and probably hurt us long term) as it only turns them against us (our attack on the Serbs) and creates an enemy out of nowhere.
Now let’s put his teachings to the test:
Love for country
Russia - The Russian people again love their nation
U.S. - Americans love their nation (with the exception of liberals)
Seeking justice
Russia - The govt is finally going after the plutocrats and thieves
U.S. - We fell short in the clinton administration, but we did get Worldcom, Enron and others
Individual accountability
Russia - They are still learning this, but getting better
U.S. - This is the opposite of “No controlling legal authority”
Individual self-will and inititive
Russia - Growing class of small business
U.S. - Small businesses make up our economic backbone
Love of God
Russia - The world’s largest Christian nation. They are still coming to grips with the ability to freely worship after the fall of evil (communism)
U.S. - The world’s second largest Christian nation. We take this for granted and the liberals try to remove this from us.
Strength of Character
Russia - This has always been good. Read about Victor I. Belenko (the mig pilot that defected)
U.S. - We had our dark days in the 90’s, but are recovering
I’m sure you can fill in the rest.
As for Solzhenitsyn and Putin:
Love of Country
Desire to see it be strong
Desire to see it be whole
Putin’s legacy is yet to be written. If he should leave office as required then it will be to his glory, and whatever harm he wrought will be minimized by the good that he brought. The future here is still cloudy, but there is much reason to be hopeful.
Solzhenitsyn is no ones puppet. If he felt that Putin was bringing back communism (this is laughable) or intended to make himself the new Czar, then we would probably see strong opposition to him.
The U.S. can only be an ally with a peer (think Great Britian). We have alliances with lesser nations but we are an ally of peers. Allies have great strength together (U.S., U.K, Australia), and stand shoulder to shoulder. Of the nations that we have alliances with they stand behind us (letting us take the bullets for their long term benefit). Our Allies are there besides us taking harm as well. Russia should be an Ally, we have a common enemy.
“Solzhenitsyn is a true hero and in many ways a founder of the modern American conservative movement.”
Are you on your second or third bottle?
AS for you and your Russian “adages” how about these ===:
“A word of kindness is better than a fat pie.”
“An old friend is much better than two new ones.”
There is a certain cynicism when it comes to Russian proverbs I admit...none less than you seem to harbor...but there is also great sublime beauty in Russian culture...that often reflects the suffering of its people and hope for a better future now that international communism has been suppressed.
About as many bottles as my President (Reagan) would have before quoting Solzhenitsyn.
After all freedom is always sobering.
You seem to have fallen forever in the cold war never realizing the true goal, just always seeking an enemy. In case you forgot communism was and is the enemy, not the poor people held in captivity to it.
To refer to the Russian people as communists would be akin to referring to the Germans forever as Nazis (I would hope that you wouldn’t do this as most of them are good and decent). For that matter you probably view all people in the United States as Monarchists (British back in the times of the Revolutionary War), after all we were once under the crown.
The times have changed and the Russian people are free. Only a person that does not honor liberty would forever hold others back in subjugation.
When I returned to Russia in 1994, the Western world and its states were practically being worshipped......This mood started changing with the cruel NATO bombings of Serbia. It's fair to say that all layers of Russian society were deeply and indelibly shocked by those bombings.
... So, the perception of the West as mostly a "knight of democracy" has been replaced with the disappointed belief that pragmatism, often cynical and selfish, lies at the core of Western policies. For many Russians it was a grave disillusion, a crushing of ideals.
Thank you, Schlickmeister Bill Clinton!
It's Clinton's opportunistic bombing of Serbia that turned Russia against us. (Not to mention that it turned Kosovo into a foothold for Islamofascists, too.)
Remember this every time the Hildebeast claims that "her husband" is one of the most beloved men on earth, and that she will appoint him a roving "Ambassador to the World" to restore good will to America after the evil Bush years.
“To refer to the Russian people as communists would be akin to referring to the Germans forever as Nazis”
You dont get around too much, do you.
http://www.newstatesman.com/200707240002
So very true. The bombing of the Serbs did away with any peace dividend and started a new cold war. A nation that should have been an ally was turned away from us for political expediency and the survival of a president threatened by a blue dress.
Spamalot,
the comments on the article say volumes. However even more interesting is the about Newstatesman page.
“The New Statesman was created in 1913 with the aim of permeating the educated and influential classes with socialist ideas.”
That was the first sentence. Hardly the type of learned journal I’d expect to find on FR, but rather in the DUmpster or Daily Kos. Your very choice of reading material is to say the least interesting.
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