Posted on 12/11/2018 7:38:04 AM PST by Borges
Moscow has unveiled a new statue dedicated to the Russian novelist and Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn on what would have been his 100th birthday. Designed by sculptor Andrey Kovalchuk, the monument was installed in Moscow’s Tagansky District on the street that bears Solzhenitsyn’s name. President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony.
KGB Putin honoring Solzhenitsyn, now that is some cognitive dissonance.... Putin must find this to be “useful” propaganda somehow.
This would have been unimaginable in the Soviet time.’
The fact he’s being honored says much about how Russia has changed.
Greatest novelist of the twentieth century.
It’s going to be harder now for anyone in Russia to deny the facts of the Gulag.
I think in the statue he is even portrayed in prison attire?
Or a very cheap suit.
All yours apparently...Solz was a Putin fan.
And Seattle put up Lenin statue.
Brussels put up Karl Marx statue (with Chinese money).
Russia covers up Lenin’s mausoleum during parades.
Cats and dogs living together ...
If only it was a fountain, so Solzhenitsyn could be taking a leak on Putin. Now that would be symbolic.
They bonded in their love of Greater Russia but that does not mean that Putin is a worthy successor of Solzhenitsyn.
Yes, they share a huge pro-Russia historical mission and AS spoke positively of Putin, but still, Putin is the living embodiment of the Gulag, refined enough for 21st century consumption.
Or maybe, you have perceived things incorrectly.
I read somewhere the The Gulag Archipelago is a required textbook in Russian high schools. Is that true?
Solzhenitsyn supported many of Putin’s platforms - controlling Russia’s rapacious oligarchs, reversing Russia’s rapid population decline, and return of the Orthodox Church to part of public life. He also criticized Putin’s push towards government centralization and spoke freely about politics. Solzhenitsyn disregarded Putin’s membership in the KGB, noting the obvious fact that for anyone over the age of 40 in government, avoiding it would have been impossible.
Of course, Solzhenitsyn died 10 years ago. One wonders what he would say now.
GULAG Vol. II is as exciting and mind-bogglingly awesome as GULAG Vol. I.
STRONGLY recommended. “Best books of all time.”
It is a pleasure to see S. so honored.
Also, it will help more people spell his name without checking the internet...
(Ahem...)
This is astounding.
Or, maybe, I appreciate the best of Solzhenitsyn better than Putin does..... yes, they are both strongly pro-Russia and connected late in the life of AS over shared projects.... but maybe AS never should have been so accepting of Putin.
I have one of his books. It’s very old. I know it’s somewhere wrapped in plastic.
“The fact that Solzhenitsyn is required reading in Russian schools shows some move away from totalitarian government.”
And the banning of Mark Twain and Laura Engels Wilder, the destruction of statues and monuments, the banishment of Christmas, teaching perversion to kids, state enforced atheism, the slander of our founders in our schools shows we are moving towards a totalitarian government. They have a long way to go, but it means a lot to be headed in the wrong direction. We aren’t.
yes, AS seemed to regard Putin as about the best the Russian govt was going to get (for pro-Russia interests). He may have been right in a present, tactical sense (where is the alternative?). But Putin was not just some minor “card carrying” clerk in the KGB.
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