Special Pajamas Media Column (’Alexander Solzhenitsyn Set the Stage for Reagan and Walesa’) Is Up
The subheadline there is “The late dissident writer inspired those who worked to topple the Soviet empire.”
Solzhenitsyn also made it impossible for anyone to pretend that the Soviet Union was anything other than a historically unprecedented tyranny, and a source of unspeakable human suffering.
No one could credibly argue that Reagan, John Paul II (the original title I submitted had the pontiff in it), and Lech Walesa weren’t on the side of the angels in working to defeat it.
But of course, many did. Their arguments have been consigned to the ash heap of history, while many of them have “graduated” to making similar naive arguments about other tyrannies to this very day. May their next appointments with that same ash heap arrive soon.
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UPDATE: The New York Sun’s obit makes an all-important comparison (HT PJM’s Roger Kimball) –
Solzhenitsyn did not play the same kind of political role in that struggle as some of the other giants of the 20th century with whom his name should be remembered — Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher. But as a writer and witness, his contribution was no less crucial.
For the first step in resisting evil is to identify it as such, and once Solzhenitsyn had written, no one could any longer doubt that the evil of Stalinism was comparable to the evil of Nazism.
UPDATE 2: Boring Made Dull –
(Solzhenitsyn hit) on one of the key features and failures of socialism – the fact to succeed, it is necessary to become a ‘yes man’. There is no room for the innovator, the man who seeks the truth, or the man who simply wants to be left alone.
Great story, though I find it very sad that I had yet to hear the story of this great man. I’ve already gone to check out several of his writings from my school’s library and look forward to reading them before school starts back.
-Kyle
Comment by Kyle — August 4, 2008 @ 10:54 pm
A brave man a beautiful spirit.
Comment by CityKin — August 5, 2008 @ 8:54 am
I admire the man for exposing the communist tyranny. But his religious bigotry, his contempt of all things modern starting with the Renaissance and his anti-Semitism are matters of record.
Comment by morrisminor — August 5, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
#3, so are his prophetic words on the rise of political correctness:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/august/18.64.html?start=1
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/print.aspx?article=1012&loc=b&type=cbbp
Solzhenitsyn said at Harvard in 1978 that:
The Renaissance didn’t have to be that way, nor does our materialistic culture need to be that way. Material progress is possible without spiritual bankruptcy (added later — in fact, powerful and not-defeatable arguments can be made that intact families and an ethical and moral populace, particularly in the business, political, and legal areanas, will enhance and advance material prosperity). Solzhenitsyn railed against the “he who has the most toys wins” mentality, NOT, as you claim, “all things modern.”
Failing to make that distinction makes it easy to marginalize him, but it’s very disingenuous.
You thus exaggerate your second claim. You are invited to provide proof of the first and third.
Comment by TBlumer — August 5, 2008 @ 10:41 pm