http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and former Soviet exhile, died 8/03/08 of stroke in Moscow.  Solzhenitsyn was 89 years old. He was the author of such great novels on Soviet life as:

"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (1962)
"The First Cricle" (1968)
The Cancer Ward" (1968)
and
"The Gulag Archipelago" (1973-1974)
as well as numerous other novels, short stories, plays, and poetry.

For his contrarian views, Solzhenitsyn was stripped of his Soviet citizenship in 1974.  He emmigrated to Cavendish, Vermont, and lived a secluded life for 20 years.  He returned to Russia in 1994 after the fall of the Soviet Union. 

I enjoyed his novels immensely.

The right-wing in the U.S. embraced Solzhenitsyn for his searing criticism of the U.S.S.R., but I always thought the Right had a simplistic view of this great man.
:\'(

An old school Russian.  They're a dying breed.  Sad, very sad.  RIP.

The right-wing in the U.S. embraced Solzhenitsyn for his searing criticism of the U.S.S.R., but I always thought the Right had a simplistic view of this great man. :\'(


Yeah, we did. 

We overlooked a lot, and his last book, written post-9/11 and after a few years back in Russia, betrays another facet of his nationalism that we deliberately chose to ignore during the Cold War, but even that blemish still doesn't diminish the brilliance of a career that included classics such as Day in the Life, Cancer Ward, and of course, The Gulag Archipelago.  All should be required reading.

It's been said that governments of the world learned much from Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm - not by taking them as dire warnings, but by repurposing them as blueprints.

In that same sense, the governed of the world can learn as much by repurposing Solzhenitsyn's works - not just as well-written polemics against the Soviet state, they're also very useful as survival manuals. 

A Day in the Life could apply to any of us.  Is a life spent working 9-to-5-and-hating-it (or in a bad marriage, or whatever) fundamentally any different than a life spent in the gulag?  At least the prisoners in the gulag could blame the guys with the guns -- but if you spend your life doing something you hate without the "benefit" of the gun-toting guards, you've ultimately got no one to blame but yourself.  Sure, the Western 9-to-5 life may be more comfortable than the gulag, but are we any more free?

Yeah, we did. 

We overlooked a lot, and his last book, written post-9/11 and after a few years back in Russia, betrays another facet of his nationalism that we deliberately chose to ignore during the Cold War, but even that blemish still doesn't diminish the brilliance of a career that included classics such as Day in the Life, Cancer Ward, and of course, The Gulag Archipelago.  All should be required reading.

It's been said that governments of the world learned much from Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm - not by taking them as dire warnings, but by repurposing them as blueprints.

In that same sense, the governed of the world can learn as much by repurposing Solzhenitsyn's works - not just as well-written polemics against the Soviet state, they're also very useful as survival manuals. 

A Day in the Life could apply to any of us.  Is a life spent working 9-to-5-and-hating-it (or in a bad marriage, or whatever) fundamentally any different than a life spent in the gulag?  At least the prisoners in the gulag could blame the guys with the guns -- but if you spend your life doing something you hate without the "benefit" of the gun-toting guards, you've ultimately got no one to blame but yourself.  Sure, the Western 9-to-5 life may be more comfortable than the gulag, but are we any more free?

Nicely worded, sir!

Solzhenitsyn also bashed western pop culture for its depravity and its vapidity, and he felt we have an intellectual moral duty to be religious.  He was a culture critic on the level of Christopher Lasch; however, I believe Solzhenitsyn was profoundly earnest of his convictions, which is not something I get from a Lasch or an Allen Bloom. 

  I believe Solzhenitsyn was profoundly earnest of his convictions,


Yup.  His entire life could be summarized in four words: Live Not By Lies.

One can object: But actually toy can think anything you like.

Oh such profundities.  The stuffy old pr*ck.
:D

Just one last bottle of Nesbitt's Lime Soda and we had to throw it away....