Korean Job Discussion Forums

[On the other hand]

Just saw it on MSNBC.

http://tinyurl.com/59fmlz

[Ya-ta Boy]

That's too bad. His 'The First Circle' and 'Cancer Ward' are great books.

[Tjames426]

Sadly, most people do not know who he was.

He was one of the Greatest writers of the 20th Century. He was not afraid to tell the truth. Which is probably why both the West and USSR were not sure what to do with him. He blasted the societies of both the USSR and the USA.

But, he exposed Communism for what it is. His book, Gulag, could possibly be a modern day description of Chinese labor camps.

[Ya-ta Boy]

The lack of response to this topic indicates you are probably right--people just don't know who he is. That's too bad. He really was one of the great writers of the last century.

[soviet_man]

I have debated communist ideas with on the other hand and others here many times. I don't want to re-visit that today - but I do want to share my personal thoughts nonetheless:

I have lived in Russian USSR for most of my early life and, like others of my background, can say I am somewhat uncertain how to respond to news of Solzhenitsyn's death.

Orthodox communist perspective would be to view Solzhenitsyn as being a traitor, stooge and western advocate. Indeed he was all of those things.

But it is more technical and complex than that ...

Yes he is a man who encountered tragedy, misfortune, hardship, harassment and discomfort. But he alone is the one that chose a lifestyle as a dissident and obscure polemicist that resulted in those things happening.

But even this, alone, if we believe even half of it as true, is not sufficient enough an excuse to understand why he had such an obsession to tar the entire vast USSR, as being a human and political failure. Which it was not.

Not only was it deeply inaccurate for him to try and diminish the incredible creative potential and achievements that *did* occur during the Soviet period, but after 1991, with the arrival of capitalism and waves of economic distress, it was fittingly Solzhenitsyn himself - who was left discredited, irrelevant and ideologically diminished.

[xtchr]

[Ya-ta Boy]

xtchr,

If you get a chance, I highly recommend both of his other books I mentioned. "First Circle" is about a group of people in the 'first circle' of the hell of the gulag, the slightly restricted level, not the outright grimness depicted in Ivan. "Cancer Ward" is an extended metaphor using cancer as communism to describe Soviet society.

[Harpeau]

[mises]

[On the other hand]

[Ya-ta Boy]

Here's an excerpt from an article at Asia Times Online:

Before the prophet, the writer
By Peter Vail

In the 19th century two books changed the lives of millions of people: Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which played an enormous role in ending slavery in the United States ,and Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What Is To Be Done?, which set thousands of Russians on the path toward revolution.

In the 20th century, there was only one such book - Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. Solzhenitsyn died this week at the age of 89.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH06Ag01.html

[Kuros]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[nicholas_chiasson]

I find S a bit darker than Dostoyevsky...and more overtly political. I do find his language a bit better. I guess the poster who sad Dostoyevsky is uneven while S. is more reliable put it very well.
-anyway sovietman at least had the honesty to declare himself a CCCP buff before writing about the man. Obviously I disagree. I can honestly say Solzhenitsyn was the 2nd most influential Russian writer for me.