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Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Courage Exemplified

By Matthew Clark


Alexander Solzhenitsyn, future Soviet dissident and Nobel Prize winner, was born on December 11, 1918 in Kislovodsk, Russia. His father had died in a hunting accident before his birth so he was raised in a single parent home. Solzhenitsyn belonged to a family of Cossack intellectuals. As a young man Alexander impressed his peers with his intellect as well as a personality which has been described as dashing.


In 1941 the young Russian graduated from the University of Rostov-na-Donu in the field of mathematics. He did this while also taking literature correspondance courses at Moscow State University. That same year he married Natalya Reshetouskaye. Together they would be the proud parents of three sons.


Nineteen forty one was an eventful year for young Solzhenitsyn. On June 22 of that year the German military launched 'Operation Barbarossa,' an invasion of the Soviet Union. Alexander did his part in resisting the invaders by serving in the artillery arm of the Soviet forces, achieving the rank of captain by wars end. As a reward for his efforts Soviet authorities arrested the artilleryman for criticizing Soviet political leader Josef Stalin in a letter to a friend. For this breach of behaviour Alexander Solzhenitsyn was sentanced to 8 years in prison followed by 3 years in exile. During this period the young man contracted cancer, coming perilously close to death before receiving cancer treatments which were successful in restoring him to good health.


Upon the death of Stalin (1953) Soviet authorities started to ease up in their coercive control of society within the nation. Nikita Khrushchev had become the new General Secretary of The Communist Party of the Siviet Union (highest political position in the U.S.S.R.). Khrushchev attempted to make communist party control of the Soviet Union more palatable by loosening restrictions on the everyday life of citizens. As a result of these policies Solzhenitsyn was granted permission to settle in central Russia, where he taught mathematics and started to write. During 1962 "One Day in the Life of Denisovich" was published. It was about a typical day in a forced labour camp. This was followed in 1968 by "The First Circle," a fictional story about scientists co-operating with police in an attempt to suppress dissident political activity.


With the demise (1964) of Khrushchev Soviet authorities once again started to harass the now famous author. When he won the 1970 Nobel Prize for literature Solzhenitsyn did not travel to Oslo to accept it. Uncertain he would be allowed reentry into the Soviet Union once he stepped outside it's jurisdiction the writer stayed put.


A fictional novel ("August 1914") about the epic Battle of Tannenburg was followed in 1973 by the first volume of "The Gulag Archipelago," a story on the forced labour camp system within the Soviet Union. Volumes 2 & 3 followed in 1974-1975. These works were too much for the Communist authorities to tolerate. On February 12, 1974 Alexander Solzhenitsyn was arrested and charged with treason. His subsequent trial resulted in his exile from the Soviet Union.


By standing up to the communist Soviet regime the Nobel Prize recipient had become a hero at home and abroad. Long gone was the dashing man who wooed the young ladies. Pictures of Solzhenitsyn during these years portray a serious, weather beaten man aged well beyond his years. His portrait suggests an individual who allows himself few, if any, illusions. One of his viewpoints which would be revealed in the future was that while many Westerners viewed him as a hero the Russian did not see Westerners as being particularly heroic!


Some of his Western admirers requested that the Soviet dissident make a speech expressing his assessment of the state of global affairs at the prestigious American Harvard University. Alexander accepted the invitation. Thus on June 8, 1978 a group of enthuisastic academics gathered to hear the dour appearing Russian affirm the superiority of the contemporary Western way of life versus the dystopia then currently enveloping the Eastern World.


These expectations were quickly dashed as the Nobel Prize Winner criticized the 1970's Western World for the lack of courage often displayed by it's citizens. Most Westerners, Solzhenitsyn stated, were afraid to stand up for what is right. There was a lack of leadership, political and otherwise, causing unpopular messages to be unheard. As a result he could not recommend the Western way of life to his countrymen!


Furthermore the Russian maintained that the East, despite all it's problems, was becoming stronger than the West.Why? Because Easterners had courage! Solzhenitsyn reminded his listeners that individual freedoms, a mainstay of Western civilization, were conceived as conditional upon a belief in God! Responsibility was a necessary component in the makeup of individual rights. Moral fortitude allowed the West to have individual freedom while remaining strong. Without a belief in God that strenght would evaporate. Technological advancement was hollow without moral foundation. A strong military, with the most lethal of weapons would accomplish little, if anything, without valour!


Solzhenitsyn further expressed puzzlement at the fascination Western intellectuals had with communism. In the East communism was discredited. It had failed to bring happiness to those under it's jurisdiction while resulting in the destruction of millions (150,000,000?) of lives. Nevertheless Western intellectuals remained attracted to the communist movement, in spite of these malevolent drawbacks.


Towards the end of his lecture the Russian called for a renewal of moral strenght in the West. Marry up individual responsibility to individual freedom, accomplished through a return to a belief in God, and Westerners would once again stand up for what was right!


As he made his Harvard speech the Nobel Prize author was aware he was committing an action of professional suicide. Yet he made it anyhow! Although his Harvard message went over like a lead balloon in the Western World time vindicated Solzhenitsyn. In 1990 the Soviet Government restored the writers citizenship. A year later the Soviet Union dissolved. In 2007 Russians rewarded their determined countryman with the State Prize for Humanitarian causes. On August 3, 2008 at Troitse-Lykovo, near Moscow, after 90 adventurous years, Alexander Solzhenitsyn died. He would now face trial before a judge more wise and far more powerful than any Soviet tribunal.


The most dramatic vindication of Solzhenitsyn's Harvard address has been the continuous decline of bravery, in all it's forms, throughout Western civilization. Not only do Western peoples, collectively or individually, not stand up for what is right, they do not even protest that which is wrong! This is as true of everyday conversations around the water cooler as it is of major political gatherings. A lack of courage to say what is right, or wrong, permeates throughout the contemporary Western world. Why this is shall be left up to the reader(s) to decide. It is not an unreasonable suggestion, nevertheless, to ask them to consider Alexander Solzhenitsyn's theory that a lack of belief in the Creator is leaving Westerners with a lack of courage!






References:


Alexander Solzhenitsyn ---CrytoStoic Insights-you.tube.com/watch?v-I_IHRUKuUk-L

1978(June8) A World Split Apart



Independent-A Life In Focus: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Dissident Writer Whose Account of Life in the Gulag Exposed the Tyranny of Soviet Russia. by Mark Le Fanu

Saturday August 25, 2018

16;35 BST

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