home

Alexander Solzhenitsyn Is Dead

By TChris, Section Social Justice
Posted on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 06:54:53 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit
Nobel prize winning writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, best known (to me at least) for writing Gulag Archipelago, died today at the age of 89.

The world lost a great writer and, more importantly, a great voice of conscience. May he rest in peace.

< The Platform: Health Care | Obama Turns 47, McCain Heads to Sturgis >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Alexander Solzhenitsyn Is Dead | 24 comments (24 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

    Blessed Be (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by themomcat on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 07:13:29 PM EST
    May the Goddess guide him on his journey to the Summerlands. May his family, his friends and the world find Peace. Blessed Be.

    Love this quote, courtesy of (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by oculus on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 07:28:00 PM EST
    Wiki:

    He also harshly criticised what he saw as the ugliness and spiritual vapidity of the dominant pop culture of the modern West, including television and rock music: "...the human soul longs for things higher, warmer and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits...by TV stupor and by intolerable music."

    Also, the great cellist Rostropovich [who died recently] and his wife, soprano Galena Vishnevskaya, sheltered the author before the author was deported and stripped of his Soviet citizenship.  Result:  Rostropovich played recitals in small towns in Siberia.  

    Heh (none / 0) (#14)
    by gyrfalcon on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 09:53:45 PM EST
    The mental image of Solzhenitzyn living secretly for years in the Rostropoviches' garage is one I treasure.  None of the three of them is/was a tolerant, mild-mannered soul.  Galina in particular I imagine throwing pots and pans at him from time to time.

    Did you know, Oculus, that she's in a recently released Russian film playing a central acting role?  I actually sang with her a couple of times, and came to absolutely adore her spirit.  One of my top favorite performers.  Her husband, who'm I've also sung with, not so much, though.  Great cellis, pretty sucky conductor.

    Parent

    I think it was the dacha, not the garage. (none / 0) (#21)
    by oculus on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 01:04:21 AM EST
    I read Galena's autobiography--quite interesting.  She is the soprano on the recording of Britten's War Requiem.  

    Parent
    And Galina was cut off (none / 0) (#17)
    by gyrfalcon on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 10:05:32 PM EST
    from the Bolshoi or any respectable Russian opera house at the absolute height of her vocal ability and expressive powers.  Rostropovich was the big star here in the U.S., but Galina was the big star in Russia.  She was hardly ever hired when they came to the U.S., which is shameful, IMHO.  She was a great, great artist.  (Still could be, since she's still alive, but the voice doesn't last into the 70s.)

    Parent
    I was in Moscow (5.00 / 1) (#15)
    by gyrfalcon on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 09:58:55 PM EST
    the spring after the SU came apart, with an American -based but Russian emigre-dominated chorus.  One of our (American) singers looked so much like Solzhenitsyn, we had taken to calling him Sascha among ourselves.  Everywhere we went in Moscow, he attracted stares, and sometimes some real turbulence.  He had to deny, in English because had had no real Russian, over and over again that he was Solzhentisyn, but there began to be rumors by the time we left that Solzhenitsyn had come back to Russia.

    Oddly, he passed away himself just a few weeks ago, early from a heart attack.

    He was a giant (none / 0) (#1)
    by Big Tent Democrat on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 07:09:01 PM EST


    He was a clever giant (none / 0) (#3)
    by pie on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 07:21:40 PM EST
    if he made it to 89.

    Parent
    Well, that's really amazing considering (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by MarkL on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 07:50:21 PM EST
    the physical suffering he endured.

    Parent
    No argument. (none / 0) (#11)
    by pie on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:21:57 PM EST
    His voice wasn't silenced, however.

    Parent
    He also (none / 0) (#18)
    by jtaylorr on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 10:09:13 PM EST
    blamed all of the modern world's problems on atheism.

    Parent
    Well, Dostoevsky had a fetish for the Orthodox (none / 0) (#20)
    by andgarden on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 11:00:37 PM EST
    Church.

    Brilliant writers often have strange ideas.

    Parent

    Sad (none / 0) (#4)
    by andgarden on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 07:24:50 PM EST
    One particular bit of imagery sticks in my mind from Denisovich about fish eyes in a stew.

    It's a sad day (none / 0) (#7)
    by pmj6 on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 07:53:55 PM EST
    The Gulag Archipelago was one of the first book I read in the English language. He was an amazing writer, possessed of unsurpassed moral courage.

    What is your first language? (none / 0) (#8)
    by oculus on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:01:42 PM EST


    Parent
    Maybe it's English! (none / 0) (#9)
    by Steve M on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:03:01 PM EST
    Some kids are quick studies.

    Parent
    Got me. (none / 0) (#10)
    by oculus on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:09:21 PM EST


    Parent
    Very sad. (none / 0) (#12)
    by Valhalla on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:31:43 PM EST
    My college thesis opened with a quote from the First Circle.  How lucky the world was that someone could put into words the terrible injustices under Stalin, and their human toll, lest they be lost.
    "Cancer Ward" (none / 0) (#13)
    by mabelle55 on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 08:55:22 PM EST
    is still my favorite Solzhenitsyn book, followed by "First Circle" and "Gulag Archipalago."

    After "Cancer Ward" I couldn't get enough of him. He was not only the most brilliant writer in his portrayal of the brutality of life in the Soviet Union and his years in prison, he did it via beautifully crafted characters and through rich, deep symbolism that anybody can identify with (or could back then).

    He and Ayn Rand really have a lot in common in their writing styles: use of deep symbolism and in their characters. I don't buy Ayn Rand's theories or beliefs, but I love her writing because of the symbolism and characters, just as I love Solzhenitysn for this AND for the "truth to power" he spoke.

    Funny, too: I was thinking about Solzehnitsyn the other day (and "Cancer Ward"). I wondered at the time if he was still alive. Guess he was...then.

    Rest in peace, Alexandre: god knows you deserve it for your heroism and courage.

    He was true to his beliefs (none / 0) (#16)
    by gyrfalcon on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 10:01:07 PM EST
    but in all honesty, he was a right-wing scold who found American society no more palatable than Soviet.  He was a chronically disssatisfied man, which has a lot to do with his incredibly searing artistry.

    Well (none / 0) (#19)
    by Steve M on Sun Aug 03, 2008 at 10:33:30 PM EST
    hardcore communism had a way of making people into right-wing scolds!

    If I suffered for decades under a communist government, I imagine it would color my worldview quite a bit.  It's easy to understand how someone could go to the other extreme.

    Parent

    Couldn't possibly be that he had a point? (none / 0) (#22)
    by Upstart Crow on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 04:04:32 AM EST
    Couldn't possibly be that he had a point, could it?

    Amazing how he has an enthusiastic audience in the West when he denounces Stalinism -- but the same audience dismisses him when he says something it doesn't see or like about the West.  Then he's a "right-wing scold," looney, etc.

    Parent

    Interesting argument (none / 0) (#23)
    by Steve M on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 04:18:50 AM EST
    I happen to think it's possible the correct answer doesn't lie at either extreme, but that's just me.

    Parent
    Homage (none / 0) (#24)
    by sj on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 09:00:19 AM EST
    Posting without hearing since my daytime PC has no sound card.

    A song inspired by him to remember him by.

    Alexander Solzhenitsyn Is Dead | 24 comments (24 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment