Posted on 05/15/2024 11:28:49 AM PDT by TwilightDog
Discussing the cooling of relations between Russia and the West, Solzhenitsyn’s analysis of the history of the previous fifteen years highlighted the sharpness with which he viewed contemporary events. When he had returned to Russia he discovered that the West was “practically being worshipped”. This was caused “not so much by real knowledge or a conscious choice, but by the natural disgust with the Bolshevik regime and its anti-Western propaganda”. The positive view of many Russians towards the West began to sour following “ NATO bombings of Serbia”: “It’s fair to say that all layers of Russian society were deeply and indelibly shocked by those bombings.” The situation worsened as NATO sought to widen its influence to the former Soviet republics. “So, the perception of the West as mostly a ‘knight of democracy’ has been replaced with the disappointed belief that pragmatism, often cynical and selfish, lies at the core of Western policies. For many Russians it was a grave disillusionment, a crushing of ideals.”
interview with Solzhenitsyn, during which he had made reference to the Christian martyrs killed at the hands of the communists at the Butovo cemetery outside Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church sponsored a commemoration of these very martyrs at the cemetery itself. President Putin and his government were conspicuous by their absence at the event, a fact for which they were roundly condemned in the Russian press. Three months later, in an apparent act of penance for his earlier sin of omission President Putin visited Butovo and issued a statement about the evils of ideology and about the millions who had perished at the hands of the communist regime. On the same day the Orthodox Church canonized hundreds of victims of communism.
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2022/03/solzhenitsyn-putin-joseph-pearce.html
(Excerpt) Read more at theimaginativeconservative.org ...
It’s worth noting that in his later years after returning to Russia from exile, Solzhenitsyn was an open advocate of his vision for a restored “Greater Russia” that included both Belarus and Ukraine.
This is a really excellent article and the excerpts don’t do it justice.
The Russians made The Gulag Archipelago required reading for High School students. And I remember reading in this timeframe that Ayn Rand was also being taught in Russian Schools.
Didn't that have something to do with Monica Lewinsky, and "wag the dog" ?
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In independent Ukraine with its own agency was never in the cards. The country was always weak and divided, and neither side could simply “leave it alone.”
US “strategic planners” always saw a big prize in Ukraine, and in 2014, Russia and its corrupt political oligarchs were simply replaced with corrupt political oligarchs (and aggressively anti-Russian ones) beholden to the EU, NATO and the USA. Exhibit 1A is Hunter Biden.
And that’s a situation Russia would never let stand. US neocons of course knew that all along. They just arrogantly and stupid miscalculated that they could humiliate Russia and Putin while keeping control of Ukraine.
We don’t need to like Vladimir Putin. We don’t need to admire him. But we do need to acknowledge that Russia has moved on from the evils of socialism, even as we are in danger of embracing those very same evils.
Perhaps so, but Russia is a very, very long way from Western traditions of classical liberalism. It is still bonded to an ancient model of authoritarian imperialism, not enough unlike the Mongols who taught Moscow in medieval times to be in any way a good neighbor.
Which is understandable enough when one considers that Russia, Belarus and Ukraine are countries that ensued from the antecedent state of Kievian Rus.
I just burst out laughing when Putin was lecturing Tucker Carlson on Russian history as the historical illiteracy and historical ignorance of many, including political leadership of the West, are quite profound. And speaking of that abject stupidity, to the extent that Vladimir Putin is a nefarious villain, we are in deep shit, as Putin is apparently much smarter and has a more substantive thought process than most of the political leadership in the EU and US, the latter of whom are so abjectly stupid it is utterly surreal.
But this should make a good counterpoint to Ion Mihai Pacepa’s view that Russia was perpetrating a strategic deception, but was cryptically below the surface still trying to advance communism.
If Russia has moved on from the “evils of socialism” and we and the other members of NATO are trying to destroy them economically and militarily…what does that tell you?
“It’s worth noting that in his later years after returning to Russia from exile, Solzhenitsyn was an open advocate of his vision for a restored “Greater Russia” that included both Belarus and Ukraine.”
They’re close brothers after all. More alike than different.
“It’s worth noting that in his later years after returning to Russia from exile, Solzhenitsyn was an open advocate of his vision for a restored “Greater Russia” that included both Belarus and Ukraine.”
They’re close brothers after all. More alike than different.
But in recent years the official Russian position has turned against Solzhenitsyn and abuse is heaped upon him. There is even a play on words in the Russian language with letters of his name which mean “liar”. It is different in Cyrillic but basically they write soLZHEnitsyn with the capitalized letters bringing out the liar word. The campaign against the writer is orchestrated from the top.
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