Solzhenitsyn's Truth

IBD Editorials ^ | August 4, 2008

[Kaslin]

Great Lives: News of the death of Russian literary genius Alexander Solzhenitsyn recalls a life that proved truth triumphs over totalitarianism. And it renews focus on why extreme ideology and personality cults fail.

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Unlike the Parisian cafe intellectuals of postwar Europe endlessly mulling repression of the mind and questioning whether truth existed, the great Russian writer knew there was a such thing as truth and that it was worth fighting for.

It's what enabled this survivor of eight years in the USSR's Gulag to destroy the moral force of communism as an idea, as the writer Tom Wolfe noted. "Marxism was finished off . . . in a single year, 1973 — with the smuggling out of the Soviet Union and the publication in France of the first of three volumes of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 'Gulag Archipelago,' " Wolfe wrote last year in National Review.

Solzhenitsyn's book revolutionized how the West viewed communism and set the stage for its end. Had it never been written, the West's thinking may have remained very different.

Post-Stalin-era leader Nikita Khrushchev first permitted Solzhenitsyn's novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" to be published in 1962 on the opportunistic grounds that it would discredit the Stalinist old guard but leave the communist system intact.

It didn't — and Khrushchev was quickly overthrown.

[NFHale]

“...as the writer Tom Wolfe noted. “Marxism was finished off . . . in a single year, 1973 — with the smuggling out of the Soviet Union and the publication in France of the first of three volumes of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Gulag Archipelago,’ “ Wolfe wrote last year in National Review...”

And yet...He’s now dead, and THEY’RE still here...and running the Democrat party, and within p*ssing distance of taking the White House.

So...exactly HOW “finished off” is Marxism, Mr. Wolfe???

Let’s see....China (nope - still commie)...Cuba (Hmm...nope, still commie)....North Korea (err, well, you know, NOPE..still commie)...Venezuela (Wow!! NEW Commies, starting out fresh with the RIGHT people in charge THIS time)...Europe...Nope. Currently engaged in socialist self-flagellation and mental masturbation, actually thinking they can assimilate large groups of the Religion Of Peace(C)(TM)(R) peaceably and still retain their own cultures...(Psst...hey Frenchies...by the way...those ROPer’s don’t WANT to assimilate...they want to obliterate).

No, I think it will take a little more effort on the part of free people (those of us that are left, at any rate) to finally shove that ideology into the grave and nail the coffin shut on the socialists.

[Das Outsider]

So...exactly HOW “finished off” is Marxism, Mr. Wolfe???

Citing National Review is an exercise in delusion grand mal.

Marxism is very much alive in the Western Hemisphere, and its roots run deep, even in the United States.

[Clint Williams]

Yah. Given the spine and willingness to go the extra mile I see in self-professed conservatives these days, we might as well hang it all up.

Working for decades as a volunteer on Republican campaigns I have NEVER met another (admitted) FReeper. And very, very few of the FReepers I know admit to turning out to work on Republican campaigns. (And a few Republican candidates are worth supporting if only because they tend to be FAR better than the Marxist Democrats, but most are better.)

So... guess it's time to hang it all up and get the hell out. Folks who won't do for themselves don't need me doing it for them.

Just don't come crying to me later. Learn to sing and love "The Internationale" and all will be fine. The re-education seminars/camps will tell you what you need to know and regurgitate.

[Cacique]

btt

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Thinking Ping!

[aquila48]

“Marxism is very much alive in the Western Hemisphere, and its roots run deep, even in the United States.”

Absolutely - they even have one of theirs running for president of the US.

Hollywood, the schools, most newspapers and media in general are controlled by marxists or marxism sympathizers. I thought we had them buried when the soviet union collapsed, but they've come back with a vengeance, morphed as "progressives".

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.

[NFHale]

As long as I get to wear one o’ those fancy little quilted Mao jackets and tennis sneakers, I’ll be a happy little comrade!!!!

How stylish...tres commie-chic!!!!

Or maybe even a Nehru jacket!!!! Damn! That’s the Bee’s Knees!!!!!

And all I have to do is shout “Down With Imperialist Pig-dogs!” on a corner for a few weeks!!!

[NFHale]

“...His writings showed truth could prevail over tyranny..”

Truth, maybe....

Bullets, spine, and the will to fight back, DEFINITELY.

[Das Outsider]

Hollywood, the schools, most newspapers and media in general are controlled by marxists or marxism sympathizers. I thought we had them buried when the soviet union collapsed, but they've come back with a vengeance, morphed as "progressives".

While we did defeat the Soviet Empire, the cultural--or anti-culture, if you will--seeds that were sown during the Cold War--not just in the U.S. but Latin America--have sprouted, and are now like the Kudzu, to complete the metaphor.

The truth is, the so-called progressive movement never ceased. The true comrades and fellow travelers moved into more "respectable" positions, like academia, journalism, visual media, and government. What we're dealing with today isn't confined to geopolitical borders; it's an ideology with a distinct view of the nature of man and the role of the State, armed with a decreasingly literate population and technology that Marx could have never imagined.

[aquila48]

We’re in violent agreement!

These guys will never give up - I swear it’s in their genetic makeup. That dead white man that said “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance” knew what he was talking about.

By the way there’s a great book by David horowitz you might enjoy “Radical Son”. He was a commie back in the sixties, he has since become a staunch conservative. Gives a detailed account of the workings of the leftists “progressives” from a former insider point of view.

[Das Outsider]

By the way there’s a great book by David horowitz you might enjoy “Radical Son”. He was a commie back in the sixties, he has since become a staunch conservative. Gives a detailed account of the workings of the leftists “progressives” from a former insider point of view.

I own an old battered copy of "Radical Son," purchased at a library sale a few years ago. I did like the earlier portraits of his family and his exposé of "Ramparts."