ALEXANDER SOLZENITSEN

ALEXANDER SOLZENITSEN

I became aware of this man in the mid 1970's. He is a Russian poet, philosopher, dramatist and historian. This spelling of his name is Americanized. More closely to the Russian, it is Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. He was born in 1918 which makes him almost 88 today.

Most of his work and writings could not be published in the 20th century Soviet Union. He was a decorated Russian soldier during World War II but was later thrown in jail for 8 years for criticizing Joseph Stalin. Such was the his country at that time. Jail is not exactly accurate. He was sent to the Gulag. These were Russian state forced labor camps. Solzenitsen wrote descriptions of those camps which he managed to publish when he was let out. This was the first time the rest of the world learned about the Gulags and became such an embarrassment to the Soviet Union that they exiled him from the country in 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 for this work.

In 1976, he was welcomed into the United States and in 1978, he made the commencement address to the Harvard University graduating class. It was this speech which brought him to my attention. It was widely published in the press.

I think most Americans assumed someone with his background would gush all over our way of life and expound on the fruits of liberty. To the contrary, his speech was a scathing commentary on the weaknesses of our society and a warning of its downfall. I personally think it had a galvanizing effect on the conservative movement in our country. At the next presidential election, Ronald Reagan was elected and Jimmy Carter ousted.

In his speech, Solzenitsen talked about how many of our people were embracing socialism and how murderous that was for the Soviet Union. He talked further about how we are a country of laws but that a great society goes beyond the letter of the law and does the right thing because it is right. He expanded that to include our lack of spiritualism and our bent toward humanism. This slippery path we are still on. Most importantly, he talked about courage and our lack of it. Societies that lose their courage are doomed he said. America was built upon great principals but we have lost the courage of our convictions.

Little was heard of Solzenitsen after this speech. He stayed here until his return to his motherland in 1996 after the fall of the Soviet Union.