Russian Literature is a favorite of mine, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn is not only my favorite modern Russian Author, but I believe he is one of the greatest Literary portraits of our time. All of the works of his which I have read have had a profound effect on my life.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his works of literature, can appear to be nothing more than just a political writer and novelist. But in looking deeper into his work, one can see that Alexander Solzhenitsyn is much, much more. He is a social and political philosopher, a voice for the Russian people. In other words, Solzhenitsyn serves as the Russian man looking up on the western world critically, and in his works he leaves behind his impression.

It seems that from the very beginning Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born into chaos. His father was a failed college student who died before Solzhenitsyn was born on December 11, 1918. He was raised by his mother, and excelled as a student, unlike his father. He was thrown into war in his youth when German troops stood before the doorstep of Moscow in conquest. He returned from the war a decorated hero – only to eventually end up in the Russian concentration camps, or Gulags. His literary life from then forward circled around persecution of all forms. He was moved from camp to camp, and exiled.

In 1970, Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize for Literature. This threw the Soviet authorities amuck and Solzhenitsyn’s citizenship was revoked, forcing him to spend the next 20 years in USA’s rural state of Vermont, until he returned as almost some kind of Russian prophet in 1994.

Solzhenitsyn was persecuted for speaking his mind, which was against the oppressive soviet regime which, took the lives of so many during the Soviet Rule of Russia from 1917 until 1991. In his writing The Gulag Archipelago he explains the evil nature and oppressive practices in the Gulags. It is true that Solzhenitsyn spoke out in disapproval of the soviet government. However, he also spoke out critically against modern Western Society as well.

Solzhenitsyn felt that since colonization times, the west was corrupted in its own ideals of what was valuable and what was not of value, what was civilized and what was simply barbaric. Throughout the world, western society “expanded in a triumph of human independence and power.” He also states, “…it is difficult yet to estimate the total size of the bill which former colonial countries will present to the West…”

Solzhenitsyn believes that the current state of unrest among the former colonial countries is due almost entirely to the colonial nations. This air of superiority that the West has maintained is continually drawing it into more conflicts, and creating more expectations of “Third world” and non-westernized nations. He condones westernizing the globe. He feels that the Western countries have lost a “courage” that they once held, which has weakened the nations of the West and may eventually lead to their failure.

Of all of Solzhenitsyn’s views of Western society the one that resounds the most is his steadfast disapproval of greed. The Western pursuit of wealth for him is one of the greatest evils – capitalism has brought the Western societies to actively pursue material goods to further their own happiness. He says, “It is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world. Both attitudes are within our power …a man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy, and no one can stop him.”

Often times he feels that it is this “spirit” that makes the man who he is. However, Solzhenitsyn believes that ever since that fall of the European and English Renaissance, when there was a rebirth of appreciation of the physical world and a conversion from the Medieval ideals of the “filthy” physical world and “immoral” body. The western world moved further and further toward a corruption in removing the spirituality from the physical universe.

The Western world may not live up to itself or Solzhenitsyn’s ideals. However, the nature of the criticism of the Western World does not come from some kind of hatred of it. In fact, I believe that Solzhenitsyn has faith in the ways of freedom, and refuses to believe that doctrines or constitutions make a people who they are or make them great. He believes in the spirit of the people.



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