August 3, 2008
FAREWELL TO A TRUTH-TELLING FRIEND:
Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies at 89 (BBC, 8/03/08)
Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed Stalin's prison system in his novels and spent 20 years in exile, has died at 89, Russian media say.
Obituary: Alexander Solzhenitsyn (BBC, 8/03/08)
Born into a family of Cossack intellectuals, Alexander Solzhenitsyn graduated in mathematics and physics, but within weeks the Soviet Union was fighting Hitler for its survival.Solzhenitsyn served as an artillery officer and was decorated for his courage, but in 1945 was denounced for criticising Stalin in a letter.
He spent the next eight years as one of the countless men enduring the gulags. He was one of the lucky ones to survive.
The rest of us were the lucky ones.
MORE:
_REVIEW ARCHIVE & LINKS: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (BrothersJudd.com)
-LECTURE: A World Split Apart (Text of Address by Alexander Solzhenitsyn at Harvard Class Day Afternoon Exercises,Thursday, June 8, 1978)
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1918 - 2008(dwhudson, August 3, 2008, GreenCine)
-OBIT: Nobel prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies aged 89 (guardian.co.uk, 8/03/08)
-OBIT: Soviet Dissident Writer Solzhenitsyn Dies at 89 (Reuters, August 3, 2008)
-OBIT: Alexander Solzhenitsyn Dies at 89 (VOA News, 03 August 2008)
-WIKIPEDIA: Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
-OBIT: Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, R.I.P. (National Review, 8/04/08)
-OBIT: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the man who exposed the horrors of Soviet Communism, dies aged 89 (Tamara Cohen, 04th August 2008, Daily Mail)
-OBIT: CHRONICLER OF THE GULAGS: Russian Literary Giant Solzhenitsyn Dies: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the man whose writings exposed the brutality of Stalin's murderous labor camps, has died at the age of 89. Death, he told SPIEGEL last year, "is a natural milestone of one's existence." (Der Spiegel, 8/04/08)
-VIDEO: Solzhenitsyn Dies at 89; David Remnick Reflects (Open Culture)
-ESSAY: Understanding Solzhenitsyn (William F. Buckley Jr., April 14, 1976, National Review)
-ESSAY: Solzhenitsyn -- a Rightist? (William F. Buckley Jr., August 1975, National Review)
-OBIT: Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies aged 89 (Damien Francis, 8/04/.08, guardian.co.uk)
-INTERVIEW: An Interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Joseph Pearce, February 2003, St. Austin Review)
-INTERVIEW: 'I Am Not Afraid of Death': In an interview with SPIEGEL, prominent Russian writer and Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn discusses Russia's turbulent history, Putin's version of democracy and his attitude to life and death. (Der Spiegel, 7/23/07)
RIP. Great man. Prophet of the modern age.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at August 3, 2008 10:16 PMLet's hope that Kasparov or someone else can provide something of the same regarding Putin and the deadly syncretism between the oligarchs and the FSB (KGB/NKVD/Cheka/Ohkrana).
Posted by: ratbert at August 3, 2008 11:30 PMI knew that, of all places, Orrin's blog would take Solzhenitzyn's death seriously. CNN.com didn't even have it on the front page.
"The First Circle" was my first taste of Solzhenitsyn - given to me by my Dad when I was about 17.
Dona eum requiam sempiternam, Domine.
Along with Ronald Reagan and John Paul the Great, together they did what most of the world thought impossible, they thrust the horror back down into the gats of Hell.
Posted by: Lou Gots at August 3, 2008 8:19 PM