RIP Solzhenitsyn

[rubakhin]

:smallfrown:

(If you don't know who he is, I'm going to hurt you.)

[de-trick]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Solzhenitsyn.jpg/180px-Solzhenitsyn.jpg

sad day indeed:smallfrown:

[Cobra_Ikari]

:smallfrown:

(If you don't know who he is, I'm going to hurt you.)

...hurt me anyway? :smallwink:

no, but sad, sad indeed. v.v

[Zeta Kai]

Another defiant voice has been silenced... & yet a moment of silence is fitting.

His best work was done in gulags almost fifty years ago, & his rantings from Vermont lost him a great deal of his supporters & clout, but his eloquence & dedication to reporting the honest truth cannot be diminished. We should remember him, & always cherish those like him.

[bosssmiley]

RIP indeed. You know, there some people claimed he was making up the stories about the Gulag right up until the day Gorbachev said "Yep, we totally did all those things."

"Gulag Archipelago" - it will depress the Hell out of you and make you count your blessings.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

:smallfrown:

(If you don't know who he is, I'm going to hurt you.)
'Cause, you know, it's a total insult to your honor that I don't follow the same personalities as you do. :smallyuk:

[rubakhin]

'Cause, you know, it's a total insult to your honor that I don't follow the same personalities as you do. :smallyuk:

No, it's an insult to yours.

Brother, do you know who just died? He wrote about Soviet gulag. Before he wrote, nobody in the West had any idea that these camps existed. Nobody had even the slightest idea that the USSR was committing mass violation of human rights. This was before the Cold War, before the American's McCarthy. You yourself have a firm idea in your mind about what the death camps were like there, and maybe even in your life you have said, "They ought to send him to Siberia," or something like that. This idea would not have existed in your mind without him. He won a Nobel Prize. He wrote brilliant prose and prose poems. And you call him a personality. Have some respect.

[Silent Hunter]

He won a Nobel Prize- and the Soviets wouldn't let him collect it.

One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovitch is brilliant.

[Om]

Brother, do you know who just died? He wrote about Soviet gulag. Before he wrote, nobody in the West had any idea that these camps existed. Nobody had even the slightest idea that the USSR was committing mass violation of human rightsHuh? This charge was levelled at the USSR from its very inception and the existence of the GULAG prison system, although not its brutal particulars, was well known in the West


This was before the Cold War, before the American's McCarthyGulag Archipelago was published in 1973. It was written from a period from 1958 onwards. Both dates (obviously) occuring after the beginning of the Cold War and the end of McCarthyism


You yourself have a firm idea in your mind about what the death camps were like there, and maybe even in your life you have said, "They ought to send him to Siberia," or something like thatThe idea of being sent to Siberia dates back to Tsarist times when the first prison system for political exiles was established. The concept would have been familiar in the West long before 1973

If you're going to defend Solzhenitsyn, including his bizarre nationalist ideas and monarchist revisionism, then at least get your facts straight

[Hoggy]

And you call him a personality. Have some respect.

As much as I respect a lot of what you type, Mr. Rubakhin, I must say it's very hard to have respect for someone you've never heard of.

[rubakhin]

[quote]
The idea of being sent to Siberia dates back to Tsarist times when the first prison system for political exiles was established. The concept would have been familiar in the West long before 1973[quote]

Da ya ponyal, ponyal, of course I know about the history of the Siberian camps. I read Zapiski iz Mertvogo doma like everyone else when I was young.

*frowns* Did the Western world really know about all this business before Solzhenitsyn? All I know is what they tell me, but considering that my information comes from over there, it's not likely to be accurate, come to think of it.

Either way, the publication of Ivan Denisovich in Novyj Mir was a miracle unto itself, devil take the Western world.

[quote]
If you're going to defend Solzhenitsyn, including his bizarre nationalist ideas and monarchist revisionism, then at least get your facts straight

To hell with you! Do you think I am going to stand here with my Ukrainian blood and my Chechen accent and defend all of his ideas, including his stupidities? Believe me, he had a lot of them.

[bosssmiley]

*frowns* Did the Western world really know about all this business before Solzhenitsyn? All I know is what they tell me, but considering that my information comes from over there, it's not likely to be accurate, come to think of it.

Interested parties in the West (analysts, Russologists and the like) knew what was going on, but there was a groupthink that the Gulag simply couldn't be as bad as emigres and defectors painted it. The general public only a vague idea of the sheer scope and scale of things until Solzhenitsyn's books were published. We owe him a lot for forcing on us the knowledge that this stuff could happen in peacetime.

edit: more moderate tone taken. I want to convey my respect for Solzhenitsyn's achievement as a writer and publicizer of state oppression, not start a row about who did what to whom and when.

[Spiryt]

*frowns* Did the Western world really know about all this business before Solzhenitsyn? All I know is what they tell me, but considering that my information comes from over there, it's not likely to be accurate, come to think of it.


A book A World Apart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World_Apart_%28book%29) by Gustaw Herling - Grudziński (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustaw_Herling-Grudzi%C5%84ski) was published first in 1951 in London. He was in Gulag like you can see.

Dunno about the world knowing thouhg. Now it's obligatory book in high school, and some kids even read it.

[SurlySeraph]

Solzhenitsyn died? Man, that's too bad. He was a good man.

On a slightly less tragic note, I remember I had a dream about him once. He'd somehow taken control of a Russian Army battalion and led it into another dimension, and I had to go in, find him, and convince one of his soldiers (the father of my friend) to come back with me. Man, that was a weird dream.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: Please step away from the political discussion. Otherwise, this thread's going to end up locked. Also, fighting at a memorial is just gauche.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Brother, do you know who just died?
Obviously, I don't.


He wrote about Soviet gulag. Before he wrote, nobody in the West had any idea that these camps existed. Nobody had even the slightest idea that the USSR was committing mass violation of human rights. This was before the Cold War, before the American's McCarthy. You yourself have a firm idea in your mind about what the death camps were like there, and maybe even in your life you have said, "They ought to send him to Siberia," or something like that. This idea would not have existed in your mind without him. He won a Nobel Prize. He wrote brilliant prose and prose poems.
Okay. Now I have some idea. Thank you.


And you call him a personality. Have some respect.
Well, I'd think it would be less respectful to claim this guy has no personality. :smalltongue:

[Gorbash]

Rubakhin, you're actually insulting people because they haven't heard about a Russian writer? Seriously? And I take it, you know every famous writer from every country?

[The Rose Dragon]

Rubakhin, you're actually insulting people because they haven't heard about a Russian writer? Seriously? And I take it, you know every famous writer from every country?

Yes. Yes, he does. :smalltongue:

[Tengu_temp]

Rubakhin, you're actually insulting people because they haven't heard about a Russian writer? Seriously? And I take it, you know every famous writer from every country?

This is not just "a Russian writer". This is a man whose work helped make the Western world aware of the existence of gulags. This alone is the reason why his name should at least ring a bell to everyone.

[Gorbash]

Well, I live in the Eastern World and I've never heard of him. I know what gulags are, though. Although first time I heard of gulags is from an american movie, I think. 3 guys escape from a gulag one dies along the way and they reach some border. Can't remember the rest it was long time ago.

[Occasional Sage]

This is not just "a Russian writer". This is a man whose work helped make the Western world aware of the existence of gulags. This alone is the reason why his name should at least ring a bell to everyone.

I don't know the history of Western gulag awareness, but Solzhenitsyn's name is one that ought to ring bells around the world. If it doesn't with anybody in this thread, I urge you to find him in your local library; he was a brilliant, beautiful writer and the loss of his voice makes the world that much poorer.

Rest in peace, you earned it long ago.

[The Extinguisher]

I'd say that most people on the forum were born way after this was a problem, and a lot after the USSR collapsed.

It's not that big of a deal that people do not know about him. It really isn't. I mean, it sucks that he died, but how about instead of insulting us for not knowing about him, you point us in the right direction so we CAN know about him.