Famously imprisoned in the vast soviet empire of “gulags” – forced labor and penal camps, then kicked out of his own country for anti-communist writings, settled in the US where for years lingered as a more and more eccentric figure, a strange mix of a strong anti-Soviet stance and a fully-fledged hatred for the capitalist system. For him, we here were not up to his standards in terms of education, religion, “morals” and consumption. We were cowards who “hastily capitulated” in Vietnam, mired in “vulgar materialism” and “spiritual weakness.” And even the free press (yep, he apparently considered unfettered press dangerous, especially – it seems - when it criticized Mr. Solzhenitsyn…) wasn’t up to snuff for him.
After moving back to Russia, Solzhenitsyn started turning into a truly bizarre individual, detesting the Russian reformers (Gorbachev) but friends with his former oppressors (Putin, a KGB man…)
A great and brave writer, but at the end, after stripping him of the “anti” veneer, he appears to be just another Russian imperialist at heart, frustrated with the passing of the Great Russian Empire and grateful to those who are trying to resurect it. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died on Sunday (August 3, 2008.) He was 89.
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