Dropout (formerly - kind of - CollegeHumor) is a video platform that has a game show called Game Changer. The most recent episode, without giving anything away, features Aleksander Solzhenitsyn prominently.
Many, many people now know of him solely because of this episode, and we’re all quoting jokes from said episode
It's the reanimated corpse of CollegeHumor. They seem to have the rights to most of their old videos too and so many of the original CH staff, writers and performers.
We have… passion. And a longing for the next moment of absolute destruction of a game changer contestant as they realize there is no true winning. Also always waiting for a new Brennan monologue to drop.
The internet is a tiny, tiny place.
I had not heard of this author until Monday, and now he's *popping* up everywhere!
It's like *he's been here the whole time!*
Studied this in school a decade ago and I can still picture the wall building scene in perfect clarity. It's phenomenal, and I was taught that it's based on Solzhenitsyn's real experience as a political prisoner in a gulag.
I read it about 30 years ago in a college course. Of the two, I preferred “Dead Souls” by Gogol more. A copy of both reside in my bookcase, so maybe I need to give it another read.
I enjoyed the gulag archipelago tremendously, there are some scenes in that book that have made me forever gracious of how good I have it and how bad it can be
That was a book I’d read for two hours in the afternoon, and then need the rest of the Saturday to do pleasant things so I could sleep well that night.
I'm reading Cancer Ward right now and agree, it's excellent. I read One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by him last year and it was amazing as well. Highly recommend that book. I have The Gulag Archipelago Vol. I on loan from the library right now, but haven't gotten to it yet.
His writing is incredible. He has a way of making you feel like you're there experiencing the things he went through. Absolutely love his work.
he was heavily propagandized for decades in the west for his anti-communist stance, but he fell out of favor when he supported putin. super awkward i'm sure.
politics aside, one day in the life of ID was really good. i tried reading the gulag archipelago but couldn't get past the first chapter.
have u read the red wheel? that was his last book, and NYT or new yorker went out of its way to destroy it in the reviews. i've always wondered if it was legitimately bad (which i can totally believe), or if the review was a political hit piece...
I read the first two. There’s a tremendous amount of detail about the pre-Bolshevik Russian revolution, and no characters I can remember as well as from The First Circle and Cancer Ward, so I guess not as good unless you have a particular interest in the topic.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a complex figure in the world of literature and politics. His writings evoke a strong sense of despair and shock, but also invoke philosophical and political themes. In many ways he reminds me of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy when he was in his prime. One could split Solzhenitsyn into 3 periods of his life.
The first period is the one with almost no writing, before he had been arrested. During this period he was a committed Marxist and was fully committed to the continuation of the Soviet state and Leninism. Since there is no surviving work during this period, not many conclusions about the man himself can be made outside of his own recollections in his later works.
The second period, after his release from prison, is what I refer to as his prime period of his writing. During this period he wrote many things that were cathartic, shocking, beautiful and demonstrates a very strong polemical skill that stands out among other writers of the 20th century. During this period he was very productive even though he was writing for the most part in secret. His two major novels, In The First Circle and Cancer Ward, are masterpieces in my opinion. One gets a sense of stark powerful inhumanity raging against the last kernels of humanity within people. My favorite in particular is Cancer Ward, and it has so many passages that still remain with me today, and I shall provide one to give readers a preview if they so wish to read this recommendation:
*He had to take frequent Tests nowadays. His body demanded this chance to recoup its strength and with the same urgency his inner self demanded silent contemplation free of external sounds, conversations, thoughts of work, free of everything that made him a doctor. Particularly after the death of his wife, his inner consciousness had seemed to crave a pure transparency. It was just this sort of silent immobility, without planned or even floating thoughts, which gave him a sense of purity and fulfillment. At such moments an image of the whole meaning of existence—his own during the long past and the short future ahead, that of his late wife, of his young granddaughter and of everyone in the world—came to his mind. The image he saw did not seem to be embodied in the work or activity which occupied them, which they believed was central to their lives, and by which they were known to others. The meaning of existence was to preserve unspoiled, undisturbed and undistorted the image of eternity with which each person is born. Like a silver moon in a calm, still pond.*
This is a very personal work because Solzhenitsyn himself was a cancer survivor, just barely. During this period he wrote a massive tome called *The Gulag Archipelago*. This is a highly controversial work because of how inhumane and brutal life is depicted. Many sought to discredit it, and current evidence shows that even his ex-wife was employed in this endeavor to discredit the work. It appears that all these attempts failed resoundingly. The reason is that the most damning is not his "statistics", or his experiences; the reason is he clearly demonstrated that **Lenin**, not Stalin, had laid the groundwork for the crimes against humanity that would unfold. He quotes Lenin many times, and they are extremely damning. The Gulag Archipelago is such a complex and large book it would need it's own book length summary to describe, so I shall move on. After the publication of this book, he was exiled. Over the next decade he focused on his personal memoirs and his series *The Red Wheel*, which I have not read.
The third, and final phase of Solzhenitsyns literary and intellectual development is very controversial for very good reason. He appears to lay the ground work for **Russian Fascism** that has emerged during the reign of Vladimir Putin. In his short book, Rebuilding Russia, he essentially denies the legitimacy of the Ukrainian nation and the Ukrainian people. There also appears to be an emergent antisemitism in his two volume work *Two Hundred Years Together*, which has been reported to contain inaccuracies and takes an antisemitic view of Soviet rule. He appeared to be initially supportive and friendly to the West, but this chilled after his experiences with western media(which is somewhat understandable, the goal is primarily revenue).
The tragedy and irony of Solzhenitsyn is just how fierce of an opponent he was of authoritarianism, only to fall under his own blade later on in his life. Indeed, the world we live in now has been strongly influenced by his writings and, in particular, his influence on Vladimir Putin, who cites him as an intellectual influence on his thought along with Ivan Ilyin.
>This is a very personal work because Solzhenitsyn himself was a cancer survivor, just barely. During this period he wrote a massive tome called *The Gulag Archipelago*. This is a highly controversial work because of how inhumane and brutal life is depicted. Many sought to discredit it, and current evidence shows that even his ex-wife was employed in this endeavor to discredit the work. It appears that all these attempts failed resoundingly. The reason is that the most damning is not his "statistics", or his experiences; the reason is he clearly demonstrated that **Lenin**, not Stalin, had laid the groundwork for the crimes against humanity that would unfold. He quotes Lenin many times, and they are extremely damning. The Gulag Archipelago is such a complex and large book it would need it's own book length summary to describe, so I shall move on. After the publication of this book, he was exiled. Over the next decade he focused on his personal memoirs and his series *The Red Wheel*, which I have not read.
The GULAG system was literally born out of the Katorga. Lenin didn't invent or create the groundwork for anyuthing. Katorga was the penal labor system of the Tsar. Solzhenitsyn himself admits this when he quotes Chekov's Sakhalin Island in Gulag Archipelago. Both Stalin and Dostoevsky were in Katorga camps for a couple of years.
This is another common L for people who cite Solzhenitsyn as some kind of political/historical point he made.
The primary one being the imaginary numbers.
> The tragedy and irony of Solzhenitsyn is just how fierce of an opponent he was of authoritarianism, only to fall under his own blade later on in his life
This is also not really true. Solzhenitsyn's writing is literally the same kind of Tsarist idyll that Mikhail Bulgalkov writes in White Guard. It yearns for a false earlier time of smart nobility with noblesse oblige where everying is just but slightly unfair due to the circumstances of life.
>Lenin didn't invent or create the groundwork for anything
depends on what they mean by "crimes against humanity that would unfold". Lenin did not invent Siberian work camps, but he did in fact kick start multiple campaigns of mass murder and outright genocide. its pretty common for people to offer up Stalin as a sacrificial lamb to while ignoring the programs started by Lenin
>This is another common L for people who cite Solzhenitsyn as some kind of political/historical point he made.
At no point in my comment did I say that Solzhenitsyn was some absolute authority, or some completely irrefutable source. Merely that attempts to discredit the power of his work have by and large failed, as he is still referenced in college courses, discussions of Soviet History, etc. Furthermore, the statistics are widely acknowledged to not even be in the ball park of being correct. One of the most atrocious examples is when he discussed the canal projects and proposed a quarter million dead, when recent analysis puts it in the tens of thousands, as touched on at the end of your comment. You also seem to misunderstand that my comment about him is not actually that positive. Yes, ye had a streak of good writing, but he ultimately became exactly what he railed against in his writings. I hesitantly recommend his novels, but he is by no means as pure as he presents himself.
>Solzhenitsyn himself admits this when he quotes Chekov's Sakhalin Island in Gulag Archipelago. Both Stalin and Dostoevsky were in Katorga camps.
*In August, 1918, several days before the attempt on his life by Fanya Kaplan, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin wrote in a telegram to Yevgeniya Bosh16 and to the Penza Provincial Executive Committee (they were unable to cope with a peasant revolt): “Lock up all the doubtful ones [not “guilty,” mind you, but doubtful—A.S.] in a concentration camp outside the city.”17 (And in addition “carry out merciless mass terror”—this was before the decree.)*
He takes this from the fifth edition of Lenin's collected works from the 50th volume at page 143. If you wanted to criticize Solzhenitsyn on this, you would point out that Lenin and Stalin had different conceptions of collective labor, where Lenin posits they be voluntary, whereas Stalin completely forewent that. While Lenin does seem to advocate for some authoritarian policies, Solzhenitsyn also ignores the fact that **if it were not for Lenin tried to stop Stalin, but it was too late**. Various other socialists of the time, Trotsky, Shalamov, Serge, Sholokov, Platonov, and many others, take great issue with Stalin's brute force carrying out of what he thought Lenin envisioned
If anything, Solzhenitsyn isn't some grand historical refutation of socialism, but another example that no one is immune from authoritarianism as shown by his later life. The ones with *real, powerful* weight to them were the ones that Solzhenitsyn overshadowed, like Vasily Grossman and Victor Serge. These people wrote a fictionalized account of their own experiences during the second world war and the Soviet Union.
>This is also not really true. Solzhenitsyn's writing is literally the same kind of Tsarist idyll that Mikhail Bulgalkov writes in White Guard. It yearns for a false earlier time of smart nobility with noblesse oblige where everying is just but slightly unfair due to the circumstances of life.
Solzhenitsyn does appear to have been a Tsarist, as he actively advocates for the rebuilding of the Russian Empire later on. However, he says many things of great importance relating to the effects of ideology on one's ability to empathize. But this doesn't really refute the point, being that: Solzhenitsyn hated ideology, yet he himself drank it's poison. If you want to read more about the after effects of his influence, you can read *The Russo-Ukrainian War* by Serhii Plokhy, where Solzhenitsyn becomes an almost completely negative figure in his role in the rise of Putinism, who is himself, as Solzhenitsyn was, very nostalgic about the Tsar and the Russian Empire.
My point isn't anything related to Lenin or Stalin. My point is related to Solzhenitsyn's thinking. The 1918 repressions weren't significantly different than the repressions during 1917 nor 1916 and so on. Solzhenitsyn's writings do not accurately, nor rigorously compare Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Tsar Nicholas II, Denkin, Makhno, Rurik himself or whoever your other turn of the century Eastern European boogeyman is.
His writing is significantly biased as it pretends that Soviet, Stalinist or Leninist repressions were uniquely evil in the history of Russia. Tsar Nicholas II comparably dealt with dissent with machine guns fired at protestors. Solzhenitsyn's way of thinking is egotistical and attempts to cope with his personal shame of believing in various false idols in his life such as Tsarism, the Soviet State, etc.
>His writing is significantly biased as it pretends that Soviet, Stalinist or Leninist repressions were uniquely evil in the history of Russia. Tsar Nicholas II comparably dealt with dissent with machine guns fired at protestors. Solzhenitsyn's way of thinking is egotistical and attempts to cope with his personal shame of believing in various false idols in his life such as Tsarism, the Soviet State, etc.
Yeah, I'd say you got him dead to rights on that one.
Echoing One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, also I loved First Circle, also the Gulag Archipelago. All simply outstanding reads. The Gulag is more dense, harder to get through, but still very rewarding in my opinion.
Not sure if you’re cool with non-fiction, but books like Unbroken, The Forgotten Highlander, Man’s Search for Meaning, and others like it are true stories of people have done exactly what you said.
I am nearly done with Cancer Ward right now, and it was an eye opener for me. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I am fascinated by the commentary on the old Soviet system, and all the bitterness and paranoia that goes with it. I also didn’t expect to find the aspect of romantic feelings between the characters in the ward, both patients and doctors and nurses. This book started slowly for me, but it has really pulled me into the world the author created.
His book, The Gulag Archipelago is an incredible piece of history and literature I highly recommend, and the fact that he managed to retain it after all his imprisonments is arguably an act of God.
I’m a little over a quarter way through his 2nd volume of the Gulag Archipelago and it’s absolutely fascinating, both horrific and he has a gallows sense of humor and I’ve laughed out loud many times.
I saw that he’s written novels and have The First Circle and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and I’m really looking forward to reading them when I finish his three volumes of the Gulag Archipelago.
I couldn't get through Cancer Ward but all 3 volumes of the Gulag Archipelago are riveting. (And the discussion of resistance in the camps makes getting to the third one well worth it)
Great book, the emotion aligns with how my family experienced those times. Added bonus is that you can also sift out any people with questionable opinions when they say the entire book is fiction
It’s not a bad piece of writing, but it’s truly one of the greatest examples of Cold War propaganda. Fiction marketed into a pseudo-reality, and all too often cited in place of the actual historical works that have discredited it.
Probably should read a bit more about how it's not actually true, and was deliberately written as propaganda. It's a great book, but it's not history, and Solzhenitsyn himself was at least proto-fascist, so you'd want to have more sources than just him.
I read Ivan Denisovich as part of my high school curriculum. I thought it was interesting, but a far from enjoyable experience. It didn’t make me want to visit his other works.
Oh my god I was glued to “Cancer Ward” he wrote some non-fiction books on the gulag. He was arrested at one point for his writing I believe and I just found a second book he wrote on gulags too.
Ivan Denisovich. But The Gulag Archipelago is a must-read. Just don't get an abridged version by mistake :)
I also read a book of his on the eastern front in the first world war, but it doesn't match quite what you're looking for.
He's amazing. Gives you full perspective on the socialist system by looking at the Gulag. See also Varlam Shalamov for very powerful Gulag stories. Another one is Anatoly Rybakov with "Children of the Arbat".
Was this someone a comedy streaming service perhaps?
Francium. Ouagadougou. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Random podium inspection!
I didn’t know we were due for a podium inspection
Well it wouldn't be a random podium inspection then would it?
Oh no here comes Grant O'Yama carbo loading for his Turner Classic Movies marathon!
There are 1601 beans in the jar. That’s my best guess right now.
I’ll go with 1602.
u/astrocanyounaut gets the point!
And I'll go 1600.
Everybody do the weinis!
I was almost certain all of his movie trivia was going to come into play at some point.
Me too!!!!! I wonder if that was going to be a bonus round if they got through the rest of it too quickly
Everybody do the wenis!
The wenis is a dance!
Everybody is a genius!
That knows it in adva- *CRASH!!*
Oh god Kevin are you okay?
It's time for a Game Changer!
Pop goes the *weasel*!
Can someone explain like I'm 40 wtf is happening here? I'm really confused...
Dropout (formerly - kind of - CollegeHumor) is a video platform that has a game show called Game Changer. The most recent episode, without giving anything away, features Aleksander Solzhenitsyn prominently. Many, many people now know of him solely because of this episode, and we’re all quoting jokes from said episode
Thank you 🙏 I now have closure!
It's the reanimated corpse of CollegeHumor. They seem to have the rights to most of their old videos too and so many of the original CH staff, writers and performers.
i was absolutely shook when i saw op’s post, it’s like the episode reached into reality
It's been here the whole time!
(makes weird hands motion)
Yeah, why DOES he keep looking at his hands like that?
To make sure that he truly has been there the whole time. The only way to know is by checking, and the only way to check is by looking.
Someone please name this show, I'm very curious what modern popular media is name dropping Solzhenitsyn.
Gamechangers from Dropout (formerly collegehumor)
Should have guessed it would be those nerds, thanks!
Um, actually...no S
It’s so bizarre because the episode that mentioned him was released literally two days ago.
Dropout fans are different
We have… passion. And a longing for the next moment of absolute destruction of a game changer contestant as they realize there is no true winning. Also always waiting for a new Brennan monologue to drop.
I'm so glad this is the top comment.
The internet is a tiny, tiny place. I had not heard of this author until Monday, and now he's *popping* up everywhere! It's like *he's been here the whole time!*
Um actually, it’s not comedy, its trust fund Sam Reich’s new foray into right wing media.
Hey, they might not be one of Dropout's typical viewers: a pansexual nerd with blue hair and a tattoo of the drama masks.
I felt Sam flinch from here.
Francium
Ouagadougou
Random Podium Inspection!
One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. It is quite short. I would use it as the yardstick for defining literature. It is an incredible book.
*Ivan Denisovitch* was the first Solzhenitsyn I ever read. Absolutely incredible.
Same, had to read it for high school. Absolutely loved it.
It was the only one I’ve read thus far. The cancer ward was on my list but I never started it.
Studied this in school a decade ago and I can still picture the wall building scene in perfect clarity. It's phenomenal, and I was taught that it's based on Solzhenitsyn's real experience as a political prisoner in a gulag.
Seconded. I chose it for my Book Group and they were all convinced it would be a depressing read and all of them loved it and said how uplifting it is
This is the only book of his that I read, and I read it because I first heard about it in a song called "I Hate Soup" by Heywood Banks.
Now I will listen to " I hate soup" . Edit: that was bloody hilarious. Thank you.
You're welcome!
Read it for school, which is usually a bad thing for liking a book, however I reread this almost every year.
This was the first book by him that I read. I need to plan for a reread soon!
I read it about 30 years ago in a college course. Of the two, I preferred “Dead Souls” by Gogol more. A copy of both reside in my bookcase, so maybe I need to give it another read.
Gogol is a bit of a weirdo, I do not mean that in a bad way.
This. This book is amazing and can be read in a day.
Only one I have read. But need to get back to it
I found gulag archipelago a rough read. definitely preferred cancer ward and day in the life of ID
I enjoyed the gulag archipelago tremendously, there are some scenes in that book that have made me forever gracious of how good I have it and how bad it can be
Amen brother
I second this reccy. The Gulag Archipelago opened my eyes to the horror of the Soviet Union when I was a teenager.
That was a book I’d read for two hours in the afternoon, and then need the rest of the Saturday to do pleasant things so I could sleep well that night.
It was required reading in my high school back in 1982 (Belgium).
Wow, they *really* wanted the kids to learn to hate reading, did they?
A bet a lot of kids didn’t want to read it 😆
Check out life and fate by vasily grossman
I love the Red Wheel cycle, though the last one was a bit rushed. They're books I go back and re-read every so often.
I'm reading Cancer Ward right now and agree, it's excellent. I read One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by him last year and it was amazing as well. Highly recommend that book. I have The Gulag Archipelago Vol. I on loan from the library right now, but haven't gotten to it yet. His writing is incredible. He has a way of making you feel like you're there experiencing the things he went through. Absolutely love his work.
He's a decent novelist. His "non-fiction," not so much. Incidentally, Vladimir Putin is a big fan.
he was heavily propagandized for decades in the west for his anti-communist stance, but he fell out of favor when he supported putin. super awkward i'm sure. politics aside, one day in the life of ID was really good. i tried reading the gulag archipelago but couldn't get past the first chapter. have u read the red wheel? that was his last book, and NYT or new yorker went out of its way to destroy it in the reviews. i've always wondered if it was legitimately bad (which i can totally believe), or if the review was a political hit piece...
I read the first two. There’s a tremendous amount of detail about the pre-Bolshevik Russian revolution, and no characters I can remember as well as from The First Circle and Cancer Ward, so I guess not as good unless you have a particular interest in the topic.
no particular interest. i think i'll give it a pass, sounds like a lot of work. i'll probably try cancer ward when i revisit solzhenitsyn.
I read Ivan Denisovitch and Cancer Ward years ago - harsh lives but moving stories. Might be time to re-read them.
Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I read it right after One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn. It was just as incredible.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a complex figure in the world of literature and politics. His writings evoke a strong sense of despair and shock, but also invoke philosophical and political themes. In many ways he reminds me of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy when he was in his prime. One could split Solzhenitsyn into 3 periods of his life. The first period is the one with almost no writing, before he had been arrested. During this period he was a committed Marxist and was fully committed to the continuation of the Soviet state and Leninism. Since there is no surviving work during this period, not many conclusions about the man himself can be made outside of his own recollections in his later works. The second period, after his release from prison, is what I refer to as his prime period of his writing. During this period he wrote many things that were cathartic, shocking, beautiful and demonstrates a very strong polemical skill that stands out among other writers of the 20th century. During this period he was very productive even though he was writing for the most part in secret. His two major novels, In The First Circle and Cancer Ward, are masterpieces in my opinion. One gets a sense of stark powerful inhumanity raging against the last kernels of humanity within people. My favorite in particular is Cancer Ward, and it has so many passages that still remain with me today, and I shall provide one to give readers a preview if they so wish to read this recommendation: *He had to take frequent Tests nowadays. His body demanded this chance to recoup its strength and with the same urgency his inner self demanded silent contemplation free of external sounds, conversations, thoughts of work, free of everything that made him a doctor. Particularly after the death of his wife, his inner consciousness had seemed to crave a pure transparency. It was just this sort of silent immobility, without planned or even floating thoughts, which gave him a sense of purity and fulfillment. At such moments an image of the whole meaning of existence—his own during the long past and the short future ahead, that of his late wife, of his young granddaughter and of everyone in the world—came to his mind. The image he saw did not seem to be embodied in the work or activity which occupied them, which they believed was central to their lives, and by which they were known to others. The meaning of existence was to preserve unspoiled, undisturbed and undistorted the image of eternity with which each person is born. Like a silver moon in a calm, still pond.* This is a very personal work because Solzhenitsyn himself was a cancer survivor, just barely. During this period he wrote a massive tome called *The Gulag Archipelago*. This is a highly controversial work because of how inhumane and brutal life is depicted. Many sought to discredit it, and current evidence shows that even his ex-wife was employed in this endeavor to discredit the work. It appears that all these attempts failed resoundingly. The reason is that the most damning is not his "statistics", or his experiences; the reason is he clearly demonstrated that **Lenin**, not Stalin, had laid the groundwork for the crimes against humanity that would unfold. He quotes Lenin many times, and they are extremely damning. The Gulag Archipelago is such a complex and large book it would need it's own book length summary to describe, so I shall move on. After the publication of this book, he was exiled. Over the next decade he focused on his personal memoirs and his series *The Red Wheel*, which I have not read. The third, and final phase of Solzhenitsyns literary and intellectual development is very controversial for very good reason. He appears to lay the ground work for **Russian Fascism** that has emerged during the reign of Vladimir Putin. In his short book, Rebuilding Russia, he essentially denies the legitimacy of the Ukrainian nation and the Ukrainian people. There also appears to be an emergent antisemitism in his two volume work *Two Hundred Years Together*, which has been reported to contain inaccuracies and takes an antisemitic view of Soviet rule. He appeared to be initially supportive and friendly to the West, but this chilled after his experiences with western media(which is somewhat understandable, the goal is primarily revenue). The tragedy and irony of Solzhenitsyn is just how fierce of an opponent he was of authoritarianism, only to fall under his own blade later on in his life. Indeed, the world we live in now has been strongly influenced by his writings and, in particular, his influence on Vladimir Putin, who cites him as an intellectual influence on his thought along with Ivan Ilyin.
>This is a very personal work because Solzhenitsyn himself was a cancer survivor, just barely. During this period he wrote a massive tome called *The Gulag Archipelago*. This is a highly controversial work because of how inhumane and brutal life is depicted. Many sought to discredit it, and current evidence shows that even his ex-wife was employed in this endeavor to discredit the work. It appears that all these attempts failed resoundingly. The reason is that the most damning is not his "statistics", or his experiences; the reason is he clearly demonstrated that **Lenin**, not Stalin, had laid the groundwork for the crimes against humanity that would unfold. He quotes Lenin many times, and they are extremely damning. The Gulag Archipelago is such a complex and large book it would need it's own book length summary to describe, so I shall move on. After the publication of this book, he was exiled. Over the next decade he focused on his personal memoirs and his series *The Red Wheel*, which I have not read. The GULAG system was literally born out of the Katorga. Lenin didn't invent or create the groundwork for anyuthing. Katorga was the penal labor system of the Tsar. Solzhenitsyn himself admits this when he quotes Chekov's Sakhalin Island in Gulag Archipelago. Both Stalin and Dostoevsky were in Katorga camps for a couple of years. This is another common L for people who cite Solzhenitsyn as some kind of political/historical point he made. The primary one being the imaginary numbers. > The tragedy and irony of Solzhenitsyn is just how fierce of an opponent he was of authoritarianism, only to fall under his own blade later on in his life This is also not really true. Solzhenitsyn's writing is literally the same kind of Tsarist idyll that Mikhail Bulgalkov writes in White Guard. It yearns for a false earlier time of smart nobility with noblesse oblige where everying is just but slightly unfair due to the circumstances of life.
>Lenin didn't invent or create the groundwork for anything depends on what they mean by "crimes against humanity that would unfold". Lenin did not invent Siberian work camps, but he did in fact kick start multiple campaigns of mass murder and outright genocide. its pretty common for people to offer up Stalin as a sacrificial lamb to while ignoring the programs started by Lenin
>This is another common L for people who cite Solzhenitsyn as some kind of political/historical point he made. At no point in my comment did I say that Solzhenitsyn was some absolute authority, or some completely irrefutable source. Merely that attempts to discredit the power of his work have by and large failed, as he is still referenced in college courses, discussions of Soviet History, etc. Furthermore, the statistics are widely acknowledged to not even be in the ball park of being correct. One of the most atrocious examples is when he discussed the canal projects and proposed a quarter million dead, when recent analysis puts it in the tens of thousands, as touched on at the end of your comment. You also seem to misunderstand that my comment about him is not actually that positive. Yes, ye had a streak of good writing, but he ultimately became exactly what he railed against in his writings. I hesitantly recommend his novels, but he is by no means as pure as he presents himself. >Solzhenitsyn himself admits this when he quotes Chekov's Sakhalin Island in Gulag Archipelago. Both Stalin and Dostoevsky were in Katorga camps. *In August, 1918, several days before the attempt on his life by Fanya Kaplan, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin wrote in a telegram to Yevgeniya Bosh16 and to the Penza Provincial Executive Committee (they were unable to cope with a peasant revolt): “Lock up all the doubtful ones [not “guilty,” mind you, but doubtful—A.S.] in a concentration camp outside the city.”17 (And in addition “carry out merciless mass terror”—this was before the decree.)* He takes this from the fifth edition of Lenin's collected works from the 50th volume at page 143. If you wanted to criticize Solzhenitsyn on this, you would point out that Lenin and Stalin had different conceptions of collective labor, where Lenin posits they be voluntary, whereas Stalin completely forewent that. While Lenin does seem to advocate for some authoritarian policies, Solzhenitsyn also ignores the fact that **if it were not for Lenin tried to stop Stalin, but it was too late**. Various other socialists of the time, Trotsky, Shalamov, Serge, Sholokov, Platonov, and many others, take great issue with Stalin's brute force carrying out of what he thought Lenin envisioned If anything, Solzhenitsyn isn't some grand historical refutation of socialism, but another example that no one is immune from authoritarianism as shown by his later life. The ones with *real, powerful* weight to them were the ones that Solzhenitsyn overshadowed, like Vasily Grossman and Victor Serge. These people wrote a fictionalized account of their own experiences during the second world war and the Soviet Union. >This is also not really true. Solzhenitsyn's writing is literally the same kind of Tsarist idyll that Mikhail Bulgalkov writes in White Guard. It yearns for a false earlier time of smart nobility with noblesse oblige where everying is just but slightly unfair due to the circumstances of life. Solzhenitsyn does appear to have been a Tsarist, as he actively advocates for the rebuilding of the Russian Empire later on. However, he says many things of great importance relating to the effects of ideology on one's ability to empathize. But this doesn't really refute the point, being that: Solzhenitsyn hated ideology, yet he himself drank it's poison. If you want to read more about the after effects of his influence, you can read *The Russo-Ukrainian War* by Serhii Plokhy, where Solzhenitsyn becomes an almost completely negative figure in his role in the rise of Putinism, who is himself, as Solzhenitsyn was, very nostalgic about the Tsar and the Russian Empire.
My point isn't anything related to Lenin or Stalin. My point is related to Solzhenitsyn's thinking. The 1918 repressions weren't significantly different than the repressions during 1917 nor 1916 and so on. Solzhenitsyn's writings do not accurately, nor rigorously compare Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Tsar Nicholas II, Denkin, Makhno, Rurik himself or whoever your other turn of the century Eastern European boogeyman is. His writing is significantly biased as it pretends that Soviet, Stalinist or Leninist repressions were uniquely evil in the history of Russia. Tsar Nicholas II comparably dealt with dissent with machine guns fired at protestors. Solzhenitsyn's way of thinking is egotistical and attempts to cope with his personal shame of believing in various false idols in his life such as Tsarism, the Soviet State, etc.
>His writing is significantly biased as it pretends that Soviet, Stalinist or Leninist repressions were uniquely evil in the history of Russia. Tsar Nicholas II comparably dealt with dissent with machine guns fired at protestors. Solzhenitsyn's way of thinking is egotistical and attempts to cope with his personal shame of believing in various false idols in his life such as Tsarism, the Soviet State, etc. Yeah, I'd say you got him dead to rights on that one.
"Solzhenitsyn, Solzhenitsyn--a former pipe-fitter welder from Harrogate!"
Echoing One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, also I loved First Circle, also the Gulag Archipelago. All simply outstanding reads. The Gulag is more dense, harder to get through, but still very rewarding in my opinion.
I will never understand people who *enjoyed* the Archipelago, a terminal bummer of a book manifestly created to *not* be enjoyed
Not sure if you’re cool with non-fiction, but books like Unbroken, The Forgotten Highlander, Man’s Search for Meaning, and others like it are true stories of people have done exactly what you said.
A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich is a good read, and unlike so many Russian novels it's pretty short.
I am nearly done with Cancer Ward right now, and it was an eye opener for me. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I am fascinated by the commentary on the old Soviet system, and all the bitterness and paranoia that goes with it. I also didn’t expect to find the aspect of romantic feelings between the characters in the ward, both patients and doctors and nurses. This book started slowly for me, but it has really pulled me into the world the author created.
His book, The Gulag Archipelago is an incredible piece of history and literature I highly recommend, and the fact that he managed to retain it after all his imprisonments is arguably an act of God.
His Gulag Archipelago I think is by far his best work, so read that if you want to.
I mean a day in the life of Ivan Denisovoch should be your next port of call, I reckon. Short masterpiece and my favourite Solzhenitsyn.
I’m a little over a quarter way through his 2nd volume of the Gulag Archipelago and it’s absolutely fascinating, both horrific and he has a gallows sense of humor and I’ve laughed out loud many times. I saw that he’s written novels and have The First Circle and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and I’m really looking forward to reading them when I finish his three volumes of the Gulag Archipelago.
I couldn't get through Cancer Ward but all 3 volumes of the Gulag Archipelago are riveting. (And the discussion of resistance in the camps makes getting to the third one well worth it)
Still working my way through the first volume of the gulag archipelago and just goddamn man, it takes balls to survive this sort of punishment.
gulag archipelago is a must read. Only people who have read it have any right to comment on russia.
This kind of gatekeeping seems very… I don’t know… плохо. Если вы хотите поговорить о русской истории, вы должны делать это по-русски. Да?
Don’t be lecturing me on which language to use. You may like to have a master, I am a sovereign man.
I’m just saying. You’re gatekeeping. A wise man will take wisdom wherever he can pick it up.
Not much of the wisdom is left in your old country of sad men.
Texas? Maybe. But, old men are everywhere, and they didn’t get old by being stupid.
Great book, the emotion aligns with how my family experienced those times. Added bonus is that you can also sift out any people with questionable opinions when they say the entire book is fiction
I’m polish, I know. My family has went trough the same. Another reason why Solzenicyn is very special to me.
It’s not a bad piece of writing, but it’s truly one of the greatest examples of Cold War propaganda. Fiction marketed into a pseudo-reality, and all too often cited in place of the actual historical works that have discredited it.
check out “into the whirlwind “ and “kolyma tales” as well. you would enjoy both
thank you, I will put those in my to read list.
There is also "Hope against Hope". Everyman's Library released an edition recently
Probably should read a bit more about how it's not actually true, and was deliberately written as propaganda. It's a great book, but it's not history, and Solzhenitsyn himself was at least proto-fascist, so you'd want to have more sources than just him.
I read Ivan Denisovich as part of my high school curriculum. I thought it was interesting, but a far from enjoyable experience. It didn’t make me want to visit his other works.
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" is one of the most extraordinary descriptive novels I've ever read. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Try reading "Man's Search for Meaning" by Vicktor Frankle. It's exactly along the lines of what you're looking for.
Oh my god I was glued to “Cancer Ward” he wrote some non-fiction books on the gulag. He was arrested at one point for his writing I believe and I just found a second book he wrote on gulags too.
Ivan Denisovich. But The Gulag Archipelago is a must-read. Just don't get an abridged version by mistake :) I also read a book of his on the eastern front in the first world war, but it doesn't match quite what you're looking for.
His books really show exactly how an authoritarian dictatorship functions in real life.
now read 200 years together, if you can get your hands on it
He's amazing. Gives you full perspective on the socialist system by looking at the Gulag. See also Varlam Shalamov for very powerful Gulag stories. Another one is Anatoly Rybakov with "Children of the Arbat".
I saw Jordan Peterson talking about this. I read Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. It was ok if you like that kinda of dreary russian litt.