"Gulag Archipelago" Author Dies In Russia

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize-Winning Memoirist, Was 89 Years Old

(AP)  Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning author whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system, has died of heart failure, his son said Monday. He was 89.

Stepan Solzhenitsyn told The Associated Press his father died late Sunday, but declined further comment.

Solzhenitsyn's unflinching accounts of torment and survival in the Soviet Union's slave labor camps riveted his countrymen, whose secret history he exposed. They earned him 20 years of bitter exile, but international renown.

And they inspired millions, perhaps, with the knowledge that one person's courage and integrity could, in the end, defeat the totalitarian machinery of an empire.

Beginning with the 1962 short novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Solzhenitsyn devoted himself to describing what he called the human "meat grinder" that had caught him along with millions of other Soviet citizens: capricious arrests, often for trifling and seemingly absurd reasons, followed by sentences to slave labor camps where cold, starvation and punishing work crushed inmates physically and spiritually.

His "Gulag Archipelago" trilogy of the 1970s shocked readers by describing the savagery of the Soviet state under the dictator Josef Stalin. It helped erase lingering sympathy for the Soviet Union among many leftist intellectuals, especially in Europe.

But his account of that secret system of prison camps was also inspiring in its description of how one person - Solzhenitsyn himself - survived, physically and spiritually, in a penal system of soul-crushing hardship and injustice.

The West offered him shelter and accolades. But Solzhenitsyn's refusal to bend despite enormous pressure, perhaps, also gave him the courage to criticize Western culture for what he considered its weakness and decadence.

[quatermass2]

It''s a shame that we still view "the Holocaust" as the worst instance of genocide in history when Solzhenitsyn''s "Gulag Archipelago" revealed horrors beyond what Hitler and Himmler unleashed. I guess that the Nazis are an easier target in their comic-opera uniforms, plus the fact that we defeated them militarily with the perpetrators of the gulag as our allies.

Solzhenitsyn never "sold out" - he couldn''t be used by any side for their own agrandizement, and regardless of anyone''s opinion, that is what made him a real voice of moral authority. He was very fortunate to live as long as he did, and it''s a shame that he didn''t receive far more attention.

[hbevis]

Quatermass2

I agree with you completely about the Genocide that has taken place all over the world in the last 100 years.
The Holocaust was just one small thing that happened to people. And most all of what we hear about that is about what happened to the JEWS. I am as sorry for them as I can be, but the Jews were in the minority during the Holocaust. Many millions of people got killed during that time, the Jews were just one group of people that went through that H.e.l.l. here on earth.

[ofbyfor1]

A brave and decent man--R.I.P.

[sistatee-2009]

He looked better when he was IN the gulag.

[kiawah9]

I met him some years back in his adopted home in Vermont. Brave man.
His opinion of the west was obviously shaped by his background. On the other hand, you can''t argue with some aspects of our society being decendent.
Having said that, VT honored and cared for him in his exile. And he deserved that in the bigger picture.

[babooph]

Will some author be able to have a history of the prisons around the world set up by the Bush administration-the propaganda system would not let that book out yet-even "On the road" got out in error.

[dbty]

I am less familiar with his work than Mandelstam, Anna Akhamatova, Pasernak, Bulgakov, Andrei Biely, Sholokov, Andrei Makine and Ivan Bunin, but surely Solzhenitsyn stands among these other Russian writers of the 20th century. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a fine book. And interesting, too, that he stood against the brutality of Stalin''s regime, as most of the above group did, excepting Sholokov, who turned a blind eye to the succession of repressive regimes.

[formrusmcsgt]

Truly a man of courage and conscience.

[antoniof123]

R.I.P. and may your sleep be filled with wonderous dreams.

[yamuttya]

A reminder to many today who have never seen a real man; of what a real man, a man of character looks like.

"A reminder to many today who have never seen a real man; of what a real man, a man of character looks like."

You are exactly right. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a landmark in human history, while remaining simply a man who faced what life gave him with inherent character.

[harp1963]

Another great author that documented his 23 years in Soviet prisions and Siberian labor camps is Walter J. Ciszek. His book is called "With God in Russia." It is an amazing book about perseverance.

[jumkey]

Ironic that we lionize Solzhenitsyn''s struggle against an inhumane and abusive authoritarian government but many Americans would willingly support a system that commits the same crimes against people they consider to be dissidents.

[blackyowe]

Good man, you are a world patriot! Rest in peace!

[lemonskink]

It is with great hope, that someone will step up to the plate, and expose the Bush administration as this man did to expose the Gulags. Maybe then, just maybe those gulags will not come to the USA.

www.ronnierayjenkins.com

[andor3]

the artists may save us yet... RIP

[pirmin3]

Rest in peace sir.

[pirmin3]

Rest in peace sir.

[oneworldusa]

Alexander Leibenstein, look him up. Visit his museum.

RIP, AS.

[neoconrcrazy]

his life story is testimony to the individual suffering of citizens when their government abuses the power entrusted to it.

no, we are not living in the Soviet Union - but any attack on an individual''s basic rights and freedoms, no matter how small or well-intended - must never be tolarated - for any reason.

he came to America and told us his story - for a reason.

[stn_sage]

Solzhenitsyn lived in a society, where even the common citizen was watched, his mail examined, his phone tapped, where broadcast & newsprint was used to keep the public uninformed & misinformed, where truth and justice were just theories and not applied in law, where for the humble and poor life was very hard, and the majority suffered, where the politicians spat upon the public, and saw them as chattel to do with as they willed---it''s amazing how America has come to resemble his world of the 1950s!

[marshall_nee]

Posted by stn_sage at 06:18 AM : Aug 04, 2008

If REX 84 is ever implemented, then we are 100% there.

[stn_sage]

There appears to be a Universal Law of Balance. One can see how peoples in China, Russia, and elsewhere have more freedoms, more materialism, more hope, and more of a future; and we in the United States---because of BUSH and the GOP---have LESS of ALL these things! :(

[stn_sage]

If REX 84 is ever implemented, then we are 100% there.

Posted by Marshall_Nee at 06:22 AM : Aug 04, 2008
----------------------
Well, HE''s trying! Last week, he side-stepped Congress and decided to write the law---giving ''Homeland'' additional powers at the expense of the CIA! Evidently, the CIA doesn''t want to play the complete ''fool and idiot'' he desires so much! And ''Homeland'' will! If ''Rex84'' is implemented, he better make sure his own daughters are guarded and in bunkers, because the public isn''t going to react very well!

[neoconrcrazy]

likely scenario -

just weeks or days before the general election israel will attack iran with massive american support -

bush will announce we are "at war with the terrorists" in iran -

then he can either leave it McBush III, or REX us.

[neoconrcrazy]

slowly but surely we''ve allowed our system to rot from within -

the office of "president" has become dicatorial in all but name - like Augustus praising the Roman senate but pulling all the strings -

this has been going on since the Kennedy assassination -

[usmcvn1]

gulags, coming soon to a city or town close to you!! Stay turned.

[marshall_nee]

gulags, coming soon to a city or town close to you!! Stay turned.

Posted by usmcvn1 at 07:20 AM : Aug 04, 2008

They''re already here -- Fema camps built and ready!

[greengrasgal]

If my memory serves, Nixon never even acknowledged this great man when he came to live in the US because Nixon was trying to establish "detente" with the USSR. Even though Watergate was blown all out of proportion compared to the many Clintongates, that big snub was despicable. Solzhenitsyn was right. We''re rotting from the inside. Bush2 and the GOP are not solely to blame. Our own corrupt natures will be our downfall. We are no longer the "good" or "great" people de Toqueville saw. But God promises to heal and restore us if we turn and repent.

[usclimey]

Even though Watergate was blown all out of proportion compared to the many Clintongates

Posted by greengrasgal

I guess you''re to young to remember that Nixon was ready to be impeached by a bipartisan congress when he resigned, how can you call his crimes small compared to Clinton''s?

Solzhenitsyn was truly a giant among men. His books should be required reading in Poly. Sci. classes. If they were, maybe this country would have leaders fit to be called such.

[jery8-2009]

He is a great man for his contributions.I saw many people are discussing this on the forum of age gap relationship site

called ageromance dot com. You may go there to check it if you are interested.

Maybe you can meet your life partner there.

[greengrasgal]

Nixon was ready to be impeached by a bipartisan congress when he resigned, how can you call his crimes small compared to Clinton''''s? --usclime

You seem to forget: Clinton WAS impeached. Nixon knew the country couldn''t withstand a protracted investigation and he humbly bowed out of the limelight. Put together, the Clintons still lack the amount of "class" and "character" Nixon had in one little finger. To my mind, the Solzhenitsyn affair was an unfortunate political gaffe.

[neoconrcrazy]

maybe another 8 yrs like the previous would instill a little more interest in his writing?

but i forgot, we don''t know how to read do we?

except for "my pet goat".