solzhenitsyn – Acton Institute PowerBlog

November 09, 2009

The Fall of the Berlin Wall: Reminiscence and Reflection

Excerpts from remarks delivered at the Acton Institute annual dinner in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Oct. 29, 2009: Twenty years ago today, a growing tide of men and women in Eastern Europe and northern Asia were shaking off the miasma that had led so many to imagine that central economic planning could work. Continue Reading...

August 09, 2008

‘Solzhenitsyn, Optimist’

In the Wall Street Journal, Edward E. Ericson Jr. asks whether “this week’s evenhanded obituaries signal merely momentary respect for the newly dead or augur better days ahead for Solzhenitsyn’s reputation.” In “Solzhenitsyn, Optimist,” Ericson observes that the writer “had the last laugh” in his struggle against the Soviets. Continue Reading...

August 08, 2008

Solzhenitsyn and His Critics, Cont.

In this week’s Acton commentary, Solzhenitsyn and His Critics, I point to the criticism that has been leveled for many years at the writer who turned out to be not exactly the sort of dissident that many in the West were waiting for. Continue Reading...

August 07, 2008

Solzhenitsyn, A Great Soul, Laid to Rest

At Solzhenitsyn’s grave. Donskoy Monastery, Moscow. Aug. 6, 2008. The Associated Press has published a moving series of photographs from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s funeral here. Acathistus By Alexander Solzhenitsyn When, oh when did I scatter so madly All the goodness, the God-given grains? Continue Reading...

August 04, 2008

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

Solzhenitsyn “During all the years until 1961, not only was I convinced that I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared that this would become known. Continue Reading...

August 03, 2007

‘I Am Not Afraid of Death’

Alexander Solzhenitsyn Der Spiegel has published a far ranging interview with Alexander Solzhenitsyn in which the great writer “discusses Russia’s turbulent history, Putin’s version of democracy and his attitude to life and death.” It is very much worth the read. Continue Reading...