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August 4, 2008
→Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Dies
But first, I have to pay my respects to the late, great, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Thank you for posting this Mills. Your blog was the first place I heard the news. I have been out of the loop I guess. The news hit me kinda hard for a minute, til I realized he had a nice long life - I hope I make it to 89.
Solzhenitsyn was a writer who was very influential to the course of my life. His work was the first material that made me politically aware. I was assigned A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisevich in 10th grade, and I loved it. I went to the school library and checked out all I could find by Solzhenitsyn - which wasn’t alot. Cancer Ward, The First Circle, and a collection of short stories I read. I read segments of August 1914 and bits of The Gulag Archipelago, which was the thickest paperback I owned for a long time (maybe still). I found in a used bookstore and read Sanya, which was a memoir about Solzhenitsyn by one of his wives, Natal Reshetovskaya. I was 14, and Solzhenitsyn was the first writer of adult literary material that interested me to such a degree. I became interested in Russian history, culture, and politics. I studied Russian language and culture in college for two years, joined the Russian club, and had a Russian roommate. I dressed like a Russian in a furry cap and big oversized wool coat. We drank vodka and I learned to sing rowdy Russian songs and the Soviet National Anthem. I listened to Victor Tsoi and Boris Grebenshekov. I finally moved on, and became interested in world affairs, history, languages and culture in general. I got my degree in anthropology, rather than Russian Studies. Ya ne gevaryu pa-Russkiy. But I never forgot Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
I’ve posted many quotes from, and writings about, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. He is one of the most powerful writers I’ve read, and I cannot recommend him enough.
His obituary in the NYT … is a decent introduction to his fiercely moral view of art.
