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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

the-tls.co.uk

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Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#21

Post by kryogen1c »

doombolt wrote: post #7
FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #6

Shame much of what he wrote down was a lie, or at the very least fiction. Which wasn't necessary, because the system was terrible enough. The Gulag Archipelago is useful as a source for life within the system, but cant be taken as truth. His wife is quoted as saying the book was meant as fiction, but the West took it as fact (i'm sure they had no good reason at all to promote the shit out of an anti-Soviet book). Sol…

[flagged]

Yeah I agree. This is tantamount to Holocaust denial, and to go on and compare the gulags to the American penal system really highlights the degree of nonsense.

Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#22

Post by effry-much »

kome wrote: post #20
nec4b wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, people surviving gulags (where btw. lot of jewish people died as well), need to be called names, because they them selves were not saints and said stupid things sometimes.

If he is an anti-Semite, it's not being called names, he is just an anti-Semite. And a Russian nationalist. A sad but prescient hint of what Russia would have become after the soviet era.

[flagged]

Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#23

Post by egao1980 »

enriquto wrote: post #5
asianthrowaway wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I heard it's rather... controversial, to say the least.

He's a writer, not an historian. Thus his non-fiction works do not have to be read like history books, more like journalistic opinion pieces. In that sense, the factual errors on this book are mostly irrelevant, and the work is still very interesting and insightful.

[flagged]

Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#24

Post by kome »

effry-much wrote: post #22
kome wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he is an anti-Semite, it's not being called names, he is just an anti-Semite. And a Russian nationalist. A sad but prescient hint of what Russia would have become after the soviet era.

[flagged]

Anti-marxist-semite is still anti-semite in my book.

Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#25

Post by andrepd »

nec4b wrote: post #15
FranzFerdiNaN wrote: post #6

Shame much of what he wrote down was a lie, or at the very least fiction. Which wasn't necessary, because the system was terrible enough. The Gulag Archipelago is useful as a source for life within the system, but cant be taken as truth. His wife is quoted as saying the book was meant as fiction, but the West took it as fact (i'm sure they had no good reason at all to promote the shit out of an anti-Soviet book). Sol…

Five years of freezing in siberian winter, starving and doing grueling manual labor makes the gulag experience not so terrible for you?

I like how all your posts consist of "he was in a gulag therefore you can't call him out or criticise him".

Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#26

Post by patrickg_zill »

egao1980 wrote: post #23
enriquto wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a writer, not an historian. Thus his non-fiction works do not have to be read like history books, more like journalistic opinion pieces. In that sense, the factual errors on this book are mostly irrelevant, and the work is still very interesting and insightful.

[flagged]

Do you have any sources that you can share, that you believe give a more accurate count?

Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#27

Post by effry-much »

egao1980 wrote: post #23
enriquto wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's a writer, not an historian. Thus his non-fiction works do not have to be read like history books, more like journalistic opinion pieces. In that sense, the factual errors on this book are mostly irrelevant, and the work is still very interesting and insightful.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#28

Post by varjag »

nec4b wrote: post #16
CapacitorSet wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solzhenitsyn is an anti-semite, and blames atheism for the existence of the Soviet Union and the problems in the modern world in general. It is a great thing that he isn't being listened to - and yet, he is receiving more attention than he's worth.

Yep, people surviving gulags (where btw. lot of jewish people died as well), need to be called names, because they them selves were not saints and said stupid things sometimes.

When a public figure you used to support disappoints you in some substantial way, it's best to change your views rather than paint yourself in the corner by rationalizing their abhorrence.

All humans are fallible. There have been some regrettable Nobel Peace Prizes out there, and Amnesty International had to call off some of their awards.

Re: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as he saw himself

#29

Post by CapacitorSet »

effry-much wrote: post #17
CapacitorSet wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solzhenitsyn is an anti-semite, and blames atheism for the existence of the Soviet Union and the problems in the modern world in general. It is a great thing that he isn't being listened to - and yet, he is receiving more attention than he's worth.

[flagged]

It's an old trick of antisemites. If you lurk antisemite pages or speak with antisemites, you'll find that a common talking point is the importance of Jews in the birth of communism (and the supposed link between Jews and communism in general), and likewise the importance of Jews in contemporary finance and politics. If you were to listen to such talking points, you'd argue that they were not actual anti-semites, but merely anti-finance-semites, anti-globalization-semites, anti-Soros-semites and the like.

Being the author of important pieces of literature unfortunately does not prevent one from holding wrong positions - a similar, well-known case is James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA, Nobel Prize in Medicine, and yet holding eugenetic views.

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