Aleksandr
Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (1918 to 2008) who was a writer born in Russia, and who,
through his often-suppressed writings, helped to raise global awareness of the
gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system. Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned
in the Gulag during the period 1945 - 1956.
He authored numerous books some of which are:
·
The Gulag Archipelago
·
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
·
The Cancer Ward
·
The First Circle
·
August 1914
*He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970
Much of what Solzhenitsyn has written
or said sounds like good advice for Western Countries to seriously consider. Someone who has experienced the problems of a dominating state can do a
better job of explaining the problems of such a state and offering suggestions
on how to avoid or deal with it.
Some quotes from Solzhenitsyn
The battleline between good
and evil runs through the heart of every man.
In our country the lie has
become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.
It is time in the West to
defend not so much human rights as human obligations.
To do evil a human being must
first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification
and gives the evildoer the necessary
steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to
make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he
won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.
You only have power over
people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've
robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power - he's free again.
Violence can only be concealed
by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.
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