Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s road was that of a true fighter, who withstood all manner of trials and hardships. He was on the front line in war, and lived through Stalin’s labour camps and the suffering of exile. But through all of the tribulations of fate, he held on to his belief in people, in their moral and spiritual greatness. He never once betrayed himself, his convictions and his conscience. He always spoke the truth, no matter what the situation. His works, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Gulag Archipelago, and The First Circle, awoke the nation’s conscience with their call for repentance.
His heart was always filled with boundless love for his homeland and his compatriots. He felt sincere concern for the fate of his motherland and made it the purpose of his life to search tirelessly for ways to build Russia and preserve its people. Many of his ideas on strengthening statehood and developing democratic freedoms are relevant and retain their enduring significance today, and his literary and philosophical works form a legacy requiring in-depth and comprehensive study.11
The final sentence of the President’s tribute would prove to be prophetic. In October 2010, it was announced that The Gulag Archipelago would become required reading for all Russian high school students. In a meeting with Solzhenitsyn’s widow, Putin described The Gulag Archipelago as “essential reading”. “Without the knowledge of that book, we would lack a full understanding of our country and it would be difficult for us to think about the future.”12 Ultimately, however, the facts of Solzhenitsyn’s life speak louder than any words, and one can almost hear his ghost echoing the closing words of his interview with Der Spiegel: “No, no. Don’t. It’s enough.” His life speaks for itself. It was finished; accomplished; consummated.
Today, after the Soviet Union’s demise, and after the statues of Stalin have been ignominiously toppled, it is easy to forget the sheer enormity of Solzhenitsyn’s achievement. Quite simply, what he did was considered to be impossible. It was beyond belief that one man could defy the communist state and survive. It was even more unbelievable that he should not only survive, but that he should play a significant role in the state’s downfall and that he should outlive the state itself. Solzhenitsyn’s life and example flew in the face of the “reality” of the “realists”.
The destiny of the small man who dared defy the might of the state was epitomized in the eyes of most pessimistic “realists” by the example of Winston Smith in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which was published in 1948, when Solzhenitsyn was serving his sentence as a political prisoner of the Soviet regime. As such, the figure of Winston Smith can be seen not merely as a figure of Everyman in his alienation from the totalitarian state (Big Brother), but as an unwitting figure and prophecy of Solzhenitsyn himself. According to the “realistic” view, Winston Smith would not only be crushed by the Almighty State, but he would also betray every ideal, and everything he loved, in abject surrender to its uncompromising demands. The triumph of Big Brother was inevitable; it was predestined. It was Fate, and to deny or defy fate was fatal and futile.
The fact is that Orwell had failed to shake off the Hegelian determinism of his Marxist past. He had long since become disillusioned with Marxism but still believed that the forces of history were immutable and the triumph of the state inevitable. Orwell still believed, like his former comrades, that the state was omnipotent; he only differed from them to the extent that he hated this omnipotent god, whereas they admired it.
Solzhenitsyn, on the other hand, did not believe that the communist state was a god but merely a demon, or a dragon, a manifestation of evil. He did not believe in fate but in freedom: the freedom of the will and its responsibility to serve the truth. Fate was a figment of the imagination, but the dragon was real. Furthermore, it was the duty of the good man to fight the dragon, even unto death if necessary. Solzhenitsyn fought the dragon, even though it was thousands of times bigger than he was, and even though it breathed fire and had killed millions of people. He fought it because, in conscience, he could do nothing else. In doing so, he proved that faith, not fate, is the final victor. Faith can move mountains; it can move Machines that were thought to be gods; it can move and remove Big Brother.
Solzhenitsyn has re-written George Orwell’s novel, using the facts of his life as his pen. He represents the victory of Winston Smith. Truth, it seems, is not only stranger than fiction; it has a happier ending.
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