The clock of communism has stopped striking. But its concrete building has not yet come crashing down. For that reason, instead of freeing ourselves, we must try to save ourselves from being crushed by its rubble.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNThe clock of communism has stopped striking. But its concrete building has not yet come crashing down. For that reason, instead of freeing ourselves, we must try to save ourselves from being crushed by its rubble.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNI can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNWoe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation’s heart, the excision of its memory.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNWhen truth is discovered by someone else, it loses something of its attractiveness.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNLiterature becomes the living memory of a nation.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNFor a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNFor us in Russia communism is a dead dog. For many people in the West, it is still a living lion.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNThe name of ‘reform’ simply covers what is latently a process of the theft of the national heritage.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNA man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNIt is time in the West to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNOwn only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNThe next war… may well bury Western civilization forever.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNFor us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNJustice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNToday when we say the West we are already referring to the West and to Russia. We could use the word ‘modernity’ if we exclude Africa, and the Islamic world, and partially China.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYNOf course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN