Solzhenitsyn: The Historical-Spiritual Destinies of Russia and the West (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) - Hardcover

Congdon, Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875807658 ISBN 13: 9780875807652

Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press, 2017

Synopsis

This study of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) and his writings focuses on his reflections on the religiopolitical trajectories of Russia and the West, understood as distinct civilizations. What perhaps most sets Russia apart from the West is the Orthodox Christian faith. The mature Solzhenitsyn returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood while serving an eight-year sentence in the GULag Archipelago. He believed that when men forget God, communism or a similar catastrophe is likely to be their fate. In his examination of the author and his work, Lee Congdon explores the consequences of the atheistic socialism that drove the Russian revolutionary movement. Beginning with a description of the post-revolutionary Russia into which Solzhenitsyn was born, Congdon outlines the Bolshevik victory in the civil war, the origins of the concentration camp system, and the Bolsheviks' war on Christianity and the Russian Orthodox Church. He then focuses on Solzhenitsyn's arrest near the war's end, his time in the labor camps, and his struggle with cancer. Congdon describes his time in exile and increasing alienation from the Western way of life, as well as his return home and his final years. He concludes with a reminder of Solzhenitsyn's warning to the West―that it was on a path parallel to that which Russia had followed into the abyss. This important study will appeal to scholars and educated general readers with an interest in Solzhenitsyn, Russia, Christianity, and the fate of Western civilization.  

About this title

About the Author:

Lee Congdon is professor emeritus of history at James Madison University and the author of six previous books, including George Kennan: A Writing Life and Seeing Red: Hungarian Intellectuals in Exile and the Challenge of Communism (NIU Press, 2001). He has been a Fulbright research scholar in Budapest and a visiting member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.  

Review:

"Lee Congdon's [book] offers the best guide in print to Solzhenitsyn's views, including their evolution, largely because Congdon accepts the writer for what he was: a Russian and Eastern Orthodox conservative – one and the same in Solzhenitsyn's mind."

(Times Literary Supplement)

"Congdon's sociohistorical and political focus is formidable, and he brilliantly supports his premise that Solzhenitsyn's writings expose the nature of totalitarian power and its corruptive effects on human lives in Russia.... Highly recommended."

(Choice)

"One must applaud Lee Congdon, emeritus professor of history, James Madison University, for this timely volume."

(The Wanderer)

"Lee Congdon's book comprises a short introduction to the historical and cultural context important for understanding the Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's life and writings.[T]he book's lucid style and choice of illustrative examples make for easy and pleasant reading."

(The Russian Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0875807658
• ISBN 13: 9780875807652
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 174