A World Split Apart

Alexander Solzhenitsyn has always been a rather difficult person for your faithful correspondent to fully embrace. The first reason is simply because I've never read through any of his books. There is only so much Russian depression that I can take before I begin to toy with the idea of trying to play Russian roulette with a 1911 Colt pistol (those who know anything about the guns will get the gag). Only Finns are more dour. The second is that, while I have nothing against the greater Orthodox Church despite my being a Baptist, he's just too Russian Orthodox for me to feel comfortable with.

He is, in a sense, a Russian Francis Schaffer. While one agrees with much, if not most, of what he says, there's something a little off-putting about the man. One may feel comfortable shaking his hand, but giving him a slap on the back would be just too much. There is a steely severity that makes the old English Puritans look cheerful. And perhaps that is the quality that was exhibited by Isaiah and Elijah.

Solzenitsyn was, during the bad old days of the Soviet Union, the Western media's darling. They apparently liked the fact that this writer and former artillery officer was kicking against the goads of established Communism. But, much of the world of reportage seemed to feel that the Soviet Union was not a true communistic government and that perhaps Solzenitsyn might be the herald of a true Marxism in Russia, or at least "Communism With a Human Face."

They were wrong and they were disappointed. Much to their disappointment, Solzenitsyn was, as is, a Christian, albeit of the nationalistic Russian sort. And once he made it clear that he would have no truck with western liberalism, his card was removed from their Rolodexes.

It was in 1978 at Harvard that he really tipped his hand in a speech that was not widely reported. It is a speech, that while at times hard, deserves regular reading. If I had the misfortune to be a high school teacher or college professor I would make it a point to read it annually to my classes of snot noses wearing Che Guevara t-shirts.

Here is a voice crying in the wilderness:A World Split Apart

Read it and think.