Remembering Solzhenitsyn

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Several people expressed to me an interest in knowing a little more about Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great writer and dissadent who defied the Soviet Union, after my sermon on Sunday on his life. I don't have enough space or expertise to share greatly, but I will give you a brief glimpse into the importance of the man from a historical perspective and into his soul through his own words. He became a powerful voice from behind bars that revealed to the world the evils behind the totalitarian Soviet state. Michael Kaufman wrote that Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago “was a monumental account of the Soviet labor camp system, a chain of prisons that by Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s calculation some 60 million people had entered during the 20th century. The book led to his expulsion from his native land. George F. Kennan, the American diplomat, described it as 'the greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be leveled in modern times.'” It is an irony of life that he outlived by 17 years the Soviet system that he battled through years of imprisonment, torture, and exile.
I believe his most inspirational legacy is that one person speaking out the truth with courage and God's help can literally change the world. Solzhenitsyn once wrote that “a great writer is, so to speak, a second government. That's why no regime anywhere has ever loved its great writers . . .” He wrote that while an ordinary man was obliged “not to participate in lies,” artists had greater responsibilities. “It is within the power of writers and artists to do much more: to defeat the lie! . . . If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?” He wrote that “men have forgotten God . . . spiritual death has touched us all.” He continued to tirelessly speak out throughout his lifetime. In 1977 Solzhenitsyn said in an interview, "My critics in the West are constantly saying, 'But what is he offering us in exchange?' Well, I could offer plenty if I wanted, but I'm not obliged to. It's not my job…The writer's ultimate task is to restore the memory of his murdered people. Is that not enough for a single writer?…They (the Communists) murdered my people and destroyed its memory. And I'm dragging it into the light of day all on my own. Of course, there are hundreds like me back there who could drag it out too. Well, it didn't fall to them; it fell to me. And I'm doing the work of a hundred men, and that's all there is to it…I'm no philosopher, I'm no politician, I get mixed up in this politics, but I loathe it..." Biographer Michael Scammell writes that, “Solzhenitsyn's allegiance [was] to the 60 million citizens murdered by the Soviet Communists.” No less than Mikhail Gorbachev said, “He was among the first to speak out about the brutality of Stalin’s regime and about the people who experienced it, but were not crushed . . . Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s books changed the minds of millions of people, making them rethink their past and present.”
I am always challenged by people like Solzhenitsyn. You and I have a voice too. How are we using our voices to speak out against evil, speak out for justice, speak the truth? With God's help, may we have the courage to speak. Selah.
Steve