My favorite professor at the US Naval Academy was a nattily dressed Pole with a charming accent and a casually exuberant attitude that stood in vivid contrast to the dour, patched elbow shabbiness of his departmental colleagues. Most of them were humorless liberals of the garden variety East Coast cohort, men and women who seemed to have purposefully installed themselves within the belly of the military-industrial beast, the better for to shake us from the bourgeois certainties of our middle class upbringing and preach the gospel of the Omnipresent Virtuous State. So long, you know, as the machinery of state was composed of bureaucrats from correct-thinking cadres.
Otherwise, not so much.
My professor’s father - an officer in the Polish Army - had been murdered by the Soviet Army NKVD in the Katyn Forest in 1940. My own father had delivered war supplies to the Soviet Union on the Murmansk Run from New York, nearly losing his life in the process and learning along the way an abiding respect for the endurance of the Russian people. This appreciation for their stoicism was generously admixtured with an unabashed loathing for their form of government.
I learned at my father’s knee a visceral hatred of tyranny in all its forms. My professor gave me and my classmates an intellectual underpinning for that same emotion, ammunition which served us in good stead back in the late ’70s, before the “inherent contradictions of the system”- to use the kind of language once sported by its apologists - the Soviet Union had not yet fatally manifested. At least, not to everyone’s satisfaction. And because the opinion of a Pole must always taken with a grain of salt when it comes to the issue of all things Russian, his chosen spokesman in our education was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
The innate character flaw of the political right, with its thrumming appeals to the logic of blood and soil, is its lamentable tendency to go in search of enemies abroad. The left, on the other hand, with its own appeals to the politics of envy and class warfare, is content to find mortal enemies closer to hand. Solzhenitsyn introduced us to the inner workings of the latter process.
His first dialogue with us came in the form of his “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.” What Ivan Denisovitch taught us was not so much a lesson in depths of evil as a reinforcement of Hannah Arendt’s observation of its thoroughgoing banality. One innocent man’s ten year sentence - ten years and three days, courtesy of intervening leap years - to the Gulag: The body is (barely) sustained, but the soul completely destroyed. From the standpoint of the state, either outcome would suffice.
From the personal to the general, we were taken then to “The Gulag Archipelago.” A barbaric system of punishment through which tens of millions moved, most of whom never emerged again. I do confess that it was heavy sledding at times, getting through all those unfamiliar Russian patronymics. Until I realized the point the author was after: He wasn’t making this up, this was an enumeration, a reckoning. Real people. People whose role it was less to expiate their own sins than serve as examples of intimidation for the others.
For the greater good.
Solzhenitsyn was an imperfect hero, and no liberal - not in the classical sense: His legacy will always strive against a rebuttable presumption of Antisemitism, and he remained until his death an unrepentant nationalist whose disapproval of Communism was based not merely upon the brutality of its oppression but also by its ineffectuality. He died happily cheering the strong-man state built upon the ashes of Communism by Vladimir Putin, and loudly decrying the excesses of popular Western culture.
But he was a man who both cursed the darkness and lit a candle, and unlike those of our acquaintance busily congratulating themselves at Speaking Truth To Power, Man, he did so at a great personal risk against a utterly inhumane system whose retaliatory potentialities he fully understood. All human progress depends upon such as he.
He was a man, take him for all in all.
We shall not look upon his like again.
Update: Lileks does it better. Of course. Being, all you know: A professional.
I was in the perfect mood to read the entire Gulag Archipelago. I got all three volumes from the drugstore – which should have told me something about the land in which I lived, that one could buy this work from a creaky wire rack at the drugstore – and it taught me much about the Soviet Union and the era of Stalin. After that I could never quite understand the people who viewed the US and the USSR as moral equals, or regarded our history as not only indelibly stained but uniquely so. Reading Solzhenitsyn makes it difficult to take seriously the people in this culture who insist that Dissent has been squelched. Brother, you have no idea.
(H/T to the prof)
17 responses so far ↓
1
Pixelkiller
// Aug 4, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Should one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end? — Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard Address, 1978 [Which I commend to you in its entirety.]
From: http://Americandigest.org 8/3/08
2
FbL
// Aug 4, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Thank you Lex, for the tribute and the link to Lileks.
3
MaxDamage
// Aug 4, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I’ve read both works, and of them “A day in the life” is the one that strikes me more. Probably because it’s been 30 years since I thumbed through it, and I still remember too much. The importance placed upon little things, like a good pair of boots. Warming the felt by the fire, careful to not char it. Keeping alive by keeping at work, surviving another day. Laying bricks is good, it keeps you warm.
Makes me appreciate what my ancestors endured on the high plains, before gortex and thinsulate and Carhart coveralls.
Makes me also appreciate how well we have it, all things considered, with a legal system that mostly works and a political system that in spite of our best efforts doesn’t run roughshod over the losers.
We like to complain that things aren’t fair, that we’re being kept down by The Man or whatever boogyman-du-jour is in the headlines.
Read about Ivan. We’re making a mountain out of mouse-droppings compared to what others live with. We’re not perfect, but we’re a darned sight better than anything else out there.
- Max
4
yak
// Aug 4, 2008 at 9:42 pm
One of the benefits of military service, particularly one of a somewhat nautical nature, is the opportunity to see the rest of the world.
Regarding how well we have it here - all it took was getting off the liberty boat for the first time in Alexandria, Egypt.
Been to 28 different countries, courtesy of Uncle Sam, and nothing I’ve seen has changed my mind. I enjoyed the hell out of 3 years in Oslo, and enjoyed my tour in Japan, but I would still rather live here than anywhere else, and the decision ain’t even close.
5
PeterGunn
// Aug 4, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I’ve always appreciated Russian writers, including Solzhenitsyn and Dostoyevski. Great drama makes excellent reading.
Our kids always howled, but I insisted on a regular showing of Dr. Zhivago… just for the educational value in it. You had a query about favorite westerns sometime ago, Lex, and Dr. Z has always been an overall favorite of mine.
Julie Christie is amazing in it, Geraldine Chaplin getting off the Paris train in her pink puff, Alec Guinnes, Omar Shariff serving with the vigilante Red Army and hearing the sound of the balalaika. Tom Courtenay as… STRELNIKOV.
I like every part of it and the Gulags.
6
Danger
// Aug 5, 2008 at 5:49 am
Like my Grandfather and his before that, I feel my children, youth today in general, don’t realize the gems of freedom which lay free at their feet; paid for with the blood, sweat and suffering of millions who mostly lay forgotten in old graves. Was I, too, that forgetful or negligent?
My children came home from school last year after a history lesson and exercise called “duck and cover”. Did you really do that in school? Did you really think nuclear bombs would rain from the sky destroying America? You couldn’t just fly to Russia? Iron curtain… what was that?
I remember my first actual sighting of a Soviet trawler alongside the USS Cleveland, lurking in the dark just outside of Pearl at 0400… bobbing through our rough wake waiting to account for the general whereabouts of the 5th fleet returning to harbor that AM. It terrified me. There they were… waiting, spying, hungry to reduce our Nation to ashes… the hammer and sickle flying defiantly, powerfully, at the stern.
Even we, in our youth, barely knew a whisper of what horrors took place in the Katyn Forest; how do we begin to explain to our children the abuse of power, of tyranny and oppression, to the current-day addicts of the PlayStation?
This is a weary and old world indeed.
7
SeniorD
// Aug 5, 2008 at 5:51 am
Cap’n,
Three points of connection:
1. My Russian Orthodox God Father (mayhe rest in Peace) was a Lieutenant Commander for the Russian Navy in Murmansk. To the day he died, he carried shrapnel in his legs from the time his boat was sunk by the Germans. It was hard to believe he was 86 when he passed away; like the Russian Bear he was stout, powerful and most gentle.
2. I’ve slogged through my copy of the Gulag Archepelago. I really don’t know what was worse, the coldness of the jailer’s brutality or the Siberian winter.
3. I’ve seen Doctor Zhivago and think it deserves an Oscar for the stunning breadth of the Russian culture and geography. As for the acting? Meh. I much prefer Anna Karinna for good acting, excellent transfer from book to film and one of the most ‘Russian’ of endings ever. Greer Garson and Vincent Price do exceedingly well.
I must disagree on your characterization of Solzhenitsyn. He was certainly no liberal in the modern use of the word (liberal = progressive) but certainly Liberal in the Classic sense. He pushed us to acquire knowledge of his culture, his environment and his way of understanding the world. It was through his efforts the world gains a unique viewpoint into the horrors, victories and joy that is the Russian life.
8
unkawill
// Aug 5, 2008 at 6:00 am
‘Lileks does it better. Of course. ‘
I beg to differ. Yours is a first rate, bang up job. IMO.
9
David M
// Aug 5, 2008 at 9:42 am
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 08/05/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
10
badbob
// Aug 5, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I purchased and read big chunks of his “Gulag Archipelago” back when I was a LT interested in learning all I could about the enemy.
What I remember most is that nearly entire Soviet divisions that penetrated deep into Germany and were stationed with westerners, were sent to the Gulag just because they had experienced the difference from Soviet life. I couldn’t believe that men who had fought hard and long for “Mother Russia” were deemed enemies of the state and exiled because they might return and tell people what they had seen! The reality of Stalinism and and the horrors of totalitarian communism was laid out for the world to see.
Some, even in our own country, still think it is possible to make a system like that work and we know who they are…Scary.
b2
11
Claudio
// Aug 5, 2008 at 7:36 pm
The man could paint a picture inside your mind better than any polaroid. Because his “pictures” were not only visual. Great loss.
Although not yet 20 years since the Wall came down, it is amazing to me the speed with which the capability for evil of the Soviets and other “old” communists is forgotten. Some people are already comparing Soviet communism with Chinas, being absolutely ignorant by what goes on behind the scenes.
My 4 year old asks me about my childhood and I tell her the truth. She can’t comprehend at such a young age that growing up under communism can be so different than her life. I’ll make sure that she keeps hearing it as she gets older, and that “classics” are part of her reading list.
Claudio
12 The Razor » Blog Archive » Watcher of Weasels: Submitted for Your Approval // Aug 6, 2008 at 4:34 am
[...] Summer of Living Dangerously New York Times: Grim News for a Paper in New Jersey Neptunus Lex: A Difficult Man The Donegal Express: A Karate Man Bleeds on the Inside! Billy Ray Valentine American Prospect: Our [...]
13 Cheat Seeking Missiles » Wednesday’s Reading // Aug 6, 2008 at 6:32 am
[...] Summer of Living Dangerously New York Times: Grim News for a Paper in New Jersey Neptunus Lex: A Difficult Man The Donegal Express: A Karate Man Bleeds on the Inside! Billy Ray Valentine American Prospect: Our [...]
14
Mike Tyukanov
// Aug 7, 2008 at 3:54 am
One (small) correction: the Soviet Army didn’t murder the Polish POWs, NKVD did. The Soviet Army could be brutal and cruel at times, but its loyalty to the Communist elite was questioned too much to let them do such a dirty deed.
Speaking of the liberalism is the classical sense, Solzhenitsyn’s was probably too classical, 18th-century style. Although he didn’t like the modern Western political system with its party politics, he praised the local democracy in Swiss and American towns where he was living during his exile. He preferred the local to the central, he said that the elections should be more indirect, and he deeply distrusted the parties.
15 The Razor » Blog Archive » The Council Has Spoken: Aug 08, 2008 // Aug 7, 2008 at 10:01 pm
[...] of Lebanon 0.99 American Thinker: Time for an Indifferent World to Take a Stand 0.99 Neptunus Lex: A Difficult Man 0.66 Elder of Ziyon: The definitive version of Hello martyr, hello fatah 0.66 Spiegel [...]
16 Bookworm Room » The Council has spoken // Aug 8, 2008 at 7:36 pm
[...] of Lebanon 0.99 American Thinker: Time for an Indifferent World to Take a Stand 0.99 Neptunus Lex: A Difficult Man 0.66 Elder of Ziyon: The definitive version of Hello martyr, hello fatah 0.66 Spiegel [...]
17 Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » “Working” versus “Fighting” // Sep 4, 2008 at 6:27 am
[...] Neptunus Lex had some related thoughts: [...]
Leave a Comment