Solzhenitsyn : The Historical-Spiritual Destinies of Russia and the West / Lee Congdon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Congdon, Lee, Author.

Series:

NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

East and West.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (174 p.)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER ONE. REVOLUTION AND WAR

CHAPTER TWO. IN THE GULAG

CHAPTER THREE. THORN IN THEIR SIDE

CHAPTER FOUR. IN THE WEST

CHAPTER FIVE. THE RETURN

CHAPTER SIX. WARNING TO THE WEST

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)

ISBN:

1-5017-5541-2

OCLC:

1266228638