Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

[Plane]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/the-death-of-ivan-denisov_b_116898.html

Uniquely influential .

[Xavier_Onassis]

Sozhenitsyn was a good writer, and he certainly did a fine job of documenting Stalin's atrocities, but he was also a nut. His view of a perfect Russia was one that would please few of the Russians of 1917 or 2000, or in the world we live in , either. Probably Pope John Paul II and the current pope had more useful visions of the world than Solzhenitzen did.

He came to the US, refused to learn English, and lived as some sort of hermit.He failed to make much of a difference in Russia, either. He is sort of the Rudyard Kipling of Russia: dated and passe even before he died.

[Amianthus]

One of my favorite songs was written about him.

Mother Russia - Renaissance

Pays the price, works the seasons through
Frozen days, he thinks of you
Cold as ice but he burns for you
Mother Russia, can't you hear him too?

Mother's son, freedom's overdue
Lonely man, he thinks of you
He isn't done, only lives for you
Mother Russia, cant you hear him too?

Punished for his written thoughts
Starving for his fame
Working blindly, building blocks
Number for a name, his blood flows frozen to the snow

Red blood, white snow
He knows frozen rivers won't flow
So cold, so true
Mother Russia -- he cries for you

Ooh ooh ...
Bah dah dah dah ...

Punished for his written thoughts
Starving for his fame
Working blindly, building blocks
Number for a name, his blood flows frozen to the snow

Red blood, white snow
He knows frozen rivers won't flow
So cold, so true
Mother Russia -- he cries for you

Song Link (caution, 8MB download)

[Plane]

Sozhenitsyn was a good writer, and he certainly did a fine job of documenting Stalin's atrocities, but he was also a nut. His view of a perfect Russia was one that would please few of the Russians of 1917 or 2000, or in the world we live in , either. Probably Pope John Paul II and the current pope had more useful visions of the world than Solzhenitzen did.

He came to the US, refused to learn English, and lived as some sort of hermit.He failed to make much of a difference in Russia, either. He is sort of the Rudyard Kipling of Russia: dated and passe even before he died.

You may be right , but it isn't thje point that he was a geinus in thinking up solutions , the point was that his writeing was suppressed and his persistance was heroic. I would compare him more with Juan Cole than Rutyard Kipling.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I would compare him more with Juan Cole than Rutyard Kipling.

Juan Cole writes novels?

Juan Cole wss dated and passe before he died?

[Lanya]

I love his books.  I would have loved to meet him.

[Plane]

Juan Cole wss dated and passe before he died?

I am glad it was you that said this .

[Xavier_Onassis]

I am glad it was you that said this .

I was pointing out that Cole is a professor and an activist who seems to be quite up to date, and is anything but passé, not a novelist.
In other words, Solzhenitzen is not at all like Juan Cole and resembles him most because they are both featherless bipeds of the male gender.