Solzhenitsyn and American Culture

Description

These essays will interest readers familiar with the work of Nobel Prize–winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and are a great starting point for those eager for an introduction to the great Russian’s work.

When people think of Russia today, they tend to gravitate toward images of Soviet domination or, more recently, Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. The reality, however, is that, despite Russia’s political failures, its rich history of culture, religion, and philosophical reflection—even during the darkest days of the Gulag—have been a deposit of wisdom for American artists, religious thinkers, and political philosophers probing what it means to be human in America. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn stands out as the key figure in this conversation, as both a Russian literary giant and an exile from Russia living in America for two decades. This anthology reconsiders Solzhenitsyn’s work from a variety of perspectives—his faith, his politics, and the influences and context of his literature—to provide a prophetic vision for our current national confusion over universal ideals.

In Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West, David P. Deavel and Jessica Hooten Wilson have collected essays from the foremost scholars and thinkers of comparative studies who have been tracking what Americans have borrowed and learned from Solzhenitsyn and his fellow Russians. The book offers a consideration of what we have in common—the truth, goodness, and beauty America has drawn from Russian culture and from masters such as Solzhenitsyn—and will suggest to readers what we can still learn and what we must preserve. The last section expands the book's theme and reach by examining the impact of other notable Russian authors, including Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and Gogol.

Contributors: David P. Deavel, Jessica Hooten Wilson, Nathan Nielson, Eugene Vodolazkin, David Walsh, Matthew Lee Miller, Ralph C. Wood, Gary Saul Morson, Edward E. Ericson, Jr., Micah Mattix, Joseph Pearce, James F. Pontuso, Daniel J. Mahoney, William Jason Wallace, Lee Trepanier, Peter Leithart, Dale Peterson, Julianna Leachman, Walter G. Moss, and Jacob Howland.

One individual who embodied much of this breadth and contradiction of the Russian character is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Like many other intellectuals, in his early years he believed in Marxism. But after spending years in Soviet labor camps, punished for criticizing Stalin’s conduct of the war, Solzhenitsyn abandoned that ideology and became an Orthodox Christian. He was a staunch defender of Russian national and ethnic interests. But he also addressed the aspirations toward freedom and dignity of all humankind. He grew disappointed in modern attempts to minimize the legacy of Russian literature. In a 1993 speech titled “The Relentless Cult of Novelty” he said: “And in one sweeping gesture of vexation, classical Russian literature—which never disdained reality and sought the truth—is dismissed as next to worthless. Denigrating the past is deemed to be the key to progress. And so it has once again become fashionable in Russia to ridicule, debunk, and toss overboard the great Russian literature, steeped as it is in love and compassion toward all human beings, and especially toward those who suffer.” Through his own suffering, he developed a softness for the downtrodden, the oppressed, the minority. The product of culture and learning, he said, should be a refinement of feeling and forbearance toward all our fellow human beings: “It’s a universal law—intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.”

The Soviet Union was marked by unprecedented violence. The national cultures and identities of the various member countries became absorbed into the expansionist worldview and political space of communist ideology. It represented a form of universalism, but lacked the staying power of the deeper things of human existence—tradition, religion, poetry, love, and the other irrational values we treasure. These humane values may have subsided in the face of political pressure, but they never died out.

A poem written by Vladimir Orlov during the Soviet era was read by generations of children and students. It captures the Russian impulse to turn love of country into love of humanity. It goes as follows: “I have come to know that on this earth I have an enormous family—the pathway, the forest, and in the field every ear of corn! The brook, the blue sky—it is all mine, by birth. This is my homeland! I love everyone in the world!” This poem shows that celebrating the particular is somehow incomplete without paying homage to the universal.

This impulse still survives in today’s Russia. Even someone like Sergey Lavrov, a seasoned diplomat trained in the Soviet Foreign Ministry, can make overtures to universalism. In 2016 he urged the formation of a “partnership of civilizations” to combat the forces of terrorism and articulated the basis for such partnership: “We believe that universal human solidarity must have a moral basis resting on traditional values which are essentially common for all of the world’s leading religions.”

Foreword by John Wilson Acknowledgments Introduction: Missing the Deep Roots and Rich Soul by David P. Deavel and Jessica Hooten Wilson

Part 1. Solzhenitsyn and Russian Culture 1. The Universal Russian Soul by Nathan Nielson 2. The New Middle Ages by Eugene Vodolazkin 3. The Age of Concentration by Eugene Vodolazkin 4. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Solzhenitsyn by David P. Deavel

Part 2. Solzhenitsyn and Orthodoxy 5. Art and History in Solzhenitsyn’s The Red Wheel by David Walsh 6. The YMCA Press, Russian Orthodoxy, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn by Matthew Lee Miller 7. The Distinctively Orthodox Character of Solzhenitsyn’s Literary Imagination by Ralph C. Wood 8. How Fiction Defeats Lies: A Faithful Reading of Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle by Jessica Hooten Wilson
Part 3. Solzhenitsyn and the Writers 9. Solzhenitsyn’s Cathedrals by Gary Saul Morson 10. The Literature of Dissent in the Soviet Union by Edward E. Ericson Jr. 11. The Example of Prussian Nights by Micah Mattix 12. Kindred Spirits: Solzhenitsyn’s Western Literary Confréres by Joseph Pearce
Part 4. Solzhenitsyn and the Politicians 13. Inferno Dialogues: Why Americans Should Read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle by James F. Pontuso 14. Judging Communism and All Its Works: Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago Reconsidered by Daniel J. Mahoney 15. The Rage of Freedom: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1983 Templeton Prize Address by William Jason Wallace 16. What Americans Today Can Learn from the Russian Past: Lessons from Turgenev and Dostoevsky for American Hillbillies by Lee Trepanier
Part 5. Beyond Solzhenitsyn: Russian Writers and American Readers 17. City of Expiations: Ivan Karamazov and Orthodox Political Theology by Peter Leithart 18. Russia and the Mission of African American Literature by Dale E. Peterson 19. The Price of Restoration: Flannery O’Connor and the Nineteenth-Century Russian Realists by Julianna Leachman 20. Wisdom from Russia in the Thinking of Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton by Walter G. Moss 21. Totalitarian Physics and Moral Threshing by Jacob Howland
Contributors Index

Sujets

• 20th Century
• Former Soviet Union
• Modern
• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Histoire
• The Oak and the Calf
• URSS
• The Red Wheel
• Modern history
• General officer
• Russian literature
• The Gulag Archipelago
• Russia
• World
• General
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Russie

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 31 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268108274
• Langue: English

Extrait

SOLZHENITSYN AND AMERICAN CULTURE
THE CENTER FOR ETHICS AND CULTURE SOLZHENITSYN SERIES
Under the sponsorship of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, this series showcases the contributions and continuing inspiration of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008), the Nobel Prize–winning novelist and historian. The series makes available works of Solzhenitsyn, including previously untranslated works, and aims to provide the leading platform for exploring the many facets of his enduring legacy. In his novels, essays, memoirs, and speeches, Solzhenitsyn revealed the devastating core of totalitarianism and warned against political, economic, and cultural dangers to the human spirit. In addition to publishing his work, this new series features thoughtful writers and commentators who draw inspiration from Solzhenitsyn’s abiding care for Christianity and the West, and for the best of the Russian tradition. Through contributions in politics, literature, philosophy, and the arts, these writers follow Solzhenitsyn’s trail in a world filled with new pitfalls and new possibilities for human freedom and human dignity.
SOLZHENITSYN AND AMERICAN CULTURE
THE RUSSIAN SOUL IN THE WEST

Edited by
David P. Deavel and Jessica Hooten Wilson
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2020 by University of Notre Dame
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020940884
ISBN: 978-0-268-10825-0 (Hardback)
ISBN: 978-0-268-10828-1 (WebPDF)
ISBN: 978-0-268-10827-4 (Epub)
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
Dedicated to the Memory of Edward E. Ericson Jr., Christian, scholar, mentor

Edward E. Ericson Jr. ( right ) with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn at the Russian author’s
Vermont home, 1983. Photo courtesy of the Ericson family.
And there was Professor Edward Ericson of Calvin College, Michigan, with whom I’d become acquainted through an exchange of letters after his book Solzhenitsyn:
The Moral Vision was published. He had been suggesting for a good while that a single-volume version of Archipelago should be produced for America—where almost no one was capable of reading three volumes—and that I myself should do this, or entrust someone else with it. If I liked the idea, he said, it could be Ericson himself, and he would willingly take it on. I had taken a look at his proposal and—why not? it could certainly serve a purpose. Without the deeper probings into Russian matters, and with the loss of historical details and some of the atmosphere, it could work well for the incurious or cluttered brains of American youth. And the assiduous Ericson set to work. Then I had to look through all the places he’d bracketed and correct his choices here and there. . . .
At the end of 1983 Ericson came to discuss the progress of his work. I corrected some choices, but to a large extent he’d chosen well, knowing as he did the mentality of young Americans. He turned out to be well built, big, sturdy, his face framed by a close-cut beard—with something of the ship’s skipper about him. Measured, very good-hearted—and concerned above all with spiritual matters. He worked absolutely selflessly and, to ease the procedure of negotiating with publishers, he renounced any fee.
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Between Two Millstones, Book 2: Exile in America, 1978–1994, chap. 10, “Drawing Inward.”
CONTENTS
Foreword
John Wilson
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION. Missing the Deep Roots and Rich Soul
David P. Deavel and Jessica Hooten Wilson
PART ONE. Solzhenitsyn and Russian Culture
ONE. The Universal Russian Soul
Nathan Nielson
TWO. The New Middle Ages
Eugene Vodolazkin
THREE. The Age of Concentration
Eugene Vodolazkin
FOUR. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
in Solzhenitsyn
David P. Deavel
PART TWO. Solzhenitsyn and Orthodoxy
FIVE. Art and History in Solzhenitsyn’s The Red Wheel
David Walsh
SIX. The YMCA Press, Russian Orthodoxy,
and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Matthew Lee Miller

SEVEN. The Distinctively Orthodox Character of
Solzhenitsyn’s Literary Imagination
Ralph C. Wood
EIGHT. How Fiction Defeats Lies: A Faithful Reading of
Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle
Jessica Hooten Wilson
PART THREE. Solzhenitsyn and the Writers
NINE. Solzhenitsyn’s Cathedrals
Gary Saul Morson
TEN. Literature of Dissent in the Soviet Union
Edward E. Ericson Jr.
ELEVEN. The Example of Prussian Nights
Micah Mattix
TWELVE. Kindred Spirits: Solzhenitsyn’s Western
Literary Confrères
Joseph Pearce
PART FOUR. Solzhenitsyn and the Politicians
THIRTEEN. Inferno Dialogues: Why Americans Should
Read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle
James F. Pontuso
FOURTEEN. Judging Communism and All Its Works:
Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago Reconsidered
Daniel J. Mahoney
FIFTEEN. The Rage of Freedom: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s
1983 Templeton Prize Address
William Jason Wallace
SIXTEEN. What Americans Today Can Learn from
the Russian Past: Lessons from Turgenev and
Dostoevsky for American Hillbillies
Lee Trepanier

PART FIVE. Beyond Solzhenitsyn:
Russian Writers and American Readers
SEVENTEEN. City of Expiations: Ivan Karamazov
and Orthodox Political Theology
Peter Leithart
EIGHTEEN. Russia and the Mission of
African American Literature
Dale E. Peterson
NINETEEN. The Price of Restoration: Flannery O’Connor
and the Nineteenth-Century Russian Realists
Julianna Leachman
TWENTY. Wisdom from Russia in the Thinking of
Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton
Walter G. Moss
TWENTY ONE. Totalitarian Physics and Moral Threshing
Jacob Howland
Contributors
Index
FOREWORD
JOHN WILSON
The critic George Steiner, who died in February 2020 at the age of ninety, began his extraordinary career with a book called Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in Contrast , published in 1960. The following year, Steiner contributed the foreword to a Signet Classics edition of stories by Alexander Pushkin, The Queen of Spades, and Other Tales , in which he argued that “anyone who comes to Pushkin, notably to his stories and short novels, from an American background will have certain distinct advantages. He will experience a shock of familiarity.” Steiner goes on to suggest deep similarities between Russia and America, geographical, cultural, and historical (both these “two great land masses,” he observes, “stood in a crucial, problematic relation to Europe”), and draws parallels between Russian and American literature. Whether or not the reader is entirely persuaded by Steiner’s argument, I think it would be worth the trouble to track down this foreword as an appetizer to the feast that is prepared for us in Solzhenitsyn and American Culture .
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is sometimes described (especially today) as if he were a monomaniac, always speaking in one register, hectoring, denouncing, laying down the law. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, he was, among other things, a connoisseur of irony and a master ironist. The same was true of Ed Ericson, my former teacher and dear friend whose scholarship on and advocacy for Solzhenitsyn inspired the book you hold in your hands. Both men would relish the ironies that attend its publication. Talk about “Russian culture” in 2019? Isn’t that absurdly antiquarian? No. It’s precisely such narrow views that this volume is intended to counter.
In a column for First Things posted on January 25, 2019, occasioned by the publication of Solzhenitsyn’s Between Two Millstones, Book 1: Sketches of Exile, 1974–1978, I acknowledged that Solzhenitsyn “was a genuinely great man and an inspiration to millions, but also all too human-as we all are. We should be able to talk about such a figure without lurching between hagiography and drive-by character assassination.” In that column, I registered my disappointment at the range of pieces marking Solzhenitsyn’s centenary in December 2018:
In fact, what we got was pretty thin gruel. Some pieces did appear, of course, and more may come, but there was no sense of a lively conversation equal to the richness of the subject. Many of the pieces that were published brought to mind Solzhenitsyn’s own over-the-top invective against the spiritual and intellectual decadence of the West. (How did that line about “sewage” go?) He was a “fascist,” you see, or a man with “fascistic leanings,” a harbinger of the dark turn in Europe and in the United States toward the “far right.” Even among the more nuanced pieces, there was rarely any reflection on Solzhenitsyn as a writer.
Happily, the widely ranging essays gathered in Solzhenitsyn and American Culture more than make up for this deficiency.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are dedicating this book to Edward E. Ericson Jr., and we want to acknowledge that his scholarship has made many of these