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Comment by geoka9 | Hacker News Reader

In fact, Solzhenitsyn's views can be described as Chernosotenstvo (Black Hundred) - a form of ultra-nationalism and xenophobia similar to that practiced by members of KKK. I never understood his appeal to people who thought of themselves as liberals and humanists.

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The way I understand it, is that the Cold War was actually a War, although we forget about it, but the propaganda arms of the governments did not allow anyone to be a human being, you must be either a heroic figure or a villain. Maybe it is human nature to idealize, and in conflict to hyper-idealize.

The thing we also don't hear about, is his book "Two hundred years together", which IIRC was never even translated because it was so anti-semitic.

Minor correction - "Two Hundred Years Together" was never (edit: officially) translated into English; but was translated into French and German at the least.

I have come across a PDF that purports to be an English translation though I haven't had the time to read it yet. Nor is my Russian or French good enough to determine if it's legitimate, however it seems to be.

There is no attribution on the translation, either.

The literature stands on its own, aside from whatever personal political evolution occurred in his later years. In the 90s, it certainly appeared as though Russia was getting set up for exploitation by the west under Yeltsin. A nationalist move in ideology within that context is rational.

> A nationalist move in ideology within that context is rational.

It is one thing to be a little nationalist. It is another thing to suddenly start calling for the reintroduction of censorship and mass incarceration of dissidents, when you had built your entire career as a writer and thinker on attacking those very things.

It's possible I'm unaware of how far to the right he went. I've held a soft spot for Solzhenitsyn from his earlier literature. The KKK reference struck me as a slime and I felt compelled to reply. I'm willing to stand corrected, where is he calling for the incarceration of dissidents?

A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich was published in the 60s, Gulag Archipelago in 1973, aside from the writing standing on its own it's a little bit weak to try to knock it down based on later issues.

One Day

I correct that because my English 201 prof made it a point to indicate that the title was deliberate. This day was simply one of the many days that Ivan Denisovich had to find a way to survive, over and over again.

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