08.12.2018, Moscow.
Konstantin Semin, a television host and journalist, expressed an opinion that it is necessary to better understand the political role that Solzhenitsyn played and not simply look at his character during a round table discussion dedicated to the writer’s life and works on December 7, a Rossa Primavera News Agency correspondent reports.
“It is important to understand not so much who he was, but rather the role he played when we talk about Solzhenitsyn,” said the host.
According to Semin, if it were not for Solzhenitsyn, the West would have found someone else for this role; because considering the level of confrontation of the two systems, it had to use any misstep by its adversary in order to gain an advantage. Every dissenting voice was tracked, and every such voice grew up to become Brodsky, Limonov, Dovlatov and others.
Commenting on the role that the writer’s works played after the collapse of the USSR, Semin noted that in the 1990s, the authorities made the first creeping attempts at the rehabilitation of Russian Nazi collaborators. Solzhenitsyn was in demand, as a manifesto of sorts to the Russian nationalist’s renaissance, as a writer who clearly sympathized to General Vlasov’s [Nazi collaborator] supporters. In essence, Solzhenitsyn’s works were rolled out as a propaganda campaign for “solidarism”, which in previous years was preached by the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists. Later, all prominent leaders of modern monarchism in government circles were fostered on these grounds. As an example, the journalist cited the Tsargrad TV channel.
In the conclusion, Semin noted that, in order for the bourgeois to preserve its own legitimacy, power, and wealth, it is necessary to constantly maintain anti-Soviet myths in the minds of people and to strengthen them among the youth. This explains why Solzhenitsyn’s works are forged into almost every school textbook today.
“Solzhenitsyn should not be understood to represent an old man with a beard, but an ideology. An old man with a beard who died long ago we can leave alone. However, the ideology cannot be left alone. It must be attacked just like Solzhenitsyn attacked us all!” concluded the anchor.
A round-table discussion titled “A.I. Solzhenitsyn: Character, Works, Epoch” dedicated to the centenary of the writer’s birthday was held in Moscow. The Left Historians and Social Scientists Club organized the event.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
