Natalia Solzhenitsyn interview with Le Figaro
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Natalia Solzhenitsyn, the writer’s widow, has given a wide-ranging interview to Le Figaro (subscription required) on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. She addresses questions about historical memory, justice, and possible paths forward for Russia and the West. Here is one exchange:
“- On his return, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wanted to face the past, to open the archives. Why?
- He wanted to inform the younger generations, because he knew that otherwise they would forget as the witnesses disappeared. Fortunately, many people in Russia today are trying to erect monuments to the victims of repression in the provinces. Some suffer as the historian Yuri Dmitriev in Karelia, who finds himself in prison for his fight. I speak a lot publicly to support it. In his case, it was the local FSB intelligence services that sued him in court [on false accusations—editor’s note] because they were furious that the memorial he defends has become a highly frequented place of pilgrimage, with 20,000 people who go there every year. And the top-level FSB does nothing, not wanting to go against its own structures.”