Solzhenitsyn on Ukraine
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“The Ukraine will be an extremely painful problem.”
Over the tragic course of the past sixteen months, we have received a number of inquiries asking us to opine on “What would Solzhenitsyn say today?” We do not presume to speculate, both because the topic is far too sombre for soundbites and because the atmosphere in Ukraine evolved so significantly during the author’s decades of experiencing and studying the Ukrainian question that we must reserve his right, were he alive today, to have expressed opinions corresponding to the situation at hand.
What remains abundantly clear, however, is the depth of emotion with which Solzhenitsyn—himself part Russian and part Ukrainian—addressed this question; the unnerving foresight with which he descried the likelihood of a perilous future; and his earnest desire, on this issue almost above all others, to influence its benevolent resolution—a hope that, amidst today’s fratricide, appears to lie in smoldering ruin.
With this in mind, we offer you our readers, on this new page of our site, a compendium of excerpts from Solzhenitsyn’s writings about Ukraine, from as far back as 1968 and until 2006, and invite you to read and re-read Solzhenitsyn’s prophetic words of anguish and warning.