Update on The Red Wheel in English

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Progress in completing the publication of The Red Wheel—Solzhenitsyn’s epic of the Russian Revolution—is proceeding slowly but surely. Readers are reminded that there was an unfortunate, tremendous lull after the 1989 publication of Node I and the 1999 publication of Node II. Once a new translator (Marian Schwartz) and publisher (University of Notre Dame Press) took on the task to bring out the remainder of the book in English, a new book of Node III (March 1917, itself consisting of four books) has come out every other autumn since 2017, i.e. in 2017, 2019, 2021. Book 4 is slated for October 2024, completing Node III, and thereafter the two books of Node IV (April 1917) will follow in due course.

We remind Solzhenitsyn readers of the overall sequence of the 10-volume Red Wheel:

Aza Alibekovna Takho-Godi Awarded Solzhenitsyn Literature Prize

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The 2022 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Prize in Literature has been awarded to legendary philologist Aza Alibekovna Takho-Godi, who has just celebrated her 100th (!) birthday. Natalia Solzhenitsyn, who announced the prize in Moscow on behalf of the jury, remarked that “like for Plato, your work became more than a virtuous habit, but your very life”.

Remembering Mike Nicholson

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Michael A. (“Mike”) Nicholson

1943–2022

We mourn the sudden death last Friday of our dear friend and colleague, Mike Nicholson. Dr. Michael A. Nicholson was Tutorial fellow in Russian at University College, Oxford, from 1987 to 2011 and one of the world’s leading experts on Solzhenitsyn. Mike was possessed of a sparkling, vivacious wit, jolly good humor, but also quite capable of biting sarcasm (when called for). A great and important scholar of Solzhenitsyn, and a lover of truth. Each of us enjoyed his company immensely on those happy occasions when we could be together with him.

We have compiled a partial list of Mike’s work on Solzhenitsyn:

Tributes to Mike are here and here. Tomorrow’s funeral service will take place in the College Chapel, Oxford, at 2 o’clock p.m. and can also be livestreamed here.

Rest in peace, gentle friend.

Solzhenitsyn Was Right

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An interesting reflection by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen over at J-Wire on Solzhenitsyn and his legacy.

“He strongly objected to the mischaracterization of his views by the same western intellectual and journalistic circles that had previously praised his courage in criticizing the USSR. But turned against him when he began to dismiss the vapid, armchair intellectual hypocrisy of Western societies which failed to offer viable moral alternatives. He felt alienated by the disregard and rejection of a serious spiritual dimension in American life. He spoke out against the way most of the media in the West, distorted facts just as much as the Soviet censors had and still do.”
— Rabbi Jeremy Rosen

Marian Schwartz on Translating The Red Wheel

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Prolific translator Marian Schwartz talks about translating Russian literature, and notably March 1917, into English.

Marian Schwartz, translator of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s "The Red Wheel: March 1917"

Marian Schwartz, translator of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s "The Red Wheel: March 1917"

“Schwartz describes her commitment to translating Russian writers and the importance of their publication in the United States, “I came of age during the Cold War gripped by the injustice and brutality of the Soviet Union. In the dark 1970s, no author had a bigger impact on the West’s perception of that reality than Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, beginning with his soul-shattering novella One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and culminating in 1974 with the publication in English of his monumental The Gulag Archipelago. Both those books hit me hard just as I was learning Russian and falling in love with one of the world’s great literatures, many of whose writers had suffered and were then suffering a hideous fate. In graduate school, I began thinking about translation. I felt a natural impulse to share this important and beautiful writing with my fellow English speakers.””

Short Video Introducing Between March 1917, Book 3

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Learn more about the forthcoming English publication of March 1917: The Red Wheel, Node III, Book 3, due out for the first time in English, translated by Marian Schwartz, 15 October from University of Notre Dame Press.

March 1917: The Red Wheel, Node III, Book 3 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Available October 15, 2021, wherever books are sold. Published by University of Notre Dame Press at undpress.nd.edu

"Why I’m Leaving Mumford & Sons"

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A couple of days ago a fascinating open letter was posted by a musician, Winston Marshall, leaving a world-famous band (Mumford and Sons) not out of fearful deference to a censorious Twitter mob, but out of fidelity to conscience and his own moral integrity.  And the role of Solzhenitsyn in informing his decision is striking—and encouraging. In his open letter, Mr Marshall quotes Solzhenitsyn twice to great effect, especially the remarkable peroration of “Live Not by Lies!”

“So why leave the band?
On the eve of his leaving to the West, Solzhenitsyn published an essay titled ‘Live Not By Lies’. I have read it many times now since the incident at the start of March. It still profoundly stirs me.

“And he who is not sufficiently courageous to defend his soul — don’t let him be proud of his ‘progressive’ views, and don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a distinguished figure or a general. Let him say to himself: I am a part of the herd and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and kept warm.”

For me to speak about what I’ve learnt to be such a controversial issue will inevitably bring my bandmates more trouble. My love, loyalty and accountability to them cannot permit that. I could remain and continue to self-censor but it will erode my sense of integrity. Gnaw my conscience. I’ve already felt that beginning.
The only way forward for me is to leave the band. I hope in distancing myself from them I am able to speak my mind without them suffering the consequences. I leave with love in my heart and I wish those three boys nothing but the best. I have no doubt that their stars will shine long into the future. I will continue my work with Hong Kong Link Up and I look forward to new creative projects as well as speaking and writing on a variety of issues, challenging as they may be.”
— Winston Marshall

Nobel archives reveal judges’ safety fears for Solzhenitsyn

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“Newly opened archives at the Swedish Academy have revealed the depth of concern among Nobel judges for the consequences awaiting Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn if the dissident Soviet writer were awarded the prize for literature in 1970.

The author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, who revealed the horrors of Stalin’s gulags in his writings and was eventually exiled by the Soviet Union, was named the Nobel laureate that year, lauded by the committee for “the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”.

But archives at the Swedish Academy, which are sealed for 50 years after each laureate is named, have revealed the fierce debate among the judges over what a win might mean for Solzhenitsyn.”

[Read on at the Guardian website]

New Exhibit Marks 50th anniversary of Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Prize

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Moscow’s House of Russian Culture Abroad has opened a new exhibit, “Word of Truth”, marking the 50th anniversary (1970-2020) of Solzhenitsyn being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The opening of the exhibit had been delayed on account of the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a news item from Russian TV about the opening.

Live Not by Lies

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On this New Year’s Day, we are pleased to present to our readers the complete text of Solzhenitsyn’s seminal 1974 essay, Live Not by Lies, in the definitive translation by Yermolai Solzhenitsyn, also found in the Solzhenitsyn Reader. Live Not by Lies—a worthy resolution for this, or any other, New Year.

“Yes, at first it will not be fair. Someone will have to temporarily lose his job. For the young who seek to live by truth, this will at first severely complicate life, for their tests and quizzes, too, are stuffed with lies, and so choices will have to be made. But there is no loophole left for anyone who seeks to be honest: Not even for a day, not even in the safest technical occupations can he avoid even a single one of the listed choices—to be made in favor of either truth or lies, in favor of spiritual independence or spiritual servility. And as for him who lacks the courage to defend even his own soul: Let him not brag of his progressive views, boast of his status as an academician or a recognized artist, a distinguished citizen or general. Let him say to himself plainly: I am cattle, I am a coward, I seek only warmth and to eat my fill.”

Russia and the USSR: Solzhenitsyn Knew the Difference

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In an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, Solzhenitsyn’s son, the conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn, examines the “historical roots of Russian-Western mistrust” through the lens of his father’s ruminations on these questions, especially in the crucial Chapter 6, “Russian Pain”, which opens the forthcoming Book 2 of Between Two Millstones.

“After the fall of communism, Solzhenitsyn’s call for repentance, for a historical reckoning on the model of Germany’s post-Nazi Vergangenheitsbewältigung, went unheeded. And so official government support for memorials of communist repression and the incorporation of “The Gulag Archipelago” into high-school curricula paradoxically coexists in some quarters today with a noxious strain of thought that Joseph Stalin —the chief butcher of Russians—was a Russian patriot, while Solzhenitsyn—the chief enemy of Russia’s oppressors—was a traitor.

No wonder, then, that the West has blurred any meaningful distinction between the totalitarian jackboot of the U.S.S.R. and the soft authoritarianism of a comparatively free Russia, and confused “Russian” and “Soviet,” misunderstanding three centuries of Russian history and the antinational essence of communism. “ ‘Russian’ is to ‘Soviet’ as ‘man’ is to ‘disease,’ ” wrote Solzhenitsyn. An unintended consequence: the unprecedented Russian consensus of liberal society and illiberal government, who agree on little, except that the West won’t like Russia no matter what she does.

If Western policy makers’ objective remains to bring Russia into the community of free nations, they might heed Solzhenitsyn’s plea and engage with Russia equitably, according to the virtues or failings of current policy, rather than judge her reflexively by a fictitious, maleficent historical narrative that bars any path forward.”

New Solzhenitsyn Mural in Tver

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The new mural, at 29, Radishchev Boulevard in Tver.

The new mural, at 29, Radishchev Boulevard in Tver.

In the city of Tver, about 100 miles northwest of Moscow, street painter Viktor Lebedev adorned the side wall of an apartment building at 32, Smolensky Lane with a large mural on the occasion of Solzhenitsyn’s 100th anniversary in 2018.  Next to the author’s portrait were the words: “Live Not by Lies. A.I. Solzhenitsyn”.

The mural immediately caused division, with some angry voices decrying Solzhenitsyn as a traitor who helped destroy the USSR.  One of those opposed is a building resident, and he filed a complaint to stop the mural, since a municipal permit had not been granted.  As the case wound its way through the legal system, Communist activists painted over the “not” (thus: “Live by Lies.”). On 4 July 2020, they painted over the mural entirely.

On 11 July 2020, at the behest of the governor of Tver oblast, Igor Rudenya, it was announced that another location had been found; that the artist, Viktor Lebedev, had agreed to put the work up again; and that the new mural at 29, Radishchev Boulevard, “has already become a notable spot, frequently photographed by passersby.”

It appears that the Communist activists have become the latest victims of the age-old rule, “Be careful what you wish for.”

Read a machine translation of the story here.

The old mural, at 32, Smolensky Lane in Tver.

The old mural, at 32, Smolensky Lane in Tver.


Solzhenitsyn "Quote" on Police a Fake

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We have learned that a meme is making the rounds concerning an alleged quote about attacks against police, purportedly from Solzhenitsyn’s Two Hundred Years Together.  (That book has not yet appeared in English, except in illegal, pirated, unauthorized, tendentious hatchet jobs in dark corners of the web. Learn more here.) We have checked the original Russian and do not find anything resembling this quote. In any case, we object to thoughtlessly enlisting a great writer to score political points on burning issues of the moment.

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