Latest Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• A horrible human toll the Russian Orthodox Church suffered throughout almost the entire 20th century. The Church is just rising from its knees. Our young post-Soviet state is just learning to respect the Church as an independent institution.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Independent, Church, Horrible

  "I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview With Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

• I think the gap between the rich and the poor is a dangerous phenomenon in Russia and it needs the attention of the state. The only reasonable way to correct the situation today is not to go after big businesses, but to give breathing room to medium and small businesses. That means protecting citizens and small entrepreneurs from arbitrary rule and from corruption. It means investing the revenues from the national natural resources into the national infrastructure, education and health care. And we must learn to do so without shameful theft and embezzlement.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Mean, Thinking, Giving

• An opposition is necessary and desirable for the healthy development of any country. You can scarcely find anyone in opposition, except for the communists, just like in Yeltsin's times. It is regrettable that there is still no constructive, clear and large-scale opposition in Russia. The growth and development of an opposition, as well as the maturing of other democratic institutions, will take more time and experience.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Country, Healthy, Growth

  "I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview With Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

• I am a convinced and consistent critic of party-parliamentarism. I am for non-partisan elections of true people's representatives who are accountable to their regions and districts; and who in case of unsatisfactory work can be recalled. I do understand and respect the formation of groups on economical, cooperative, territorial, educational, professional and industrial principles, but I see nothing organic in political parties. Politically motivated ties can be unstable and quite often they have selfish ulterior motives.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Selfish, Educational, Party

  "I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview With Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

• I have always insisted on the need for local self-government for Russia, but I never opposed this model to Western democracy. On the contrary, I have tried to convince my fellow citizens by citing the examples of highly effective local self-government systems in Switzerland and New England, both of which I saw first-hand.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Democracy, Citing, Western

  "I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview With Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

• Boris Yeltsin's period was characterized by a no less irresponsible attitude to people's lives, but in other ways. In his haste to have private rather than state ownership as quickly as possible, Yeltsin started a mass, multi-billion-dollar fire sale of the national patrimony. Wanting to gain the support of regional leaders, Yeltsin called directly for separatism and passed laws that encouraged and empowered the collapse of the Russian state. This deprived Russia of its historical role for which it had worked so hard, and lowered its standing in the international community.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Attitude, Support, Community

• Vladimir Putin inherited a ransacked and bewildered country, with a poor and demoralized people. And he started to do what was possible - a slow and gradual restoration. These efforts were not noticed, nor appreciated, immediately. In any case, one is hard pressed to find examples in history when steps by one country to restore its strength were met favorably by other governments.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Country, People, Effort

• A great number of publications and movies on the history of the 20th century - albeit of uneven quality - are evidence of a growing demand. Quite recently, the state-owned TV channel 'Russia' aired a series based on Varlam Shalamov's works, showing the terrible, cruel truth about Stalin's camps. It was not watered down.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Quality, Terrible, Evidence

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• Gorbachev's administration was amazingly politically naïve, inexperienced and irresponsible towards the country. It was not governance but a thoughtless renunciation of power. The admiration of the West in return only strengthened his conviction that his approach was right. But let us be clear that it was Mikhail Gorbachev, and not Boris Yeltsin, as is now widely being claimed, who first gave freedom of speech and movement to the citizens of Russia.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Country, Freedom Of Speech, Admiration

  "I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview With Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

• I was always optimistic. And I held to and was guided by my views.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Optimistic, Views

  "I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview with Christian Neef and Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

• There is something predetermined in the mutual attraction between Germany and Russia. Otherwise, this attraction would not have survived two ghastly World Wars.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  War, Russia, Mutual Attraction

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• If we look far into the future, one can see a time in the 21st century when both Europe and the USA will be in dire need of Russia as an ally.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Russia, Europe, Usa

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• As for Europe, its claims towards Russia are fairly transparently based on fears about energy, unjustified fears at that.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Russia, Europe, Energy

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• The perception of the West as mostly a "knight of democracy" has been replaced with the disappointed belief that pragmatism, often cynical and selfish, lies at the core of Western policies. For many Russians it was a grave disillusion, a crushing of ideals.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Crush, Selfish, Lying

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• When Russia started to regain some of its strength as an economy and as a state, the West's reaction - perhaps a subconscious one, based on erstwhile fears - was panic.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Russia, Panic, West

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• When the whole discussion of "developing a national idea" hastily began in post-Soviet Russia, I tried to pour cold water on it with the objection that, after all the devastating losses we had experienced, it would be quite sufficient to have just one task: the preservation of a dying people.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Loss, Ideas, Russia

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• When I returned to Russia in 1994, the Western world and its states were practically being worshipped. Admittedly, this was caused not so much by real knowledge or a conscious choice, but by the natural disgust with the Bolshevik regime and its anti-Western propaganda.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Real, Russia, Choices

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• The term "national idea" is an unclear one. One might think of it as a widely shared understanding among a people as to the desired way of life in their country, an idea that holds sway over the population. A unifying concept like that can be useful, but should never be created artificially or imposed top-down by the powers-that-be.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Country, Thinking, Top Down

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• I am deeply convinced that God is present both in the lives of every person and also in the lives of entire nations.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Persons, Nations, Convinced

  Source: www.orthodoxytoday.org

• Religion itself cannot but be dynamic which is why "return" is an incorrect term. A return to the forms of religion which perhaps existed a couple of centuries ago is absolutely impossible. On the contrary, in order to combat modern materialistic mores, as religion must, to fight nihilism and egotism, religion must also develop, must be flexible in its forms, and it must have a correlation with the cultural forms of the epoch.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Fighting, Order, Nihilism

  Interview with Joseph Pearce, Sr., "St. Austin Review", Volume 2, No. 2, www.catholiceducation.org. February 2003.

• Communist propaganda would sometimes include statements such as "we include almost all the commandments of the Gospel in our ideology". The difference is that the Gospel asks all this to be achieved through love, through self-limitation, but socialism only uses coercion. This is one point.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Self, Differences, Use

  Source: www.orthodoxytoday.org

• One cannot declare that only his faith is correct and all other faiths are not. God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God. One must not have any negative attitude to any religion but nonetheless the depth of understanding God and the depth of applying God's commandments is different in different religions.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Attitude, Understanding God, Depth

  Interview with Joseph Pearce, Sr., "St. Austin Review", Volume 2, No. 2, www.catholiceducation.org. February 2003.

• When I was young, the early death of my father cast a shadow over me - and I was afraid to die before all my literary plans came true. But between 30 and 40 years of age my attitude to death became quite calm and balanced. I feel it is a natural, but no means the final, milestone of one's existence.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Attitude, Father, Mean

  Source: www.independent.co.uk

• For me faith is the foundation and support of one's life.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Support, Foundation

  Source: www.independent.co.uk

• I think the gap between rich and poor is an extremely dangerous phenomenon and needs the immediate attention of the state.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Thinking, Needs, Attention

  Source: www.independent.co.uk