History May Still Produce Figures of Solzhenitsyn’s Scale
Most of the comments related to Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s death have had an air of sorrow about them – a grief for the burial of the nation’s conscience, for the passing of an epoch of great people the last of whom has just departed. But Alexander Arkhangelsky argues that although Solzhenitsyn was indisputably a grand and powerful figure, he was just one of the few who have revealed themselves, while given the right circumstances, history will uncover many more.
The last respects for Alexander Solzhenitsyn were said in a very dignified way, just as his life had been dignified. The writer was laid to rest without official pomp and without excessive public curiosity. The ceremony was solemn and peaceful, with an evident belief in the resurrection of the dead and in the eternal life of the future century. If there was an example of an ideal funeral for a great person, this was it.
However, the commentary relating to this death, which Alexander Isayevich had been preparing for in a conscious and Christian manner for a long time, has been restless, permeated by the same motif: the nation’s conscience has died, there is nobody left to stand up and root for the people, and never again will there be any grand writers or powerful personalities in Russia. Solzhenitsyn was the last one. Solzhenitsyn himself wrote about this “diminishing” world; he repeatedly spoke of the inevitable and, alas, irreparable downfall of culture, about the final and complete victory of commercialism over ideals. But while admitting that this diagnosis is correct, we do not have to unconditionally agree with the verdict and forego all hope that, in spite of the obvious logic, history might again take an unexpected turn and produce some figures of Solzhenitsyn’s scale.
After all, he himself should not have existed. Vanquishers of communism do not hatch from Soviet boys brought up under the umbrella of communist ideology. And if they do hatch, they end up in a prison camp very quickly and almost never come out alive. And if they do come out, they do not fall ill with cancer that manifests itself at the latest stage. And if they recover, they do not emerge at the sub-censorship surface of published literature... and so forth. At every new turn of Solzhenitsyn’s fate, the writer was faced with either imminent death or inevitable ejection into nowhere. Nevertheless, everything worked out. Perhaps it was because Solzhenitsyn was capable of hearing the unpredictable, incalculable voice of God’s will and of obeying this will, accepting it as his own choice.
Similarly, Andrey Sakharov, Solzhenitsyn’s brilliant opponent, should never have existed. Because great dissidents simply do not emerge from the environment of nuclear weapon creators, the possessors of all possible privileges and many-times Heroes of Socialist Labor. But Andrey Dmitriyevich did emerge. And headed to where fate was leading him.
Although differently, both of them were equally claimed by Russian life, by the tragic Russian history, and they responded to this claim. Had they not replied – who would have ever found out about them? Sakharov would have been honored among the great physicists who worked for the defense industry. And Solzhenitsyn--as one of the millions of nameless victims sacrificed on the altar of the Soviet regime. Similarly, we know nothing about people who have the same possibilities today, but who have not uncovered themselves.
Actually, there is nothing really new about the current commentary; it takes root in the cultural tradition. When Generalissimo Suvorov was buried in 1800, the great Russian poet Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin pronounced his severe verdict, condemning his time along with future eras.
Why are you starting your militant chirping
Oh dear Bullfinch, in your flute-like voice?
Who now will lead us in war against evil?
Who’ll be our chieftain, our hero of choice?
Where is Suvorov, quick, brave and mighty?
Great Northern thunders lie in the grave.
…Heart of a lion, wings of an eagle
Are no longer with us! – How can we fight?
(G. Derzhavin, “Bullfinch”)
This poetry is so wonderful it gives one goose bumps. But 12 years later the Patriotic War started and a great commander revealed himself, although nobody expected any great military achievements from him. At the time when the tearful Bullfinch was written, Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov had the reputation of a cunning military diplomat and a tortuous courtier; similar to Sakharov’s reputation of a loyal scientific servant of the regime. There was nobody to go to war against; there was no chieftain; the hero was absent – while there was no great military task. As soon as the task was set – the chieftain and leader appeared.
Let’s put it differently. Solzhenitsyn is not the last righteous man, not the last genius, not the last teacher. He is simply the last of those great Russian people whom we have been lucky to guess, to uncover while they were alive. In reality, there are no others, and it is doubtful that any will appear in the foreseeable future. But is God’s creative work finished? Won’t the future generations search for truth in spite of the reigning falsehood; won’t they revive the lost moral guiding points, resist entropy, make their way out from under the landslides and rebuild the country anew? They will – because they won’t have any other options. And if they will, they will get their “hero.”
As for the deceased conscience of the nation… What kind of a nation is it that has its whole conscience tied to a short life of a mortal man? Even if this man was truly great, like Solzhenitsyn. The nation’s conscience did not go anywhere; it will look for ways to manifest itself and for new incarnations. Let’s just wait and see.
Our current bitterness is not due to the fact that Russian history has stopped and Solzhenitsyn has taken the mystery of complete self-realization and the secret of human greatness with him to his grave. It is caused by the fact that never again will this particular man – this courageous, strong, handsome man, happy with the special happiness of a conscientious life – be near us. He was able to alter the conscience of several generations. He set the moral reference point for a whole era. After all, he wrote grand books. And we truly feel orphaned, although nobody called us to be heirs. But there is nothing more contrary to Solzhenitsyn’s spirit than despondent lamentations about the perished conscience and the terminated tradition. He did not terminate this tradition, he continued it.
May he rest in peace. And we thank him from the bottom of our hearts.
