My thoughts have been spurred in a uniquely challenging way after some reading in Joseph Pearce's fine biography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Solzhenitsyn; A Soul in Exile.
When beginning this book, I searched out a copy of The Gulag Archipeligo , Solzhenitsyn's extensive and world influencing master work. It is the record of his own existence and survival of one of the most challenging efforts to extinguish an entire portion of civilization by one of the most completely corrupted dictators in all history. At a turning point in Solzhenitsyn's life, and thus in Pearce's record, it is noted that he remembered 12,000 lines of his own verse. He had no paper, and it would have been confiscated and he would have been punished for it anyway. This verse he painstakingly remembered would become one of, if not, the most impactful books to alter the course of human experience. This is no exaggeration.
Censorship and fear had prevented the truth about the camps from being published, but this story made it into print. The USSR would never be the same again.
"We were absolutely isolated from information, and he started to open our eyes," remembers writer and journalist Vitaly Korotich.
Life in the camps was something "it was impossible even to think about" he says. "I read it and re-read it and I simply thought about how brave he was. We had a lot of writers but we never had such a brave writer."
Here is my first question: Given the choice, what would I choose to remember? What 12,000 lines of verse would I commit to memory if I had no way to write them down. Is there a thesis you are developing you would share with others about which you felt compelled to carry in your memory? What would it be.
Second Question: What do you carry out when the water is washing away all of your earthly goods? What do you grab, if you have even a split second, what do you take with you.
Thirdly, and for this post- last question: What really matters. Reading Solzhenitsyn's writing & speeches tells of his soul searching, what surfaced after seasons of learning, action, and discipline-- self imposed and that by others against his will. What really matters becomes clear when put to the test. Trivial falls away.
I cannot recommend enough, Joseph Pearce's biography of Solzhenitsyn.
I believe one must consider and understand what can happen when freedoms are dismissed when control over others is the goal. Read 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Dinisovich.' And when you are ready for a true study, The Gulag Archipeligo.
My first reading of A Soul in Exile, 2016, This post published Fall October 2024.
