Alexander
Solzhenitsyn's death early in August and the publicity it generated have
led me to reconsider his life and its message for all of us. He was in
life hard to capture. Was he merely a gifted writer, or something more:
philosopher, sage, mystic? I am not sure. There is much in his writing
about the West with which I do not agree as it applies to our basic
freedoms, but the struggle, isolation and pain which were a constant
feature of his formative years in Soviet Labor Camps, instilled a
discerning eye for man's place in the cosmos. Indeed, his pain and
isolation forged a religiosity that is particularly Russian. Much of his
perspective was distilled into the speech he gave at Harvard in 1978 to
celebrate Harvard's 327th commencement.
As Russian tanks now
stream beyond the borders of South Ossetia and threaten Tbilisi and the government of Georgia itself, the uniquely Russian
view represented by Solzhenitsyn's writing gives an insight to the pride
and special relationship of faith and destiny in the actions of a
revitalized Russian Bear to those who border its lair.
Back in 1978,
Solzhenitsyn noted as regards the split between Russia and the
West that the understanding of the split too often is limited to a
political conception where the danger could be eliminated through
successful diplomatic negotiations or the balance of mutual assured
destruction of countervailing armed forces. To Solzhenitsyn, "the truth
is that the split is both more profound and more alienating..." and "...The
rifts are more numerous than one can see at first glance." He saw the
challenges in Lincolnian terms that
"... the deep, manifold splits bear the danger of manifold
disaster...our earth divided against itself cannot stand."
He noted that Western
society does not understand the special character of Russians and seeks
to impose its thoughts, mores and cultural expectations on Russians,
their relationships with God and with the State. In his view, our
normative approach insists on democracy and pursuit of a model of
success built on materialistic excess and individual rights. This is not
part of the Russian psyche, nor does it represent the norm for Russian
ideals of State power. Our tradition of separation of Church and State
is also not part of their tradition. The Orthodox Church plays a special
role in building a society that reflects God's will on how man should
relate to each other. The State bears a responsibility to help achieve
the God ordained destiny for Russia, whatever
it may be.
Having achieved the
material plenty that we have in the West, Solzhenitsyn lambasts us for
losing our "courage." The word I think he was reaching for was "nerve."
We created a society based upon certain Judeo Christian principles in
which, though the state was not to have a role in how we worshipped,
society was to operate based upon certain divine truths on how we were
to treat each other, and instead we are now in a Godless quandary with
society pulling at its seams in every direction.
In comparing our
enshrinement of individual freedom above all other values, he laments
our persistent blindness in telling the rest of the world that we
consider their failure to convert to our approach as merely a temporary
phenomenon borne of barbarity or incomprehension or tyrannical
manipulation. Solzhenitsyn would say to us that we should heal ourselves
before we point at anyone else. I think it would be fair to say that he
accused us of a dictatorship of both Godless individuality and socially
elite correctness in thought and action. He called it "fashionable
thinking"
To Solzhenitsyn,
"Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relationships, this
creates an atmosphere of spiritual mediocrity that paralyzes man's
noblest impulses." "It is time in the West to defend, not so much human
rights as human obligations." He also criticized the press noting,
"Hastiness and superficiality- these are the psychic diseases of the
twentieth century and more than anywhere else this is manifested in the
press. In depth analysis of a problem is anathema to the press; it is
contrary to its nature." (Not the Mercury) "The press merely picks
out sensational formulas."
It is not surprising
that though he refers to his eighteen years in The United States as his
most productive, he returned to Russia
following the fall of the Soviet Union.
At his core, he remained a Russian patriot. Though originally critical
of the Russian State upon his return, and specifically
disclaiming any support for socialism, he and Putin ultimately reached
an accord on the resurrection of the Russian state, and Putin has
honored his memory with a prestigious scholarship.
One wonders what he
would make of the fighting in Georgia
and the brutal exercise of power by Russia of a small neighboring state.
I suspect he would have expected nothing less. In providing shelter to
Solzhenitsyn, the fashionable thinkers he decries assumed he was
motivated as are we, and that is patently false. We simply have to
understand human complexity and stop being taken in by those whose
temporary life strategies seem to share for a time the "fashionable"
thinking in the West.
From the Russian
perspective, while the Soviet hegemony was not to last for all time,
Russians assumed that as part of the natural order of the universe, Russia's decline
in the early 90's was but temporary. Their inherent greatness would soon
be restored and its national interests and primary sphere of influence
in its "neighborhood" including all the states from the
Black Sea to the Baltic was to be asserted by them and
respected by these countries as well as The West.
Georgia
broke that rule, embarrassed them by adopting an aggressive western
style economy and government and was making it work. They also broke
another rule. They possessed the only non Russian controlled flow of oil
in their part of the world. The oil pipeline from The Caspian to the
Black Sea flows right through
Georgia
and is an obvious target of the Russians.
It is unfortunate for
Georgia
that its success came at a time that an unprecedented increase in oil
prices fueled Russian power at the same time it weakened The United
States with its dependence on foreign crude.
The West's inability
to project power in The Caucuses is a tragedy of profound importance and
is solely our fault. As a
nation we took our eye off the critical importance of the control of
energy in an energy starved world. We have left ourselves totally open
to what is ultimately an attack on the role the U.S. plays in keeping a peace based
on historic principles.
While we can
complain, there are very few effective levers available to us that we
can use and fewer still that our own need for Russian assistance to
contain Iran would allow
us to risk using. Not being able to defeat us with bullets or bombs, our
enemies have confounded us with the ammunition of the 21st
century: Energy and its control. We stepped right into this problem, and
now we compound our peril by lack of consensus at home on how to
extricate ourselves.
Well, it is about
time that we wake up. The National Security Council should be evaluating
all of our options. The Defense Department, Homeland Security and The
Department of Energy should have available for the new president on
January 20 a new Net Defense Assessment that candidly looks at our
alternatives and charts a course for the future. I don't want to hear
about our pristine beaches. We can protect them by adherence to best
available control technology offshore and in the wilderness. What we
cannot do is leave the nation exposed to Energy extortion. Solzhenitsyn
was right, "truth is seldom pleasant" We cannot have as a goal being
"friends with the Russians" and be energy secure.
Being respected and warm in the winter is far better. To reach
this goal we must be well armed with the implements of war for the 21st
century: The control of energy in all its forms to sustain our
civilization. That is VERITAS.