This is Hector,

Now this should be strong enough proof that capitalist Russia is not a "neo-Soviet Union". Friends forever in a capitalist Russia Putin and Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn a pro-imperialist reactionary who blames all of Russia's problems of the past and present on Jews and ethnic minorities. So why the shame on Solzhenitsyn when the base of his politics are no different then that of Putin: Russian nationalism and chauvinism; along with anti-Communism. You may verify this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn

HECTOR:

If you think that communism/socialism was an important hallmark of the USSR, then you are demented.

The vast majority of Russians never joined the communist party and were never communists. They were and are some of the world's greatest materialists, and they only reason they didn't get things was because the Soviet rulers shot them if they did.

The hallmark of the USSR was brutality, centralized power, and hatred of all things Western and democratic. That is the same hallmark of today's Russia.

If you read again Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Commencement address, his distrust and lack of understanding of a free press and the democratic process is apparent. He learned nothing from his years in the US. His mind was closed.

He could document the horror of the totalitarian state but couldn't grasp it's prevention.

He has squandered his moral authority. His dissident status kept western critics of his inconsistency and naivete silent.

His silence as as Putin has dismantled freedoms is disgusting.

You nailed it, that picture is a lifetime's work unndone in minutes.

LR -

I have followed old Solzhenitsyn.

The only thing I'm going to say, with all due respect, is that you have misread him as far as anything other than the sovok union.

The guy, quite simply, is a creep. He is a russkie imperialist. He wrote some "poor me, look at our terrible sovok misery" books, and people in the West ate it up.

They weren't bad books.

But you have misread him.

Luckily Kim Zigfeld is not a Muse of History.

Whatever is good for Russia is good.

capitalist Russia is not a "neo-Soviet Union"

It could be argued that modern Russia combines the worst elements of the Soviet Union with the worst elements of Tsarist Russia. .

Given that Solzhenitsyn seems to have always liked the worst elements of Tsarist Russia, it's not that much of a surprise that he would be in favor of Putin.

Hi Hector!

I found your question to elmer about the word "sovok".
Elmer is not that smart to invent something. He just learned from his mom who emigrated from Russia.
The word "sovok" (which means "a scoop" or "a trowel") was used by the West-admired Russians in the end of 80-ths through 90-ths (the time of the Soviet Union's end and a decade after) to show a snobbish attitude of the speaker towards all that can be called "soviet".
It came to usage because of being assonant to the word "soviet".
The word has two common usages:
1. A soviet man or woman(also homo soveticus) poor, unsophisticated, uncivilized, suffering from lack of cars, jeans and toilet paper, having inferiority complex when encounters the Westerners and the Western Civilization (which has the surplus of cars, jeans and toilet paper as the speaker sees it).
Ex. He is such a sovok.

2. The Soviet Union.
Ex. They in sovok can not afford buying a used Honda Accord like us…

It is not much in use in Russia today but still a popular word among the Russian immigrants in the USA, who settled there in 90-es.

guzhy gives the old zek a pass on this one. "One day" is great literature and will be considered such in a 1000 years. take down the hack mayakovskii asap and give the spot to solzhenitzyn. so he meets with the current prez, a loser chekist---it's one small and tiny moment in a great man's life.

The old zek wrote a good book, which was easy to write, since sovok misery was all around.

That does NOT make him a great man.

Just a good writer at one time.

A great man would not kow-tow to the likes of Vlad Dracul Putin.

By the way, the term sovok is well-known throughout the former sovok union, and is used by people today in all of those former sovok workers' paradise republics.

Monty Python did much better skits about it, to much better effect.

Along the lines of "come and look at our wonderful misery - isn't our misery wonderful?"

Russkies, sovok or otherwise, had only one hope - "I want to see my neighbor's barn burn down."

That's it in a nutshell.


Go to any Estonian, Ukrainian, etc. blog, and you will see it used today.

Along with the term "katsap," which Ukrainians use to refer to a sort of goat - or a russkie sovok.

Because russkies love to assume a very chauvinistic attitude, and they think that only they are entitled to any say in any matter.

There's not anyone in Europe that likes russkies - except other russkies.

"I want to see my neighbor's barn burn down."

What did you expect him to do? Slap Putin? Spit in his face? Berate him? No my friend his work is not undone. An old man does not have to make a fool of himself in his waning years, if he did his work. And he did work in his youth. All his words are still sitting on my book shelf and all around the world. Waiting to be read and when Putin is moldering in oblivion, when his replacements replacement is replaced the words will still be there waiting to indict the next poor creature.

Why lose faith in a hero if Russia truly is a Democracy then the award given to Alexander Solzhenitsyn was not given by Putin it was given by the Russian people. To reject such a gift would truly be scandalous. . .