The subject of Détente, Democracy and Dictatorship has been with us since the breakdown of the Cold War and the termination of the Soviet system, indeed, if not since the origins of Bolshevism. No more vigorous critic of the uneasy co-existence of democracy and dictatorship exists than the greatest writer that the Soviet era of Russian history produced, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Works, including One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) and The Gulag Archipelago (1973-1975), of Soviet writer and dissident Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970, exposed the brutality of the labor camp system.
This known Russian novelist, dramatist, and historian best helped to make the world aware of the forced Gulag.
Exiled in 1974, he returned to Russia in 1994. Solzhenitsyn fathered of Ignat Solzhenitsyn, a conductor and pianist.
This book is in two parts: the first 60% comprises speeches of Solzhenitsyn, and is five-star material.
The latter 40% comprises eight critical essays addressing Solzhenitsyn's speeches, written by six of the Tribe and two gentile authors. They are of absolutely no value, except for the final one, 'An Amnesty International of One' (which is one of the Jewish ones, by Horowitz), if only to partially counteract the seven that came before. In those essays, outdated and irrelevant though they are, one can see a great historical example of fifth columnism, Soviet sympathizing, defeatism, and general coastal elite anti-Americanism during the Cold War period by American (intellectuals), a trend that has continued and intensified but put on different clothing in the intervening years.
A good insight into Eastern (socialist/communist) thinking vs Western (capitalist/liberal) thinking. I particularly enjoyed the essays at the end of the book that offered rebuttal and approval. The most "enlightening" aspect to his speech was his total acceptance of the concept of good and evil, a concept/idea that is banned/excluded/not tolerated in our Western post truth "tolerant" society.
This was an interesting look at how Solzhenitsyn viewed both America and the Soviet Union during the 60's. One country he really likes and one he doesn't (I'm sure you know which is which). While he makes some interesting points, other parts are a bit sketchy and probably off the mark. Course that could be just me with my 2007 point of view distorting things, but I doubt that's all that kept this from being more enjoyable.
The Solzhenitsyn portion of this book is one of the speeches found in "Warning to the West." In addition there are a number of counter-essays regarding 'detente.'
The critical essays, for the most part, are helpful. They are especially critical of Solzhenitsyn's call to intervene in the affairs of other countries in their move toward communism.