Угодило зёрнышко промеж двух жерновов. Очерки изгнания: Том 2. Новое издание (Красное колесо)

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Александр Солженицын

Книга А.И. Солженицына «Угодило зёрнышко промеж двух жерновов» — продолжение его первой мемуарной прозы «Бодался телёнок с дубом». В годы изгнания (1974—1994) писателю досталось противостоять как коммунистической системе, так и наихудшим составляющим западной цивилизации — извращённому пониманию свободы, демократии, прав и обязанностей человека, обусловленному отходом изрядной части общества от духовных ценностей. Но два «жернова» не перемололи «зёрнышко». Художник остался художником, а потому очерки изгнания оказались и очерками литературной жизни — как в горько-ироническом смысле, так и в смысле прямом и высоком: нам явлена история создания «Крk

1383 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 17, 2024

About the author

also known as
Alexander Solzenitsyn (English, alternate)
Αλεξάντρ Σολζενίτσιν (Greek)

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksan...

Reviews

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Since this was an advance proof, the page count is more around 530 pages than 680.)

BTM B2 is a worthy successor to B1 (published October 2018). In this volume (which doesn't mark the end of the memoirs, for not yet in english is Another Time, Another Burden, that I assume covers 1994 to his death in 2008, the second part of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's life in russia), which can be read separately from B1, Solzhenitsyn, safely (or so it would appear) settled in vermont, explains in detail the several controversies that surrounded him and that emanated from the ussr and the usa (the millstones). These include charges of monarchist leanings, anti-Semitism, theocratical tendencies, treasonous behaviour, of speaking out, and of not speaking out, about this or that development in the ussr's dying years, of wanting to assume a leadership role in the ussr and of not wanting to come back -- in short, he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. There are many axes ground on all sides here, mostly with Andrei Sinyavsky (his pen name is Abram Tertz), Vladimir Voinovich, and other writers; a mixture of praise, exasperation, and criticism of Andrei Sakharov; and trenchant remarks on Gorbachev and Yeltsin.

There is the main text, a useful publishers note and a foreword, appendices, endnotes to each chapter, and a biographical index of names with concise descriptions. I imagine that the finished book will include, like B1, a standard index.

The years 1978 to 1994 might seem impossibly far away, but Solzhenitsyn's writing makes the events come alive as if they were happening now. His struggle for peace and quiet to write The Red Wheel is often disrupted, and everyone who has ever wanted to be left alone to work will sympathize; his second wife, Natalia, is justly given a great deal of credit for her independent work on helping people in the ussr and in helping Solzhenitsyn, and their children feature as well. BTM B2 contains lofty arguments from principles, but there are domestic touches and the love a father and husband feels for his children and wife that, as in B1, ground life as well as this narrative. Well worth seeking out.

[Tim Bayly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second in tw0-volume utobiographical account of Solzhenitsyn's exile from the Soviet Union beginning in 1974, ending in 1994. Most interesting is Solzhenitsyn's visceral hatred for the Western press which he found consistently opposed to truth and justice, always misrepresenting what he said to them in interviews, as well as the most basic facts of the internal reality of the Soviet Union. Shortly after being exiled, Solzhenitsyn was so disgusted with journalists that he said to them, "You are worse than the KGB!" In fact, this two-volume account of those two decades of exile is titled "Between Two Millstones," one being the KGB and the other Western journalists. Read these two works for a fascinating and enlightening view into our nation and culture by a complete outsider who had our number.

[Katya Soll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primarily of interest to students of Russian history and literature, who are already familiar with Solzhenitsyn. There are some very interesting sections on his travels and the last years of the USSR, but other parts of the book are bogged down in recounting his clashes and hounding from the press and other intellectuals in great (and sometimes confusing) detail.