200 Years Together I: The Jews Before the Revolution

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Dans mon travail d'un demi-siècle sur l'histoire de la révolution russe, je me suis heurté plus d'une fois au problème des relations entre Russes et Juifs. Son dard s'enfonçait à tout bout de champ dans les événements, la psychologie des hommes, et suscitait des passions chauffées à blanc. Je ne perdais pas espoir qu'un auteur me devancerait et saurait éclairer, avec l'amplitude et l'équilibre nécessaires, cet épieu incandescent. Mais nous avons plus souvent affaire à des reproches unilatéraux : soit les Russes sont coupables face aux Juifs, pire, le peuple russe est perverti depuis toujours, cela nous le trouvons à profusion ; soit, à l'autre pôle, les Russes qui ont traité de ce problème relationnel l'ont fait pour la plupart avec hargne, excès, sans vouloir même imputer le moindre mérite à la partie adverse [...]. J'aurais aimé ne pas éprouver mes forces sur un sujet aussi épineux. Mais je considère que cette histoire - à tout le moins l'effort pour y pénétrer - ne doit pas rester " interdite ". L'histoire du " problème juif " en Russie (en Russie seulement ?) est avant tout d'une exceptionnelle richesse. En parler signifie entendre soi-même des voix nouvelles et les donner à entendre au lecteur. (Dans ce livre, les voix juives vont retentir bien plus souvent que les voix russes.) Mais les tourbillons du climat social font que l'on se trouve communément sur le fil du rasoir. On sent peser sur soi, des deux côtés, toutes sortes de griefs et d'accusations, plausibles aussi bien qu'invraisemblables, qui vont en s'amplifiant. Le propos qui me guide au fil de cet ouvrage sur la vie commune des peuples russe et juif consiste à chercher tous les points d'une compréhension mutuelle, toutes les voies possibles qui, débarrassées de l'amertume du passé, puissent nous conduire vers l'avenir. A. S. Voici le premier des trois tomes de Deux siècles ensemble qui couvre la période allant de la fin du XVIIe siècle à la veille de la révolution de 1917.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia

472 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 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

[Jason Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

For everyone whose head is not buried in the sand, "the Jewish Question" is now being forced into the forefront in the US, as it has in almost every civilized country over the past 2000 years, but nowhere as significantly as in Russia (Germany was merely epilogue), where over 50 percent of the world's Jews lived near the turn of the 20th century.

Lines are being drawn in the sand, with accusations of anti-semitism being hurled on one side, and the other side claiming persecution for "the crime of noticing."

If Belloc was correct (and I think he was), the only hope of breaking the repeated pattern is light: honest discussion of the issues with transparency of interests on both sides. This advice was not heeded by Europe when Belloc wrote his book in the interwar period, and disaster resulted. Let us heed his advice today.

Solzhenitsyn is respected worldwide, so far as I know, so his account of the last 200 years of Russo-Jewish history bears reading.

It's a very detailed, dispassionate telling and takes us up through the Bolshevik revolution, which will be told in Volume II.

I was looking for a bit less detailed history and a bit more analysis, or I'd have given it a fourth star. Very good, though, for being all that it attempts to be. And frankly, it probably serves as merely an intro to the Russian revolution, where these two peoples' histories clash so violently. I am looking forward to volume II.

[Chris Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Won’t find this in any school system. Wonder why?

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

He tried to charitable and offer reasoning for the behavior of the Jewish people as a collective, but the evidence provided only solidifies their guilt and intolerable behavior. The patience and suffering of the Russian people as they tried to co-exist cannot be overstated. The ingratitude and cruelty of the Jewish people is beyond comparison.

[Álvaro Athayde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gostei muito porque aprendi muito.
Considero que é de leitura obrigatória para quem quiser compreender o que se passou, e se passa, nas Europas Central e Oriental.

Je l'ai aimé parce que j'ai beaucoup appris.
Je pense que c'est un must pour tous ceux qui veulent comprendre ce qui s'est passé et ce qui se passe en Europe Centrale et Orientale.

I liked it because I learned a lot.
I think it is a must for anyone who wants to understand what has happened, and what is happening, in Central and Eastern Europe.

[Pic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro doppio, chiarificatore unico, scritto da una grande volontà di porre alla luce quello che nessuno aveva la forza di esporre e quindi è toccato ancora una volta a Lui, grande A.Sol.!
Valido contributo anche per chi, onestamente, riconosce di non volersi perdere nei pesanti pre e post della Rivoluzione bolscevica. Ma vuole comunque sapere.
E, sugli ebrei, non lascia scampo ad equivoci. Da ebreo buono.

[Martina Mecco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incomparabile Solženicyn