What do you think?
Rate this book
On Rotting Prison Straw: The Self-Actualization of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In Stalin’s Russia, when prison sentences stretched ten, fifteen, and twenty-five years, the future Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn found himself incarcerated in its genocidal “corrective” labor camps (the so-called Gulag of the Soviet Union). His expressing anti-Stalinist opinions in a letter to a friend.
A devout Communist at his arrest, condemned to be worked to death in the frozen wastelands of Russia, he underwent instead a profound psychological transformation, broke free of his Marxist ideology—and survived. This full biography of one of the most influential personalities of the Twentieth Century follows his astounding journey from the camps, to living through near-terminal cancer, to winning the Nobel Prize, to publishing the groundbreaking book that played a key role in the fall of the Soviet Empire—exposing the half-century of inhuman atrocities, and the sixty-million slaughtered lives, it kept so jealously hidden for so long.
In this second installment in the Self-Actualizing People in History series, biographer, historian, and humanistic psychologist Roman Gelperin combines the fascinating narrative of the life of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, with the history of the Soviet State it was embedded in, with a psychological study of the pivotal experiences that shaped him. In a highly illuminating, new perspective on Solzhenitsyn, he shows him to be a perfect example of the self-actualized person—a very specific (“enlightened”) personality type first identified by Abraham Maslow in 1950.
Using Solzhenitsyn’s life as a demonstration, he also illustrates what self-actualization is, why its peculiar character traits, and how Solzhenitsyn found enlightenment on rotting prison straw.
A devout Communist at his arrest, condemned to be worked to death in the frozen wastelands of Russia, he underwent instead a profound psychological transformation, broke free of his Marxist ideology—and survived. This full biography of one of the most influential personalities of the Twentieth Century follows his astounding journey from the camps, to living through near-terminal cancer, to winning the Nobel Prize, to publishing the groundbreaking book that played a key role in the fall of the Soviet Empire—exposing the half-century of inhuman atrocities, and the sixty-million slaughtered lives, it kept so jealously hidden for so long.
In this second installment in the Self-Actualizing People in History series, biographer, historian, and humanistic psychologist Roman Gelperin combines the fascinating narrative of the life of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, with the history of the Soviet State it was embedded in, with a psychological study of the pivotal experiences that shaped him. In a highly illuminating, new perspective on Solzhenitsyn, he shows him to be a perfect example of the self-actualized person—a very specific (“enlightened”) personality type first identified by Abraham Maslow in 1950.
Using Solzhenitsyn’s life as a demonstration, he also illustrates what self-actualization is, why its peculiar character traits, and how Solzhenitsyn found enlightenment on rotting prison straw.
332 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 24, 2021
40 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 7, 2021
‘Self-actualization – living one’s life to the fullest’
Massachusetts author Roman Gelperin describes himself as ‘an author, biographer, philosopher, and forever a student of the human mind.’ He earned his BA in Psychology from Stony Brook University, and lives in Cambridge, MA. His important and informative books to date are ADDICTION, PROCRASTINATION, AND LAZINESS, DEPRESSION AND THE IMMATURE ROMANCE, SELF-ACTUALIZED BY POKER, and his series SELF-ACTUALIZING PEOPLE IN HISTORY, his initial volume was THE MASTER MIND OF THE SELF-ACTUALIZATION PERSON, and now Book 2 ON ROTTING PRISON STRAW: THE SELF-ACTUALIZATION OF ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN - increasing his influence in addressing the impact self-actualization on his – and our - lives. This series adds significant central histories that support his focus on self-actualization: the biographical information on Maslow, Solzhenitsyn, Einstein and Ayn Rand. While this supportive information is worthy and informative, the power of the book lies in Roman’s inviting shared journey to his own state of enlightenment.
Some of the flavor of this volume is sensed in the opening comments: ‘Raised on Soviet propaganda and steeped in Marxist-Leninist doctrine, in February 1945 – the closing months of the Second World War – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was an artillery captain in the Red Army, his battery among the advancing Russian Forces pushing the Germans back through East Prussia on a road that eventually led to Berlin. And then suddenly, without any hint or warning, he was arrested. “Arrest!” he would write in the opening pages of GULAG ARCHIPELAGO; ‘Need it be said that it is the breaking point of your entire life? That it is a bolt of lightning that has scored a direct hit on you? That it is an unassailable spiritual earthquake that not every person is able to cope with and often drives one into insanity?...Yet with darkened minds incapable of embracing these displacements in our universe, both the most sophisticated and very simplest of us can find, amongst our whole life experience, nothing other to blurt our then: “Me? What for?”
As Roman outlines for us, ‘In Stalin’s Russia, when prison sentences stretched ten, fifteen, and twenty-five years, the future Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn found himself incarcerated in its genocidal “corrective” labor camps (the so-called Gulag of the Soviet Union). His crime: expressing anti-Stalinist opinions in a letter to a friend. A devout Communist at his arrest, condemned to be worked to death in the frozen wastelands of Russia, he underwent instead a profound psychological transformation, broke free of his Marxist ideology—and survived. This full biography of one of the most influential personalities of the Twentieth Century follows his astounding journey from the camps, to living through near-terminal cancer, to winning the Nobel Prize, to publishing the groundbreaking book that played a key role in the fall of the Soviet Empire—exposing the half-century of inhuman atrocities, and the sixty-million slaughtered lives, it kept so jealously hidden for so long. Using Solzhenitsyn’s life as a demonstration, he also illustrates what self-actualization is, why its peculiar character traits, and how Solzhenitsyn found enlightenment on rotting prison straw.’
This is an exception biography of Solzhenitsyn, supplanting the addition of history of famous self-actualizers and the journey of Roman Gelperin. Reading and absorbing this book is a path toward enlightenment. The author - and we, the readers – grow with each new book: a genuine state of enlightenment and happiness. Very highly recommended.
Massachusetts author Roman Gelperin describes himself as ‘an author, biographer, philosopher, and forever a student of the human mind.’ He earned his BA in Psychology from Stony Brook University, and lives in Cambridge, MA. His important and informative books to date are ADDICTION, PROCRASTINATION, AND LAZINESS, DEPRESSION AND THE IMMATURE ROMANCE, SELF-ACTUALIZED BY POKER, and his series SELF-ACTUALIZING PEOPLE IN HISTORY, his initial volume was THE MASTER MIND OF THE SELF-ACTUALIZATION PERSON, and now Book 2 ON ROTTING PRISON STRAW: THE SELF-ACTUALIZATION OF ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN - increasing his influence in addressing the impact self-actualization on his – and our - lives. This series adds significant central histories that support his focus on self-actualization: the biographical information on Maslow, Solzhenitsyn, Einstein and Ayn Rand. While this supportive information is worthy and informative, the power of the book lies in Roman’s inviting shared journey to his own state of enlightenment.
Some of the flavor of this volume is sensed in the opening comments: ‘Raised on Soviet propaganda and steeped in Marxist-Leninist doctrine, in February 1945 – the closing months of the Second World War – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was an artillery captain in the Red Army, his battery among the advancing Russian Forces pushing the Germans back through East Prussia on a road that eventually led to Berlin. And then suddenly, without any hint or warning, he was arrested. “Arrest!” he would write in the opening pages of GULAG ARCHIPELAGO; ‘Need it be said that it is the breaking point of your entire life? That it is a bolt of lightning that has scored a direct hit on you? That it is an unassailable spiritual earthquake that not every person is able to cope with and often drives one into insanity?...Yet with darkened minds incapable of embracing these displacements in our universe, both the most sophisticated and very simplest of us can find, amongst our whole life experience, nothing other to blurt our then: “Me? What for?”
As Roman outlines for us, ‘In Stalin’s Russia, when prison sentences stretched ten, fifteen, and twenty-five years, the future Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn found himself incarcerated in its genocidal “corrective” labor camps (the so-called Gulag of the Soviet Union). His crime: expressing anti-Stalinist opinions in a letter to a friend. A devout Communist at his arrest, condemned to be worked to death in the frozen wastelands of Russia, he underwent instead a profound psychological transformation, broke free of his Marxist ideology—and survived. This full biography of one of the most influential personalities of the Twentieth Century follows his astounding journey from the camps, to living through near-terminal cancer, to winning the Nobel Prize, to publishing the groundbreaking book that played a key role in the fall of the Soviet Empire—exposing the half-century of inhuman atrocities, and the sixty-million slaughtered lives, it kept so jealously hidden for so long. Using Solzhenitsyn’s life as a demonstration, he also illustrates what self-actualization is, why its peculiar character traits, and how Solzhenitsyn found enlightenment on rotting prison straw.’
This is an exception biography of Solzhenitsyn, supplanting the addition of history of famous self-actualizers and the journey of Roman Gelperin. Reading and absorbing this book is a path toward enlightenment. The author - and we, the readers – grow with each new book: a genuine state of enlightenment and happiness. Very highly recommended.
July 30, 2022
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn abbreviated
This book is an abbreviated life story of the famed Soviet-era author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. It includes a fact that I was previously unaware of, that Solzhenitsyn as a young Red Army officer had participated in a specific war crime as the Soviets pushed through Prussia on their way to liberate Berlin. The crime was the rape of a young German woman in a barn, a subordinate soldier offered to bring the woman from a farming family where the unit was encamped, Solzhenitsyn made his choice and the subordinate brought her to his captain to be abused in a private place from which Solzhenitsyn blocked her escape. Solzhenitsyn admits he felt bad about doing the deed and the woman begged for her her life and Solzhenitsyn told her everything would be alright. He admitted this in his autobiography. In any case, I applaud Mr. Gelperin for not excluding this event from his work. One might conclude that Solzhenitsyn's arrest some time later was the act of a provider God trying to turn his life around (my conclusion). As for the concept of self-actualization, I don't understand it and I'm not sure how it applies to this individual 's life. Solzhenitsyn referred to Stoic and Taoist principles in his masterpiece, the Gulag Archipelago. As a Christian believer, the thought came to me, Solzhenitsyn 'let go and let God' direct his path as he walked through hell on earth. May be rest in peace.
This book is an abbreviated life story of the famed Soviet-era author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. It includes a fact that I was previously unaware of, that Solzhenitsyn as a young Red Army officer had participated in a specific war crime as the Soviets pushed through Prussia on their way to liberate Berlin. The crime was the rape of a young German woman in a barn, a subordinate soldier offered to bring the woman from a farming family where the unit was encamped, Solzhenitsyn made his choice and the subordinate brought her to his captain to be abused in a private place from which Solzhenitsyn blocked her escape. Solzhenitsyn admits he felt bad about doing the deed and the woman begged for her her life and Solzhenitsyn told her everything would be alright. He admitted this in his autobiography. In any case, I applaud Mr. Gelperin for not excluding this event from his work. One might conclude that Solzhenitsyn's arrest some time later was the act of a provider God trying to turn his life around (my conclusion). As for the concept of self-actualization, I don't understand it and I'm not sure how it applies to this individual 's life. Solzhenitsyn referred to Stoic and Taoist principles in his masterpiece, the Gulag Archipelago. As a Christian believer, the thought came to me, Solzhenitsyn 'let go and let God' direct his path as he walked through hell on earth. May be rest in peace.
July 11, 2021
Eye-opening
This book is a biographical account of a remarkable man that can inspire us to live life to the fullest. Many of us have something holding us back. Something keeping us sad or dissatisfied. We can change our views using self discovery and self awareness as shown here.
This book is a biographical account of a remarkable man that can inspire us to live life to the fullest. Many of us have something holding us back. Something keeping us sad or dissatisfied. We can change our views using self discovery and self awareness as shown here.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews