Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Research Paper

World leaders are leaders with high governmental power in the world. Every leader, not just world leaders, is either great or corrupt; they are rarely both. Most of Russia’s history is filled with corrupt leaders. Joseph was one of those leaders. Stalin killed millions of people during his rule. But Stalin also led the Soviet Union almost to the top in world power. Stalin had many influences that led him to his Soviet Leadership in which gave him many admirers but even more non-supporters.

Viktor E. Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who also had survived the Holocaust, writes “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves” (BrainyQuote). Frankl survived genocide against his own people and still chose to have a positive outlook on it because he understands that if he did not, he would continually live an unhappy, upset life. Like Frankl, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, the main character in One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, contains a similar outlook to that of Frankl. The novel takes place during Soviet Russia in a gulag in Siberia, or otherwise known as a labor work camp. The whole book is about only one day that Shukhov lives; from 5 in the morning to 10 at night and all that happens in between. In this labor camp, not only are the weather conditions very cold, making it difficult to work in such circumstances, but also the workers are punished and harshly treated if they do not obey the guards. When placed in this environment, it is easy to be discouraged and miserable, but instead of facing the negatives of his situation, Shukhov remains affirmative in his thoughts – which are most important in order to survive not only physically, but also mentally. This stoicism portrayed in the narrative can also be found in Epictetus’s work, The Handbook. In this text, Epictetus discusses how he believes people can live a happy life, despite the hard conditions they are put through

Lev Davidovich Bronstein was born on November 7, 1879 in Yonovka, Ukraine. At age 8, he was sent to school in Odessa for 8 years. He moved to Nikolayev in 1896 to complete his schooling, and was introduced to Marxism. After briefly attending the University of Odessa, he returned to Nikolayev to help organize the underground South Russian Workers’ Union. He was arrested in January 1898 for revolutionary activity and spent 4 ½ years in prison and in exile in Siberia. In 1902, he escaped with a forged passport with the name Trotsky and adopted as his revolutionary pseudonym, then moved to London and joined the Russian Social-Democrats working with Vladimir Lenin, where he sided with the Mensheviks.

In the summer of 1902, urged by his wife, he escaped from Siberia hidden in between a loaf of hay on a wagon, and then immigrated to London to write for Iskra. Once he had arrived to London he officially changed his last name to Trotsky, abandoning his former surname of Bronstein. Historians have said that this change to Trotsky was an adopted name from a jailer in Odessa. Under the alias of Pero (meaning feather or pen in Russian) quickly rose to become a leading writer for Iskra alongside Georgi Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, and Julius Martov. Shortly after Trotsky’s employment at the paper, it split into two sanctions, the Bolsheviks, which argued for a smaller but disciplined party, while the Mensheviks, argued for a larger and less discipline party, the latter which Trotsky supported. Later on, Trotsky left the Mensheviks over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Between the years of 1904 and 1917, he spent most of his time trying to reconcile different groups within the party, which resulted in many clashes with Lenin and other prominent party

When Joseph Stalin was in control on Russia it meant that the people lost freedom. Everything that was done in the USSR had to be approved by the government. The people of Russia had no access to the media. Stalin believed that capitalist societies were driven by self-interest and oppressed people. In Churchill's "Iron Curtin Speech" he is talking about the necessary actions to maintain peace in Europe. Stalin's response to him seems like he's provoking other European nations to initiate warfare against Russia. Stalin compares Chruchill's words to those of Hitler regarding "racial theory" and says "Churchill only calls to the English-speaking nations of the world" (Joseph Stalin: Reply to Churchill, 1946). When Stalin made this accusation,

Tolstoy was a Russian Novelist who longed for a nontraditional lifestyle far from his noble lineage (“Leo Tolstoy”).

“In the struggle with falsehood art always did win and it always does win!” Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident, espoused this philosophy to the Swedish Academy. He spoke of the power of art in combating the tyranny and lies of a corrupt government, and as a medium for evaluating society. He was at various times, a soldier in the Soviet army, a political prisoner of the Soviet state, a celebrity for his literary works, and an exile from all of Russia. His fiery philippic against Stalin landed him in prison for eight years; his account of prison life made him immensely popular during the de-Stalinization years of the early 1960’s, and he was deported for his most famous work, The Gulag Archipelago. He has become a symbol of the

Afterwards, Anderson goes back in time and reveals how the life of a genius, Shostakovich, was affected by a series of war conflicts including a revolution and World War I. Then, in October 1917, he also witnessed the birth of a Communist Russia after Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power. For a brief period, this new government supported and encouraged artists to develop their talents. The city became a place where “new art, new music, and new drama had to be found for a new world where workers ruled” (p. 37).

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said in his impactful narrative that paints a picture of the Gulag labor camps in Soviet Russia through personal experience, eyewitness testimony and interviews, and primary research material. Solzhenitsyn is describing the silence that survivors of the Gulag were forced to exhibit after staring terror and fear directly in the face during their time in the Gulag. The silence Solzhenitsyn is describing, is claimed to be one of the reason the Gulag is often not given the attention in history books and in the forefront of our minds that the Gulag deserves. The Gulag is believed to be one of the most horrible and inhuman acts of the 20th century, yet western society tends to shy away from mentioning the Gulag when discussing tragedy. This paper will examine historians’ views on the Gulag and why it has been overlooked in history as the horrible tragedy it was and the impact that this silence has had, not only on the survivors, but also the impact it has had on Russia and its society as a whole.

Finally, Solzhenitsyn's novel expresses one of the most important Christian principles, hope for the future. In Christianity, since Christ paid the price for the sins of the world, there are no lost causes. Christians have faith that Christ will return someday and that there will be a heaven. In the same way, in the midst of the terrible conditions of the prison camp, Shukhov can be pleased at

Akhmatova’s first collection of poetry was entitled, Evening. She published this work when Russia was already in the revolutionary era. Akhmatova was one of the few who never fled Russia during World War 1 and stayed and watched as those who left, lost their creative urges, and were misunderstood or ignored (Antigone 740). One of Akhmatova’s poems, I am not one of those who left the land, was inspired by this very thing.

Tolstoy started writing letters and notes to his family once he joined the military. This writing eventually turned into a hobby and then a career. Tolstoy wrote lots of literary works, most notable of which are, in no particular order, War

“Courage: Great Russian word, fit for the songs of our children's children, pure on their tongues, and free” (Anna Akhmatova). This line stated by Anna Akhmatova shows that courage was a strong word to the Russian people during that time. Anna was a famous poet in Russia who wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself and her beliefs. For years she fought for rights under Stalin’s rule for the rights of poetry to be free and unrestricted. Anna Akhmatova’s captivating poetry expresses the environmental factors of St.Petersburg, her involvement in the Acmeism movement and to her bad experience(s) under Stalin's rule.

Anton Chekhov was a playwright and author who is called one of the greatest writers of short stories history. He was born January 29, 1860 in Taganrog, Russia. Chekhov died July 15, 1904 in Badenweiler, Germany he was staying in a health resort. When Chekhov was born his father, Pavel, was a grocer with many troubles, yet his mother, Yevgeniya, loved storytelling and she shared that passion with him and his five siblings. In 1875 Pavel’s business went down so he decided to take his family to Moscow so he could find another job but Chekhov stayed in Taganrog to finish school. Four years later Chekhov finally moved in with the rest of his family and enrolled to medical school. As Chekhov’s father started struggling with money he helped support his family with his freelance writing he started producing hundreds of short comic pieces but he used

During Stalin’s reign, there were many problems in the USSR: economic problems, social problems and political. Due to these problems Stalin developed many domestic policies in order to counter these problems and try to avoid an uprising. These plans were put into motion almost immediately during Stalin’s reign, but they proved unsuccessful and Stalin was unable to solve the problems that existed within the Soviet Union.