More Solzhenitsyn

In no exact order:

Quoting the head of the Cheka, Martin Latsis from the newspaper Red Terror, in 1918:

"We are not fighting against single individuals.  We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class.  It is not necessary during an interrogation to look for evidence proving that the accused opposed the Soviets by word or action.  The first question which you should ask him is what class does he belong to, what is his origin, his education and his profession.  These are the questions which will determine the fate of the accused.  Such is the sense and the essence of the red terror."

And I wonder how far away we are from this:

In the twenties the religious education of children was classified as a politcal crime under Article 58-10 of the Code - in other words, counterrevolutionary propaganda.  True, one was still permitted to renounce one's religion at one's trial:  it didn't often happen but it nonetheless did happen that the father would renounce his religion and remain at home to raise the children while the mother went to the Solovetsky Islands. [...] All persons convicted of religious activity received tenners, the longest term then given.

I wonder why religion would receive the harshest penalties?  Because it esteems something higher than the State, perhaps?

I maintain that if you eliminate God from the public square (take note, my clever libertarian atheist friends), you open it up for the State to step into the void.  The elimination of God makes all sorts of terror possible.  If there is no objective right or wrong, then what is to stop anyone from doing anything they want to anyone else?  And I put it to you that you cannot logically posit an objective right or wrong without the existence of a higher power, or at the very least, a complex philosophical model which the common lay person would find impossible to decipher, any way.

Another good quote:

It is really hard to see why we condemn the Inquisition.  Wasn't it true that beside the autos-da-fe, magnificent services were offered the Almighty?  It is hard to see why we are so down on serfdom.  After all, no one forbade the peasants to work every day.  And they could sing carols at Christmas too.  And for Trinity Day the girls wore wreaths...

Anyway, more will follow...It was just such a brilliant book where one can reflect on the extent to which the State invades our space even now.

Comments

[Monty]

How nice to be reminded of this book. I must look out my own copy, and re-read it.

My own favourite is "One day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch", in which the irrepressible spirit of the poor convict always revives my faith in human nature.