COHEN: Solzhenitsyn's legacy

It is high time the political right in this country acknowledge what is well known to historians and to those who studied the Soviet Union. Men like Solzhenitsyn, Ariel Cohen, Andrei Sakarov and countless others unknown in the west undermined the legitimacy of the communist party to rule in Russia by preserving the memory of the crimes committed by the Bolshiviks and their successors. With the death of Aleksandr Isayevich it is appropriate the truth about the childish nonsense oft written on these pages how Ronald Reagan toppled the Soviet Union be buried along with the memory of communist rule in Russia. May he finally rest in peace with the memory that the truth prevailed over the darkness.

Solzhenitsyn the ultimate Jeremiad??? Quote from article: "His [Solzhenitsyn's] books and his life had the effect of a thermonuclear explosion, scorching what was left of Soviet legitimacy." YES! I too remember how his 1970's GULAG book hit like a bomb. Solzhenitsyn told of his life in the Gulags. He called on 227 other witnesses to gulag life. He, the former zek (gulag inmate) put the word "gulag" into our language. His biggest expose: Communism-has its version of concentration camps. Vast murdering evil - vast murderous disregard for the rights of millions - was NOT the sole crime of the extreme right (Nazis, etc). Solzhenitsyn's temporary popularity with press and most everyone else cast a glow which lit up the decay of 1970's Soviet communism. The Soviets squirmed under the world scrutiny. So much so that Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union - instead of incarcerated. Up to now, Solzhenitsyn has been evaluated in chronological order. He's become the old man (sorta a Jeremiad) who says weird things. Boring, Irrelevant. Old. Is Solzhenitsyn still irrelevant? Read two essays online. Decide for yourself: The 1970 Nobel Prize speech and the "infamous" 1978 Harvard speech. Note especially his assertions about the Western Press.