Russia and the Jews

those historians, particularly with respect to Germany, had snatched up their
pens in the same unanimous and unrestrained party-line spirit as communists always
do for their political diatribes. A man who otherwise understands well how
to differentiate between propaganda and reality,
and between censorship and freedom
of expression, has here lost his impartiality
when confronted with the extensive complexity
of German history.
In his Gulag Archipelago he confessed:
“How easily did we let zealous [Stalinist]
slogans lead us about on their mental leash.
How satisfied we were to regard the persons
betrayed as those who were betraying!” 1
In volume two he describes truly horrific
events that were basic Soviet practice. But regarding
German war history, it does not
occur to Solzhenitsyn in the least to think that
he might still be on the leash of zealous propaganda.
✦
Left, a photo of Solzhenitsyn being
searched by a camp guard. Solzhenitsyn was
sentenced to hard labor after a criticism of the
Soviet leadership was detected in a personal
letter sent to a friend. Above, Solzhenitsyn in
early middle age, years after his release from
the work camps. He sports his signature facial
hair. Below, the construction site of the Baltic-
White Sea Canal (once called the Stalin
Canal) saw the destruction of the lives of
100,000 prisoners in 1932-33, people taken
by revolutionary arbitrariness from all the
classes of all the ethnic groups of Russia.
The project, whipped through to completion
by the gulag administration, never fulfilled
the original expectations. The canal was 140
miles in length and had 19 locks for ships up
to 3,000 tons and ran from Archangel over
Lake Onega but could be used only in the
ice-free season from June to October. Further,
in many spots it was not deep enough to
accommodate larger transport vessels.
T B R • P. O . B O X 1 5 8 7 7 • W A S H I N G T O N , D . C . 2 0 0 0 3 T H E B A R N E S R E V I E W 5