Editing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (section)

=== On Russia and the Jews ===

[[File:Frenkel2.jpg|thumb|[[Naftaly Frenkel]] (far right) and head of Gulag [[Matvei Berman]] (center) at the [[White Sea–Baltic Canal]] works, July 1932]]

In his 1974 essay "Repentance and Self-Limitation in the Life of Nations", Solzhenitsyn urged "Russian Gentiles" and [[Jews]] alike to take moral responsibility for the "renegades" from both communities who enthusiastically embraced [[atheism]] and [[Marxism–Leninism]] and participated in the [[Red Terror]] and many other acts of torture and mass murder following the [[October Revolution]]. Solzhenitsyn argued that both Russian Gentiles and Jews should be prepared to treat the atrocities committed by Jewish and Gentile [[Bolsheviks]] as though they were the acts of their own family members, before their consciences and before God. Solzhenitsyn said that if we deny all responsibility for the crimes of our national kin, "the very concept of a people loses all meaning."<ref>[[#Ericson2009|Ericson (2009)]] pp. 527–555</ref>

In a review of Solzhenitsyn's novel ''August 1914'' in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on 13 November 1985, [[Jewish American]] historian [[Richard Pipes]] wrote: "Every culture has its own brand of [[anti-Semitism]]. In Solzhenitsyn's case, it's not racial. It has nothing to do with blood. He's certainly not a racist; the question is fundamentally religious and cultural. He bears some resemblance to [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], who was a fervent Christian and patriot and a rabid anti-Semite. Solzhenitsyn is unquestionably in the grip of the Russian extreme right's view of the Revolution, which is that it was [[Jewish Bolshevism|the doing of the Jews]]".<ref>[[#Thomas|Thomas]] p. 490</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Grenier |first=Richard |date=13 November 1985 |title=Solzhenitsyn and anti-Semitism: a new debate |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/13/books/solzhenitsyn-and-anti-semitism-a-new-debate.html |work=The New York Times |location=New York |access-date=6 October 2019 }}</ref> Award-winning Jewish novelist and [[the Holocaust|Holocaust]] survivor [[Elie Wiesel]] disagreed and wrote that Solzhenitsyn was "too intelligent, too honest, too courageous, too great a writer" to be an anti-Semite.<ref>[[#Thomas|Thomas]] p. 491</ref> In his 1998 book ''Russia in Collapse'', Solzhenitsyn criticized the Russian far-right's obsession with anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]].<ref>[[#Ericson2009|Ericson (2009)]] p. 496.</ref>

In 2001, Solzhenitsyn published a two-volume work on the history of Russian-Jewish relations (''[[Two Hundred Years Together]]'' 2001, 2002).<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/25/russia.books | title = Solzhenitsyn breaks last taboo of the revolution | first = Nick Paton | last = Walsh | newspaper = [[The Guardian]] | date = 25 January 2003}}</ref> The book triggered renewed accusations of anti-Semitism.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3763/is_200609/ai_n18622003 |title=Dimensional Spaces in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's ''Two Hundred Years Together'' |work=Canadian Slavonic Papers |date=2 June 2009 |access-date=14 February 2010 |first=Zinaida |last=Gimpelevich |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805141955/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3763/is_200609/ai_n18622003/ |archive-date= 5 August 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://berkovich-zametki.com/2006/Zametki/Nomer6/VOstrovsky1.htm | title = В Островский (V Ostrovsky) | language = ru |trans-title=In Ostrovsky |publisher= Berkovich zametki |access-date= 14 February 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| last = Khanan | first = Vladimir | title = 22 | url = http://www.sunround.com/club/22/133_chanan.htm | script-title=ru:И в Израиле – с Наклоном | language = ru |trans-title=And in Israel – with Naklonom |publisher= Sun round | access-date=14 February 2010}}</ref><ref name=young /> In the book, he repeated his call for Russian Gentiles and Jews to share responsibility for everything that happened in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lustiger |first=Arno |date=7 October 2003 |title=Alexander Solschenizyn versucht sich an der Geschichte der Juden in der Sowjetunion: Reue wäre der sauberste Weg |trans-title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn attempts a history of the Jews in the Soviet Union: Repentance would be the simplest way |url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/alexander-solschenizyn-versucht-sich-an-der-geschichte-der-juden-in-der-sowjetunion-reue-waere-der-sauberste-weg-li.6483 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926042812/https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/alexander-solschenizyn-versucht-sich-an-der-geschichte-der-juden-in-der-sowjetunion-reue-waere-der-sauberste-weg-li.6483 |archive-date=2020-09-26 |access-date=2021-11-09 |website=Berliner Zeitung |language=de}}</ref> He also downplayed the number of victims of an 1882 pogrom despite current evidence, and failed to mention the [[Beilis affair]], a 1911 trial in [[Kyiv|Kiev]] where a Jew was accused of [[Blood libel|ritually murdering Christian children]].<ref name="schmid">{{Cite news |last=Schmid |first=Ulrich M. |date=2001-08-11 |title=Solschenizyn über das Verhältnis zwischen Russen und Juden: Schwierige Nachbarschaft |trans-title=Solzhenitsyn on Russian-Jewish Relations: Troubled Neighbors |url=https://www.nzz.ch/article7K87E-1.463769 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107223858/https://www.nzz.ch/article7K87E-1.463769 |archive-date=2016-01-07 |access-date=2021-11-09 |website=Neue Zürcher Zeitung}}</ref> He was also criticized for relying on outdated scholarship, ignoring current western scholarship, and for selectively quoting to strengthen his preconceptions, such as that the Soviet Union often treated Jews better than non-Jewish Russians.<ref name="schmid" /><ref name="siegl">{{Cite web |last=Siegl |first=Elfie |date=2003-05-12 |title=Alexander Solschenizyn: Zweihundert Jahre zusammen – Die russisch-jüdische Geschichte |trans-title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Two Hundred Years Together - Russian-Jewish History |url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/alexander-solschenizyn-zweihundert-jahre-zusammen-die.730.de.html?dram:article_id=102032 |access-date=2021-11-09 |website=Deutschlandfunk |language=de-DE}}</ref> Similarities between ''Two Hundred Years Together'' and an anti-Semitic essay titled "Jews in the USSR and in the Future Russia", attributed to Solzhenitsyn, have led to the inference that he stands behind the anti-Semitic passages. Solzhenitsyn himself explained that the essay consists of manuscripts stolen from him by the [[KGB]], and then being published, 40 years before, without his consent.<ref name=young>{{cite news|url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/29113.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218001702/http://www.reason.com/news/show/29113.html|title=Traditional Prejudices: The anti-Semitism of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.|first=Cathy|last=Young|date=May 2004|archive-date=18 December 2008 }} Traditional Prejudices. The anti-Semitism of Alexander Solzhenitsyn ''[[Reason Magazine]]'' May 2004.</ref><ref>Cathy Young: [http://www.reason.com/news/show/29241.html Reply to Daniel J. Mahoney] in ''Reason Magazine'', August–September 2004.</ref> According to the historian [[Semyon Reznik]], textological analyses have proven Solzhenitsyn's authorship.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vestnik.com/issues/2003/0611/win/reznik.htm|title=Семён Резник: Лебедь Белая И Шесть Пудов Еврейского Жира[Win&#93;|publisher=Vestnik.com|access-date=14 February 2010}}</ref>