Although Solzhenitsyn was ejected from Soviet Union for his writing; he still managed, as Wolf Pangloss points out, a Marxist analysis of humanism and free markets.

Solzhenitsyn’s claims that corporations are at fault for Western failings such as excessive legalism, the welfare state, and the war against the soul are obvious nonsense. How exactly can corporations be responsible for legalism, the welfare state, or the government and legal repression of public religion? All three are expressions of state power.

He was correct about some things, though - things that we here in America should find instructive.

Solzhenitsyn turned his formidable skills as a prophet of doom first upon the Soviet Gulag terror system, and then when invited to Harvard to address the graduating class of 1978, on the American society of “despiritualized and irreligious humanistic consciousness,” “TV stupor,” and “intolerable music.” In a post-9/11 world his criticisms of the loss of courage of Western elites, of the incorrigible mendacity and self-loathing of the Western press, and of the Soviet-style legalistic crusade against religion appear newly relevant. But his assignment of blame to the free market and humanism itself for these failings strikes a wrong note for (at least) two reasons.

Read the 1978 Harvard graduation speech and commentary, here.

Solzhenitsyn lived a long life, and for his contribution to revealing the truth about the Soviet gulags - I appreciate him. He he just died at the age of 89.

Hundreds Pay Their Respects to Solzhenitsyn

Rurik (at the Talon) - A Giant Passes