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emisneko t1_jefdcj8 wrote

Solzhenitsyn was a Nazi propagandist in the 1940s and affirmed that the war against Nazism was avoidable and a compromise with Hitler possible. That was why he was sent to a labor camp, for being a traitor.

His hatred for Jews that became public knowledge in recent years may explain his Nazi sympathies. Predictably, he was also a great fan of the Spanish fascist dictator Franco, whom he went to support when his regime began to totter. He appeared on Spanish TV to plead with Spaniards to remember the "freedom" they enjoyed under Franco while Soviet citizens were "enslaved" by socialism.

Solzhenitsyn was never a dissident but enjoyed the full support of Nikita Khruschev when he wrote the Gulag Archipelago, which Khrushchev used as propaganda material during his purge of Stalinists.

Nazi lover, Jew hater, monarchist: No wonder he became the darling of the West.

Solzhenitsyn's Ex‐Wife Says ‘Gulag’ Is ‘Folklore’, 1974:

>PARIS, Feb. 5 (Reuters)—Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn's controversial new book on Soviet prison‐camps was described as “folklore” by his former wife in an interview published here today.

>Natelya Reshetovskaya told the conservative newspaper Le Figaro that the book, “The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–1956,” was based on unreliable information:

>She also told the newspaper's Moscow correspondent that she was still living with Mr. Soizhenitsyn when he wrote the book and that she had typed part of it. They parted in 1970 and were subsequently divorced.

>She said: “The subject of ‘Gulag Archipelago,’ as I felt at the moment when he was writing it, is not in fact the life of the country and not even the life of the camps but the folklore of the camps.”

her NYTimes obituary 2003:

>In her 1974 memoir, ''Sanya: My Life with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn'' (Bobbs-Merrill), she wrote that she was ''perplexed'' that the West had accepted ''The Gulag Archipelago'' as ''the solemn, ultimate truth,'' saying its significance had been ''overestimated and wrongly appraised.''

>Pointing out that the book's subtitle is ''An Experiment in Literary Investigation,'' she said that her husband did not regard the work as ''historical research, or scientific research.'' She contended that it was, rather, a collection of ''camp folklore,'' containing ''raw material'' which her husband was planning to use in his future productions.

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CalvinSays t1_jefxzto wrote

Why believe the wife's testimony is more reliable than the books?

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Legitimate_Policy2 t1_jefpglk wrote

Found the tankie

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yeeiser t1_jegtzu9 wrote

Istg reddit communists have some sort bat-signal for whenever someone says something slightly critical of their ideology. They constantly come out of the woodworks in this sub

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bookman1984 t1_jeg4kk9 wrote

Surely someone who often posts to r/InformedTankie is not a Tankie

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emisneko t1_jefhq95 wrote

oh and btw once he was living in America he publicly urged the continuation of US bombing in Vietnam

> in decrying the “cruel mistake” of opposition to the Vietnam War, he warned: “If a full-fledged America suffered a real defeat from a small communist half-country, how can the West hope to stand firm in the future?”

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123eyecansee t1_jeg5vfq wrote

Well, since he cites VL and many sources I find your comment… odd. Why don’t you try a more discernible response instead of a one-sided one so we can take you more seriously

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