The World Split Apart, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

936 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The cold war ideology

Excommunicated from his home country of Russia for his rejection of Communism, Alexander Solzhenitsyn presented his famous speech “A World Split Apart” at Harvard on June 8th, 1978. Addressing possible future world leaders inspired Solzhenitsyn to speak about issues relevant to their experiences with Western culture. In the midst of the Cold War, it was his goal to critique failures and exemplify the truth of his opinions in this opposite culture. While presenting valid points, Solzhenitsyn’s view of the Western world was disillusioned due to his foreign perspective and demeanor brought upon by his own austere society.

In this contemporary domain, there are more than three types of worlds in existence according to the speaker. Besides the poor, dependent third world, the first world giants with rich economies, and the second worlds falling somewhere in the middle, underlying factors make these categories too broad for specification. While Solzhenitsyn uses this thought to help listeners comprehend the state of Russia, it falls short in relation to real word conditions, where countries are actually defined by these conventional qualifications. The writer does hit the mark with reference to Imperialism and its shortcomings, as it produced only temporary and toxic results in the long run. Even though Solzhenitsyn’s view is narrow in its approach, it demonstrates an alternate and fresh viewpoint of global classification.

A common misconception of the Cold War was convergence, the idea that the victor would replace the losing side’s ideas with that of its country. Solzhenitsyn believed this was a betrayal of principles, and that the possibility of Russia’s transformation from Communism to the Western philosophy was not the answer....

... middle of paper ...

...ms of politics, but in its awareness of its self-destruction.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a trailblazer who went against his country’s Communist way of life, presented an interesting viewpoint of Western society in his essay entitled “A World Split Apart.” This writing outlined the divisions of the world, and offered critiques necessary to increase harmony, peace, and effective politics across the globe. Even though Solzhenitsyn’s unfamiliarity and Russian background made his opinion a little less believable at some points, his innovative style brought some considerations to light. An unique viewpoint surrounding divided thoughts, Solzhenitsyn’s piece highlighted necessary changes to a flourishing system, but in a way that would compromise the integrity of the Western world.

Works Cited

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/solzhenitsyn/harvard1978.html

Show More
Related

  • Disobedience By Erich Fromm

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    One cannot be obedient to one’s power without being disobedient to another. In his article, “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,” Erich Fromm argues people obey authority to feel safe. When one obeys, they become an ambiguous part of a whole, no longer accountable for actions or left on their own. In Ian Parker’s article, “Obedience,” analyzing Milgram's experiment, he claims people obey orders when there is no second option. According to Parker, if someone obeys an order, but there is no alternative, their accountability is lessoned. The two articles can speak to the tomfoolery that takes place in the motion picture, Mean Girls, which highlights a typical high school under the regime of the queen bee, Regina George, with her followers Gretchen Weiners and Karen Smith; the regime is usurped by a new girl, Cady Heron. Under the scope of Parker and Fromm, it can be argued that Gretchen was not disobeying Regina when she realigned with Cady, but actually remaining obedient to the social order of high school.

    Read More

  • The Legacy of Russia and the Soviet Union - Authoritarian and Repressive Traditions that Refuse to

    1785 Words  | 4 Pages

    Tucker, Robert C. "Stalinism as Revolution from Above". Stalinism. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. New York: American Council of Learned Societies, 1999.

    Read More

  • Separate Peace Essay: Analysis of Marxism

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Separate Peace is an impeccable paradigm of critical mythology interpreted by philosophers such as Marx, Engels and Hegel.  The philosophy of Marxism serves as a basis for socialism and communism and is explicitly demonstrated by means of power, the understanding of human nature, and alienation.  Finny demonstrates authority and control over a lonely, alienated friend Gene, however, unitedly they discover friendship through the individuality possessed by one another.  Finny and Gene agonize with these eminent responsibilities and endeavor to uncover an inner peace within themselves as they evolve into young adults waking to the realities of life.  Their entity follows the social formation of their lives,  “men enter into definite relations that are indispensable and dependant of their will, relations of production ...development of their material productive forces.” (Tucker, 1978, pg.4)

    Read More

  • Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer

    1857 Words  | 4 Pages

    Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, is the story of a young man named Christopher Johnson McCandless who ventured off to Alaska and tried to survive in the wild. McCandless grew up in Annandale, Virginia where he attended school and made very good grades, rarely bringing home anything below an A. His father, Walt worked for NASA for a little while, before starting his own business with Chris’s mother, Billie, out of their own home. They worked hard and for long hours to get the business up and running and it finally paid off. The McCandless family was wealthy, but had many emotional problems. After graduating from Emory University in 1990, Chris McCandless donated twenty-four thousand dollars from his savings account to charity, changed his name to Alexander Supertramp, and then disappeared. This book tells the story of his life and travels. Some critics say that Chris McCandless was a very admirable person. He was a brave man that followed his dreams. However, given all of his flaws, attitudes, and actions, he is un-admirable. McCandless walked into the wild very unprepared and stubborn. He also treated his family poorly as well as anyone who got emotionally close to him. Chris was additionally too impressionable in a way that he admired authors along with the books they wrote, and tried to imitate them. He was very rebellious in his actions as well, and did not try to change the world or help others.

    Read More

  • Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    The tone is set in this chapter as Krakauer uses words to create an atmosphere of worry, fear, and happiness in McCandless’s mind. “The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or longing”(4). McCandless is on the path of death, which creates worry and fear for the young boy. “He was determined. Real gung ho. The word that comes to mind is excited,” (6). Alex is very excited and care free, which Krakauer used to his advantage in making the tone of Alex’s mind happy. The author creates tones to make the reader feel the moment as if the readers were sitting there themselves. Krakauer uses dialogue and setting to create the mixed tones of this chapter. As one can see from the quotes and scenery the author uses tones that are blunt and are to the point to make the reader feel as though the emotions are their own. Krakauer uses plenty of figurative language in this chapter. He uses figurative language to support his ideas,to express the surroundings, and tone around the character. To start the chapter he uses a simile describing the landscape of the area, “…sprawls across the flats like a rumpled blanket on an unmade bed,” (9). This statement is used to make reader sense the area and set the mood for the chapter. The use of figurative language in this chapter is to make a visual representation in the readers mind. “It’s satellites surrender to the low Kantishna plain” (9).

    Read More

  • Kennan, Nitze and the NSC 68

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” Foreign Affairs, 1947, explains the difficulty of summarizing Soviet ideology. For more than 50 years, the Soviet concept held the Russian nations hypnotized, discontented, unhappy, and despondent confined to a very limited Czarist political order. Hence, the rebel support of a bloody Revolution, as a means to “social betterment” (Kennan, 567). Bolshevism was conceptualized as “ideological and moral, not geopolitical or strategic”. Hoover declares that… “five or six great social philosophies were struggling for ascendancy” (Leffler, The Specter of Communism, 20).

    Read More

  • Was Truman Responsible for the Cold War?

    1312 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, evidence that is presented may indicate otherwise, as Joseph Stalin provides adequate counter claims for discrediting the “simplicity” of “yes”. Within this controversial topic, two authors provide their sides of the story to whom is to blame and/or responsible for the “Cold War.” Authors Arnold A. Offner and John Lewis Gaddis duck it out in this controversial situation as each individual leads the readers to believe a certain aspect by divulging certain persuading information. However, although both sides have given historical data as substance for their claim, it is nothing more than a single sided personal perception of that particular piece of information; thus, leaving much room for interpretations by the reader/s. Finding the truth to either claim is the obligation of the reader and outside research would accommodate the authors potential inadequacies and personal fallacies.... ...

    Read More

  • Was President Truman Responsible for the Cold War?

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gaddis, John Lewis. “We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History.” Taking Sides: Clashing Views On Controversial Issues in United States History. Ed. Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle. 14th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 302-308.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Matryona's Home By Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    Being one of the greatest Russian writers of 20th century, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn had a unique talent that he used to truthfully depict the realities of life of ordinary people living in Soviet era. Unlike many other writers, instead of writing about “bright future of communism”, he chose to write about everyday hardships that common people had to endure in Soviet realm. In “Matryona’s Home”, the story focuses on life of an old peasant woman living in an impoverished collectivized village after World War 2 . In the light of Soviet’s propaganda of creating a new Soviet Nation, the reader can observe that Matryona’s personality and way of life drastically contradicted the desired archetype of New Soviet Man. Like most of the people in her village,

    Read More

  • The Historiography of the Origins of the Cold War

    2675 Words  | 6 Pages

    There have been many attempts to explain the origins of the Cold War that developed between the capitalist West and the communist East after the Second World War. Indeed, there is great disagreement in explaining the source for the Cold War; some explanations draw on events pre-1945; some draw only on issues of ideology; others look to economics; security concerns dominate some arguments; personalities are seen as the root cause for some historians. So wide is the range of the historiography of the origins of the Cold War that is has been said "the Cold War has also spawned a war among historians, a controversy over how the Cold War got started, whether or not it was inevitable, and (above all) who bears the main responsibility for starting it" (Hammond 4). There are three main schools of thought in the historiography: the traditional view, known alternatively as the orthodox or liberal view, which finds fault lying mostly with the Russians and deems security concerns to be the root cause of the Cold War; the revisionist view, which argues that it is, in fact, the United States and the West to blame for the Cold War and not the Russians, and cites economic open-door interests for spawning the Cold War; finally, the post-revisionist view which finds fault with both sides in the conflict and points to issues raised both by the traditionalists as well as the revisionists for combining to cause the Cold War. While strong arguments are made by historians writing from the traditionalist school, as well as those writing from the revisionist school, I claim that the viewpoint of the post-revisionists is the most accurate in describing the origins of the Cold War.

    Read More

  • who if any one won the cold war?

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    The cold war was failed by the Soviet Union for many reasons, including the sudden collapse of communism (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This sudden collapse of communism was brought on ultimately by internal factors. The soviet unions president Gorbachev’s reforms: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (political reconstructering) ultimately caused the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Gorbachev’s basics for glasnost were the promotion of principles of freedom to criticize; the loosening of controls on media and publishing; and the freedom of worship. His essentials of perestroika were, a new legislature; creation of an executive presidency; ending of the ‘leading role’ of the communist party; allowing state enterprises to sell part of their product on the open market; lastly, allowing foreign companies to own Soviet enterprises (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Gorbachev believed his reforms would benefit his country, but the Soviet Union was ultimately held together by the soviet tradition he was trying to change. The Soviet Union was none the less held together by “…powerful central institutions, pressure for ideological conformity, and the threat of force.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis of Men Have Forgotten God by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his address, Solzhenitsyn has several intentions. He attacks the communist ways of Russia and the West and defends Christianity. He exhorts the action of keeping Christ in our hearts and dissuades the action of removing Christ. He praises those who stand for Christ and blames Communist for the downfall of the world.

    Read More

  • Outline of Essay About the Origins of the Cold War

    455 Words  | 1 Pages

    Outline of Essay About the Origins of the Cold War OUTLINE: Introduction- 1. Definition of ‘Cold War’ and the Powers involved 2. Perceived definition of ‘start of Cold War’ 3. Iron Curtain Speech, Truman Doctrine and Berlin Blockade as significant events that caused strife between both powers, but which triggering off the start of the Cold War Body- 1. Iron Curtain Speech (1946) - A warning of Soviet influence beyond the acknowledged Eastern Europe - Churchill’s belief that the idea of a balance in power does not appeal to the Soviets - Wants Western democracies to stand together in prevention of further

    Read More

  • Utopia by Thomas More

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Utopia as a text is a clear reflection and representation of More’s passion for ideas and art. Through the character of Raphael, More projects and presents his ideas, concepts and beliefs of politics and society. More’s Utopia aims to create a statement on the operations and effectiveness of the society of England. This text is a general reflection of More’s idea of a perfectly balanced and harmonious society. His ideas and concepts of society somewhat contrast to the rest of 16th century England and indicate a mind that was far ahead of its time. A number of issues and themes are raised throughout the text to which More provides varying views and opinions. These are transmitted and projected through the perspectives of the fictional Raphael, More and Giles.

    Read More

  • War And Peace By Leo Tolstoy

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    Then novel War and Peace was written by a famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy in 1865. The novel describes the war with Napoleon in which many countries were involved such as Russia, Austrian, Prussia, Spain, Sweden, and Britain. The novel mainly focuses on Russia. It reflects the different views and participation in the war of Russian aristocracy and peasants and also shows Tolstoy’s negative viewpoint on the war.

    Read More

More about The World Split Apart, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Open Document