I have read substantial translated excerpts of 200 Years Together, enough to know that if there is an innocent explanation, it would take a lot of explaining. I have actually read a whole volume of the Red Wheel, more than enough.
I am highly aware that Russian antisemitism did not end with 1917 but continues up through the present day, it was severe in the Stalin period and afterward, though not as bad as under the Czar. I have experienced it myself in the post-Communist period from unlikely sources, such as my liberal friend Ryabakov's daughter-in-law, who would be horrified to know she had succumbed to the disease, as many white liberals come out with unconsciously racist remarks here. I know lots of Russian Jewish emigres who left because of antisemitism under the Soviet and present periods. And I can read poll data as well as the next fella.
Don't get me wrong. Some of my best friends of Russians. ;-) I love the literature, up to the point, the culture, respect the Soviets for their role in saving the world in 1941-45 and keeping space in the rest of the world in 1917-89. I am substantially Russian and Polish in ancestry, although -- and this is the problem -- most Russians and Poles would not consider me Russian or Polish but zhidy, Jewish. And in my case case, as you well know, you cannot say I merely inherit my grandparent's shteltl prejudices, well, they weren't prejudices, they were well-founded, attitudes then; I actually know a lot about revolutionary and modern Russia.
--- On Mon, 8/4/08, Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Dies at 89 (NY Times)
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Monday, August 4, 2008, 5:25 AM
> Solzhenitsyn never wrote a book called History of the Jews
> in Russia. I assume you mean 200 Years Together, which has
> never been translated, and thus you have never read it. Do
> you often comment on books you haven't read? PS.
> Slavophilia is not a living movement. Solzhenitsyn can no
> more be a Slavophile than he can be a Whig.
>
> You know, like the descendents of many diasporas, your view
> of Eastern Europe is fixated on the time period in which
> your ancestors left. You have Diaspora Disease.
>
> --- On Sun, 8/3/08, andie nachgeborenen
> <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > From: andie nachgeborenen
> <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Dies at
> 89 (NY Times)
> > To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> > Date: Sunday, August 3, 2008, 11:26 PM
> > It's been many many years since S published
> anything
> > that wasn't a disgrace. He was gone a long time
> ago. His
> > early accomplishments were considerable. The Red
> Wheel, The
> > History of the Jews in Russia, are spine-chilling, and
> in
> > the end he succumbed to irrationalism and Slavophilia.
> >
> >
>
>
>
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