Communism at the End of the Brezhnev Era

The Soviet Union of today serves as an example of what Communism does to all countries and to all peoples that fall under its control. The differences from country to country are of secondary importance; the dominant features of the process are everywhere alike.

The first act of the Communists upon coming to power in Russia in 1917 was to hand Germany 25, 30, 40 per cent of Russia’s territory, whatever it took to buy Germany off, just so long as the Communists could retain control over the rest. (This supreme Communist principle—to cling to power at any cost, even if it spells ruin to one’s country, one’s people, and to neighboring peoples—manifests itself with steely consistency from Lenin to Brezhnev; here too Stalin was merely Lenin brought to a logical conclusion.) Immediately thereafter the Communists launched a civil war on the home front in order to destroy not only their military enemies, but every opponent in every stratum of non-combatants, shooting entire villages, laying waste whole districts, and depopulating towns and provinces. Through the fault of the Communists, who appropriated even seed grain from the peasants, the famine of 1921 affected thirty million people; five million peasants died in the Volga River basin. Since then massive famines have been all too common in our land. Nineteen thirty-three brought death from hunger to another five or six million people; during the war of 1941-45 peasants resorted to eating grass-meal patties. While people were dying in the postwar famine of 1946-47, the government was exporting grain. From 1917 on, the population has never known satiety, security, or personal freedom.

About the Author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Mr. Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) won the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The Soviet Union of today serves as an example of what Communism does to all countries and to all peoples that fall under its control. The differences from country to country are of secondary importance; the dominant features of the process are everywhere alike.

The first act of the Communists upon coming to power in Russia in 1917 was to hand Germany 25, 30, 40 per cent of Russia’s territory, whatever it took to buy Germany off, just so long as the Communists could retain control over the rest. (This supreme Communist principle—to cling to power at any cost, even if it spells ruin to one’s country, one’s people, and to neighboring peoples—manifests itself with steely consistency from Lenin to Brezhnev; here too Stalin was merely Lenin brought to a logical conclusion.) Immediately thereafter the Communists launched a civil war on the home front in order to destroy not only their military enemies, but every opponent in every stratum of non-combatants, shooting entire villages, laying waste whole districts, and depopulating towns and provinces. Through the fault of the Communists, who appropriated even seed grain from the peasants, the famine of 1921 affected thirty million people; five million peasants died in the Volga River basin. Since then massive famines have been all too common in our land. Nineteen thirty-three brought death from hunger to another five or six million people; during the war of 1941-45 peasants resorted to eating grass-meal patties. While people were dying in the postwar famine of 1946-47, the government was exporting grain. From 1917 on, the population has never known satiety, security, or personal freedom.