On the Right

Rougemont, March 14—The vision of Solzhenitsyn continues to unwind before a world stunned by its magnificence, and now an act of audacity unequaled in recorded history: a 15,-000-word letter to Soviet leaders asking them to abandon Marxist ideology, no less. But this letter—written last September and transmitted then to these leaders and released only now for public scrutiny—was not merely a theatrical gesture. It is composed, for all that it is sublime in its impact, of Russian earth. It is the deed of an obsessed but wholesome patriot. It could not have been written except by a Russian who had experienced Soviet history in every pore, and felt in his soul the great weight of Russian history. And there are in it of course invocations of human idealism. But, mostly, it is: cold turkey.

Solzhenitsyn communicates how preoccupied Soviet leaders are with the possibility (probability?) of war with China. Solzhenitsyn says it quite clearly, that Russia and China are on a nonnuclear collision course. The reason is primarily ideological. He does not see how such a war, lasting ten years or more, could result in less than 60 million Russian casualties—double the casualties of this bloody Russian century, two world wars plus Stalin. Ideological differences would trigger the war. “And what do you think will happen [then]? That, when war breaks out, both the belligerents will simply fly the purity of their ideology on their flags? And that 60 million of our fellow countrymen will allow themselves to be killed because the sacred truth is written on page 533 of Lenin and not on page 335 as our adversary claims? Surely only the very very first of them will die for that.”

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

Rougemont, March 14—The vision of Solzhenitsyn continues to unwind before a world stunned by its magnificence, and now an act of audacity unequaled in recorded history: a 15,-000-word letter to Soviet leaders asking them to abandon Marxist ideology, no less. But this letter—written last September and transmitted then to these leaders and released only now for public scrutiny—was not merely a theatrical gesture. It is composed, for all that it is sublime in its impact, of Russian earth. It is the deed of an obsessed but wholesome patriot. It could not have been written except by a Russian who had experienced Soviet history in every pore, and felt in his soul the great weight of Russian history. And there are in it of course invocations of human idealism. But, mostly, it is: cold turkey.

Solzhenitsyn communicates how preoccupied Soviet leaders are with the possibility (probability?) of war with China. Solzhenitsyn says it quite clearly, that Russia and China are on a nonnuclear collision course. The reason is primarily ideological. He does not see how such a war, lasting ten years or more, could result in less than 60 million Russian casualties—double the casualties of this bloody Russian century, two world wars plus Stalin. Ideological differences would trigger the war. “And what do you think will happen [then]? That, when war breaks out, both the belligerents will simply fly the purity of their ideology on their flags? And that 60 million of our fellow countrymen will allow themselves to be killed because the sacred truth is written on page 533 of Lenin and not on page 335 as our adversary claims? Surely only the very very first of them will die for that.”