Product Description
This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Editorial Cruzada, S.A. DE C.V. on August 10, 2008. The length of the article is 752 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Crîtico o traidor: recordando a Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Author: Marîa Cristina Rosas
Publication: Siempre! (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 10, 2008
Publisher: Editorial Cruzada, S.A. DE C.V.
Volume: 55Issue: 2878Page: 67(1)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Editorial Cruzada, S.A. DE C.V. on August 17, 2008. The length of the article is 1408 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: La verdad siempre estuvo del lado de Solyenitzin: Muriô el escritor ruso.(Alexander Solzhenitsyn)(Obituario)
Author: Bernardo Gonzâlez Solano
Publication: Siempre! (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 17, 2008
Publisher: Editorial Cruzada, S.A. DE C.V.
Volume: 55Issue: 2879Page: 56(4)

Article Type: Obituario

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Product Description
Bilingual edition. Complete text in both Russian and English. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

He alone escaped to tell thee
Solzhenitsyn is the voice from there, from that other place, from the Gulag. He is the one who shouted out and whose shouts were heard by the millions. So in this Nobel Prize Acceptance speech the truly effective part is when he speaks of being there, and what it took for him to get to where he is when he makes the speech.

"In order to mount this platform from which the Nobel lecture is read, a platform offered to far from every writer and only once in a lifetime, I have climbed not three or four makeshift steps, but hundreds and even thousands of them; unyielding, precipitous, frozen steps, leading out of the darkness and cold where it was my fate to survive, while others - perhaps with a greater gift and stronger than I - have perished. Of them, I myself met but a few on the Archipelago of GULAG1, shattered into its fractionary multitude of islands; and beneath the millstone of shadowing and mistrust I did not talk to them all, of some I only heard, of others still I only guessed. Those who fell into that abyss already bearing a literary name are at least known, but how many were never recognized, never once mentioned in public? And virtually no one managed to return. A whole national literature remained there, cast into oblivion not only without a grave, but without even underclothes, naked, with a number tagged on to its toe. Russian literature did not cease for a moment, but from the outside it appeared a wasteland! Where a peaceful forest could have grown, there remained, after all the felling, two or three trees overlooked by chance."
This to my mind the truly meaningful part of Solzhenitsyn's long and often complicated speech.
When he wanders considering the true meaning and value of Art .When he focuses on Dostoevsky's conception of the saving role of Beauty- he tries the patience. But when he tells of what it was to be in that other world he connects with and moves us.


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Product Description
Box set includes - Cancer Ward, First Circle, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Love-Girl and the Innocent. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Parable in Power
As much power as "For the Good of the Cause" packs, it is amazing that this book is not better known.It many ways, it is better than his best known work.Even stepping away from the commentary on the corruption of the Soviet government, the book makes an overall statement on the corruption of power and bureaucracy.

Pride in the technical school runs high as they are nearing completion of the new building on campus.The sense of accomplishment is furthered by the fact that the students built the new building with their own hands.Fyodor, the man in charge of the school, becomes suspicious when the school is not immediately able to occupy the building.Upon investigation, he discovers that a new research institute is to occupy the building.When he asks why, he is told that it is for the good of the cause.

As this novella draws to an end, readers are left to ponder whether Fyodor's actions at the end of the story were the right course.Though it was a drastic path, it would seems few options were available."For the Good of the Cause" is certain to create thoughts in the minds of readers.It lead to the argement of whether "my country right or wrong" can ever be truly justified.

What Is Right or Wrong
For the Good of the Cause by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn

This is both a simple and a difficult book. It proved to be a much shorter story than I expected -- only 97 pages. What I liked about it was the way it opened. The entire first chapter is dialog and nothing else. The reader feels as if she were plunked down into the place, hearing many of the things, though not all, said by several people and not knowing who is saying what. The second chapter brings it into focus and we start to get to know some of the characters. Solzhenitsyn is good at making even briefly appearing characters real.

The term "right and wrong" is used several times in the story and it is clearly the point of the story, to make readers think what is right and what is wrong. And that's where the story becomes difficult. It's not a situation we're likely to encounter in the US. Americans will immediately side with the principal of the school. The main fuss about this is the political importance of the story. As a story, without taking into consideration the politics, it feels incomplete. It takes the reader to the climax and stops with no resolution of any sort. There are seeds for a fight to resolve the issue and there is also the sense of defeat because it's "for the good of the cause."

At first I thought that there is no point of this story with the Soviet Union no longer in existence, but upon further thought I've changed my mind. This isn't a story to be read simply for the pleasure of reading. Whether something is right or wrong is something that will always be a concern. After reading this story, our minds will debate how it ends, how it should end, how actually did/would end if it were a true story. That, I suppose it the greatest value of For the Good of the Cause. There is nothing to grasp from it that can deter the reader form the point of the story - no love story or grand adventure, just ordinary people with an relatively ordinary dilemma.

My copy of this book was published in 1974 and contains a short biography of Solzhenitsyn as a preface, and discussions from various Soviet sources as an appendix. My comments are on the the story and (since I haven't read them yet) do not take preface or appendix into consideration.

Short work, big message.
To begin, this is a great work with a good long (about 20 pgs or so) introduction. Along with that is an appendix that includes some of the public responses to the controversial work.

Set in a post-Stalin period, this work takes place at a technical school that is relatively young with not a whole lot of money to spend. There is little equipment and even less room. So, instead of waiting for some kind of handout (which they would never get anyways), the students (about fourteen or fifteen) take matters into their own hands and decide to build themselves a new dormitory. The students and faculty represent a kind of idealistic work ethic and fervor where each does their part for the benefit of everyone and the job gets done in good time and quality.

Now, after it's just about finished, instead of being able to move in, a certain self-centered bureaucrat (Knorozov) decides to take it for himself and transform it into a "research institute" in the hopes that he will become its new director, but it will deny the students a new place to live. While doing it, he makes sure he can take as much of the property around it as he can. The principle (Fyodor Mikheyevich) tries to get a straight answer from those taking the new building away, but the only answer he ever gets back is "it's for the good of the cause."

The unanswered question that must be asked is: what is the good of the cause? Of course, it is quite clear that the cause is anything but good.

Solzhenitsyn goes out of his way to disparage these bureaucrats, like Knorozov, as he depicts them as self-serving, egotistical, underhanded, and even perverted.

The point of this extremely controversial work is that even though Stalin is dead and his reign over, there are still bureaucrats and government officials who take advantage of the good will of good people. These government officials are aptly called "little Stalin's."

An excellent read.

a great find
This was the first Solzhenitsyn I read and it is unbelievable if you can find it. It's more of a long short story than a short novel and just gives you a short, but good idea of what Solzhenitsyn is about. Solzhenitsyn, in my opinion, is the greatest mind in the twentieth century and this hidden gem showcases him well. For starters with Solzhenitsyn 'One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich' is also a great read. The subject topics are quite different and both are well worth the read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Much Is Required of Those Who Possess The Gift of Art
A very eloquent way of identifying the relationship between literature and social responsibility.Even more impressive is the way Solzhenitsyn connects literature, art and writing to a greater spiritual force work inthe universe.This speech reinforces the power and strength of the writtenword.It elevates literature to its rightful place as facilitator ofgoodwill among people and my belief that there is no better nourishment forthe soul that a good book. ... Read more