Alexander Solschenizyn - Lebe nicht von Lügen - Chnopfloch

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian writer and system critic. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. His literary masterpiece, The Archipelago of Gulag, describes in detail the crimes of the Stalinist regime of the Soviet Union in the banning and systematic murder of millions of people in Gulag. On the day Solzhenitsyn was arrested, February 12, 1974, he published the text of «Do not live by lies». The next day he was banished to the West, where he was received like a hero. This moment marks the climax of his fame. Solzhenitsyn equates lies with ideology, with the illusion that human nature and society can be altered according to specified specifications. And in his last words, before he leaves his homeland, he urges the Soviet citizens not to cooperate with the lies of the regime as individuals. Even the most cunning can take this least demanding step in the direction of spiritual independence. «If many people walk this path of passive resistance together, the whole inhuman system will wobble and collapse». «Do not live by lies» by Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn. There was a time when we did not dare to whisper, but now we write and read Samizdat and complain in the smoking rooms of the research institutes about everything they set up, into which they drag us. There is the unnecessary proclamation about our advance into space from the background of ruin and poverty at home and the support of far-fetched regimes and the dispossession of civil wars and the thoughtless cultivation of Mao Zedong, in addition to our costs. In the end, we will be the ones who are sent out against him and we will have to go. What other possibility will there be? And they put before court if they want and brand the healthy as mentally ill. And it is always them, while we are helpless. We are approaching the abyss. A general spiritual descent is already ahead. A physical one will soon flare up and swallow us and our children, while we continue to lie down, smile and talk. But what can we do to stop it? We do not have the strength for it. We have given up our humanity so hopelessly that we are ready for the modest alms of today, all principles, our soul, the whole work of our ancestors, to give up all prospects of our descendants, everything to not destroy our barren existence. We have lost our strength, our pride, our passion. We are not even afraid of a common atomic death, we are not afraid of a third world war, maybe we are hiding in some field gap, but we are only afraid of adopting a bourgeois attitude. We just hope not to deviate from the herd, not to draw on our own fist and to risk suddenly without the white bread, the hot water boiler, the Moscow residence permit, to get out. We have well internalized the lessons that the state has taught us. We are forever satisfied and comfortable with its premise. We cannot escape the environment, the social conditions. They shape us, the being determines the consciousness. What do we have to do with it? We can do nothing, but we can do everything, even if we comfort and lie to ourselves that it is not so. Not they are to blame for everything, but we are. Only we. Some words are appropriate, but you can't do anything about it. Our mouths are gagged, nobody listens to us, nobody asks us. How can we make them listen to us? It is impossible to move them without thinking. The closest thing would be to simply not elect them again, because in our country there are no new elections. In the West there are strikes, protest marches, but we are too intimidated, too frightened. How can you just give up your job, just go out on the street? All the other seditious means that were used in the bitter history of Russia in the last century are even less suitable for us today. Yes, we don't take them back. Today, where all the axes have chopped what they have chopped, where everything that was sown bore fruit, we can see how lost, how deceived those educated young people were who wanted to make the country fair and satisfied through terror, bloody uprising and civil war. No, thank you, you fathers of the Enlightenment. We now know that the shamelessness of the means, the shamelessness of the result, is created by the means. Let our hands be clean. Has the circle closed? Is there really no way out anymore? What if something happens by itself? But it will never be solved by itself if we all continue to recognize it every day, glorify it and strengthen it. If we do not at least retreat from its most vulnerable point. From the lie. When the violence breaks into the peaceful human existence, you raise your face in front of self-confidence. It shows its flag and announces, I am the violence. Make room. Step aside. I will crush you. But the violence ages quickly, a few years pass and it is no longer sure of itself. To support itself, to appear decent, it will definitely call its allies. The lie. Because violence can only cover itself with lies and lies can only be sustained by violence. And not every day and not on every shoulder does the violence put its heavy hand. It only demands from us the submission to the lie, the daily participation in the deception and that is enough as our loyalty. And we find in it, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation. A personal non-participation in the lie. Even if everything is covered by lies, even if everything is under your dominion, let us resist in the smallest way. Do not let your dominion prevail through me. And that is the way to break out of the imaginary encirclement of our sluggishness. The simplest way for us and the most despicable for the lie. Because when people swear the lie, the lies simply stop existing. Like parasites, they can only survive if they hang on a person. We are not called to go on the spot and shout out the truth, to say loudly what we think. That scares us. We are not ready. But at least we refuse to say what we do not think. So this is the way for us, in the face of our deep-seated organic cowardice, the simplest and most accessible. Much easier than, it is frightening to even pronounce the word, civil disobedience à la Gandhi. Our way must be to never support lies knowingly. If we have understood where the lies begin, and many see this line differently, then we step back from this sharp edge. Let us not glue together the flaking scales of ideology again. Let us not gather together these crumbling bones again. Let us not patch together this decaying garment. And we will be amazed at how quickly and helplessly the lies fall away and what is destined to be naked is revealed as such to the world. And so, after we have overcome our fearlessness, every person should choose. Does he remain a wise servant of lies? Of course not out of natural disposition, but to ensure the livelihood of the family, to raise the children in the spirit of lies. Or has the time come that he stands upright as an honest man, worthy of the respect of his children and contemporaries, and from this day on he will not write a single line, sign it or publish it, which, as far as he can see it, creates the truth. He will not pronounce such a line in private or in public, nor read it off a piece of paper, nor speak in the role of an educator, advertiser, teacher or actor. He will not present, support or disseminate in paintings, sculptures, photographs, technologies or music a single false thought, a single distortion of the truth as he perceives it. He will not cite a single quote in writing or in public to satisfy, to assure his professional success, unless he shares the quoted thought fully and completely and believes that it fits exactly into the context. He will not be forced to demonstrate or give a speech if it contradicts his desire and his will. He will not raise a flag or parole which he does not fully and completely believe in. He will not raise his hand for a proposal which he does not fully support. He will not vote for a candidate openly or in secret, which he considers doubtful or unworthy. He will not be forced to attend a meeting in which a forced and distorted discussion is expected. He will leave a meeting, a meeting, a lecture, a play or a film immediately as soon as he hears that the speaker expresses a lie, an ideological farce or shameless propaganda. He will not subscribe to a newspaper or a magazine or buy in a retail store which distorts or silences the facts underlying it. This is by no means an exhaustive list of possible and necessary ways to avoid lies, but those who start to clean themselves will see further possibilities with a clean eye. Yes, in the beginning it will not be fair. Someone will have to lose his job in advance. For the young people who strive for truth, this will first of all make life very difficult, because their tests and exams are also filled with lies and so you will have to make a choice. But if you want to be honest, there is no escape. Not even for one day, not even in the safest technical professions, can you avoid only one of the decisions made, either for the truth or the lie, for the spiritual independence or the spiritual servitude. And as far as the one who lacks the courage to even defend his own soul is concerned, he should not boast with his progressive views, not with his status as an academic or recognized artist, as a respected citizen or general. He should say clearly and clearly, I am a cattle, I am a coward, I am only looking for warmth to eat me full. For us, who have become rebellious over time, it may not be easy to overcome this path of moderate resistance, but how much easier it is than a self-burning or even a hunger strike. The flames will not swallow your body, your eyes will not jump out of the heat and your family will always have at least one piece of black bread that it can wash down with a glass of clear water. Betrayed and betrayed by us, did not a great European people, the Czechoslovaks, show us how one can defy the tanks alone with a broken chest as long as a dignified heart beats in it? It may not be an easy path, but it is the easiest among those who lie before us. No easy choice for the body, but the only one for the soul. No, not an easy path, but we already have people among us, dozens even, who have been adhering to all these rules for years, who live according to the truth. And so, we do not have to be the first to take this path, we just have to join in. The more of us take the path together, the denser our ranks are, the easier and shorter this path will be for all of us. If we become thousands, they will not be able to cope, they will not be able to touch us. If we become tens of thousands, we will not be able to recognize our country. But if we shrink, then let us stop complaining that we are not allowed to breathe. We do it ourselves. So let us cower together, while our comrades, the biologists, bring the day closer, when our thoughts can be read and our genes can be changed. And if we shrink even before that, then we are worthless, hopeless, and that is what Pushkin wants from us. Why offer the herds their liberation, their inheritance, every generation, the yoke with shells and the whip. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, February 12, 1974.