Alexander Solzhenitsyn Nobel lecture. A

NOBEL LECTURE by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1972)

“Anyone who once proclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose lies as his principle. When it is born, violence acts openly and is even proud of itself. But as soon as it strengthens, establishes itself, it feels the rarefaction of the air in

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn

NOBEL LECTURE

1
Like that savage who, in bewilderment, picked up a strange outlier
ocean? sand burials? or an incomprehensible object falling from the sky? —
intricate in its curves, shining now dimly, now with a bright blow
ray, - turns it this way and that, turns it, looks for how to adapt it to the task, looks for
the lower service available to him, without any idea of the higher one.
So we, holding Art in our hands, self-confidently honor ourselves
masters of it, we boldly guide it, renew it, reform it, manifest it
we steal, we sell for money, we please the powerful, we convert it for entertainment
tions - to pop songs and a night bar, then - with a plug or stick -
whichever way you grab it - for fleeting political needs, to limit
valuable social. And art is not desecrated by our attempts,
does not lose its origin, every time and in every use
lenition, giving us part of his secret inner light.
But will we embrace that light? Who dares to say that
defined by Art? listed all sides of it? Or maybe already
understood and told us in past centuries, but we could not do that for long
stagnate: we listened, and neglected, and threw it away right away, as always
in a hurry to change even the best - but only with a new one! And when again
they will tell us the old things, we won’t even remember that we had it.
One artist imagines himself as the creator of an independent spiritual world,
and takes upon his shoulders the act of creation of this world, its population,
comprehensive responsibility for it - but breaks down, because the load
a mortal genius cannot withstand such a thing; like a person in general,
declared himself the center of existence, failed to create a balanced
spiritual system. And if failure takes hold of him, they blame it on the eternal
the disharmony of the world, the complexity of the modern torn soul
or the lack of understanding of the public.
The other one knows a higher power above himself and joyfully works
a lazy apprentice under the sky of God, although his responsibility is even stricter
gratitude for everything written, drawn, for the perceiving souls.
But: this world was not created by him, it is not controlled by him, there is no doubt about its foundation.
Wow, the artist is only given the ability to sense more acutely than others the harmony of the world, the beauty
that and the ugliness of the human contribution to it - and poignantly convey it to people
dyam. And in failures and even at the bottom of existence - in poverty, in prison, in
illnesses - the feeling of stable harmony cannot leave him.
However, all the irrationality of art, its dazzling
viva, unpredictable finds, its shocking effect on people
- are too magical to be exhausted by the artist’s worldview,
by his design or the work of his unworthy fingers.
Archaeologists have not discovered such early stages of human
existence whenever we had no art. Still in the early morning
in the twilight of humanity we received it from Hands that we did not have time to develop
look. And they didn’t have time to ask: why do we need this gift? how to handle
him?
And all the predictors that art were wrong, and will be wrong
will decompose, will outlive its forms, and die. We die - we, and it -
will remain. And will we still understand before our death all sides and everything?
his purpose?
Not everything is called. Something else carries beyond words. The art of melting
lifts even a cold, darkened soul to a high spiritual
experience. Through art they are sometimes sent to us, vaguely, briefly,
- such revelations that rational thinking cannot produce.
Like that little mirror of fairy tales: you look into it and see -
not yourself, - you will see for a moment the Inaccessible, where you cannot gallop, cannot fly.
And only the soul aches...

2
Dostoevsky once mysteriously dropped: “The world will be saved by beauty.”
What is this? For a long time it seemed to me that it was just a phrase. How would this be possible? When
in a bloodthirsty story, who was saved by beauty and from what? Ennoble-
Vala, elevated - yes, but who did she save?
However, there is such a peculiarity in the essence of beauty, a peculiarity in
position of art: the persuasiveness of a truly artistic work
knowledge is completely irrefutable and subjugates even the opposing
I have a heart. Political speech, assertive journalism, program
social life, a philosophical system can apparently be
build smoothly, harmoniously, both on mistakes and lies; and what is hidden and what
distorted - you won’t see it right away. And the opposite direction will come out to argue
speech, journalism, program, foreign-structural philosophy - and that’s it
again just as harmonious and smooth, and again it came together. That's why trust in them
there is - and there is no trust.
It is in vain that it does not go to heart.
A work of art bears its own verification in
to yourself: the concepts are invented, strained, do not stand up to the test
in the images: both of them fall apart, they turn out to be frail, pale,
who are not convinced. The works that have scooped up truths and presented
those who gave it to us in a condensed-living way, capture us, incorporate us into themselves
imperiously - and no one, even after centuries, will come to refute them.
So maybe this is the old trinity of Truth, Goodness and Beauty
- not just a ceremonial, dilapidated formula, as it seemed to us at the time
of our arrogant materialistic youth? If the tops of these
three trees converge, as the researchers claimed, but too obvious,
too straight shoots of Truth and Good are crushed, cut down, not pro-
are launched - they may be bizarre, unpredictable, unexpected
the washed shoots of Beauty will break through and fly up to the same place, and
So will they do the work for all three?
And then, not by slip of the tongue, but by prophecy, Dostoevsky wrote:
“The world will be saved by beauty”? After all, he was given a lot to see, it illuminated him
marvelous.
And then art and literature can actually help today -
to the outside world?
What little I have been able to discern in this problem over the years, I
and I will try to explain it here today.

3
To this chair, from which the Nobel lecture is given,
department, which is not given to every writer and only once a
life, I climbed not three or four paved steps, but
hundreds or even thousands of them - inaccessible, steep, frozen, out of
darkness and cold, where I was destined to survive, and others - maybe with
with a great gift, stronger than me, they died. Of these, only a few met
I myself began on the Gulag Archipelago, scattered into a fractional set
islands, but under the millstone of surveillance and mistrust, not with any
I was fussing about, I only heard about others, I only guessed about others. Those who
sank into that abyss already with a literary name, at least known, but
so many unrecognized, never publicly named! and almost-almost
no one managed to return. Entire national literature remains
there, buried not only without a coffin, but even without underwear, naked, with
tag on the toe. Russian literature was not interrupted for a moment! —
but from the outside it seemed like a desert. Where a friendly forest could grow remains
after all the felling, two or three trees were accidentally bypassed.
And to me today, accompanied by the shadows of the fallen, and with a bowed
with my head letting others, previously worthy, go ahead of me to this place,
today - how to guess and express what you would like to say about them?
This responsibility has long weighed on us, and we understood it.
In the words of Vladimir Solovyov:

But even in chains we must accomplish it ourselves
The circle that the gods outlined for us.

In the languid camp wanderings, in a column of prisoners, in
in the darkness of the evening frosts with translucent strings of lanterns - more than once
came to our throats that we would like to shout to the whole world if
if only the world could hear one of us. It seemed very clear then:
what our lucky messenger will say - and how immediately he will respond
world. Our horizons were clearly filled with both bodily objects and
spiritual movements, and in a non-dual world they did not see any advantage.
Those thoughts did not come from books and were not borrowed for the sake of consistency: in
belt cameras and around forest fires they formed in conversations with people
We, now dead, were tested by that life, and grew from there.
When the external pressure eased, mine and ours expanded
horizons, and gradually, at least through a crack, he saw and recognized that “whole
world". And amazingly for us, “the whole world” turned out to be completely different from
we expected, as we hoped: someone living “in the wrong direction”, going “in the wrong direction”,
swamp swamp exclaiming: “What a charming lawn!”
concrete neck pads: “What a sophisticated necklace!”, and where they roll
Some are untired tears, others are dancing to a carefree musical.
How did this happen? Why did this abyss gap? Feelingless
were we? Is the world insensitive? Or is it because of the difference in languages?
Why are people not able to hear every intelligible speech from each other?
friend? Words echo and flow away like water - without taste, without color, without
smell. Without a trace.
As I understood this, I changed and changed over the years.
becoming, the meaning and tone of my possible speech. My speech today.
And it already bears little resemblance to the one originally conceived in the
pink camp evenings.

4
Man has always been structured in such a way that his worldview, when it is not
inspired by hypnosis, its motivations and rating scale, its actions and effects
measurements are determined by his personal and group life experiences. How
says the Russian proverb: don’t trust your brother, trust your own eye
vom. And this is the healthiest basis for understanding the environment and
behavior in it. And for many centuries, while our world was silently and mysteriously dis-
thrown until it was penetrated by uniform lines of communication, turned into
a single convulsively beating lump - people were unmistakably guided
his life experience in his limited area, in his community
schina, in their society, and finally, on their national territory.
Then it was possible for individual human eyes to see and
adopt a certain general rating scale: what is considered average, what is incredible
pleasant; some cruel, some beyond villainy; what honesty, what
by deception. And although scattered peoples and scales lived very differently
their public assessments could differ strikingly, just as they did not coincide
given their systems of measures, these discrepancies surprised only rare travelers
and they ended up as curiosities in magazines, without carrying any danger.
of humanity, not yet united.
But over the past decades, humanity has been unnoticed, outside-
suddenly became one—hopefully one and dangerously one, so
concussions and inflammation of one part of it are transmitted almost instantly
others, sometimes without any immunity to it. Humanity
became united, but not in the same way as before they were stably united
community or even a nation: not through gradual life experience, not
through his own eye, good-naturedly called crooked, not even through
native understandable language - and, over all barriers, through international
radio and print. The onslaught of events is falling on us, half the world in one minute
learns about their outburst, but the standard is to measure those events and evaluate them by
laws of parts of the world unknown to us - they do not and cannot convey
on air and in newspapers: these measures take too long and especially
settled and assimilated in the special life of individual countries and societies,
they are not portable on the fly. In different parts of the world they apply
own, hard-won scale of assessments - and unyieldingly, self-reassuringly
They truly judge only by their own scale, and not by someone else’s.
And there are, if not many such different scales in the world, then in every
in several cases: a scale for near events and a scale for distant ones;
scale of old societies and scale of young ones; scale of prosperous and non-prosperous
get paid. The divisions of the scales glaringly do not match, they are colorful, they cut us
eyes, and so as not to hurt us, we brush aside all other people’s scales
as if from madness, from delusion - and we confidently judge the whole world by our
home scale. That’s why it seems larger, sicker and more unbearable to us.
not what is actually larger, more painful and unbearable, but what is closer
to us. Still distant, not threatening to reach the threshold today
our home, we admit, with all its groans, stifled
screams, ruined lives, even millions of victims - in the
Overall quite tolerable and of tolerable size.
On one side, under persecution not inferior to that of the ancient Romans,
not so long ago hundreds of thousands of silent people gave their lives for faith in God
Christian. In the other hemisphere there is a certain madman (and he is probably not alone)
rushes across the ocean to release the high priest with a blow of steel
us from religion! According to his scale, he calculated this for all of us!
What, on one scale, appears from afar to be an enviable blessing
day-to-day freedom, then on a different scale, up close it feels annoying
coercion calling for buses to overturn. What's in one
region would dream of improbable well-being, then in another region
outrages as savage exploitation, requiring an immediate strike.
Different scales for natural disasters: two hundred thousand flood
the victims seem smaller than our urban case. Different scales for wasps
personal grief: where even an ironic smile and detachment humiliates
a growing movement, where even severe beatings are excusable as a failure
joke. Different scales for punishments, for atrocities. On one scale
a month's arrest, or exile to a village, or a "punishment cell" where they feed whites
buns and milk - they stun the imagination, fill the newspaper
streaks of anger. And on another scale, they are familiar and forgiven - and prison
sentences of twenty-five years, and punishment cells where there is ice on the walls, but they strip you until
linen, and insane asylums for the healthy, and border executions
countless unreasonable people, still running somewhere for some reason.
And my heart is especially at peace for that exotic land about which I
nothing is known, from where no events reach us, but only
late flat guesses from a small number of correspondents.
And for this double vision, for this dumbfounded lack of understanding of someone else’s distance...
Its grief cannot be blamed on human vision: this is how man is designed.
But for the whole of humanity, squeezed into a single lump, such mutual non-
understanding threatens imminent and violent destruction. At six, four, even
with two scales there cannot be a single world, a single humanity: us
This difference in rhythm, the difference in vibrations, will tear it apart. We can't live on one
There is no place on earth for a man with two hearts.

5
But who will combine these scales and how? Who will create for humanity
a single frame of reference - for atrocities and good deeds, for intolerance
acceptable and tolerable, how are they differentiated today? Who will clarify what
humanity, what is really hard and unbearable, and what is only near-
anger rubs our skin - and directs anger to what is worse, and not to
whichever is closer? Who would be able to transfer such understanding across borders?
own human experience? Who would be able to inert and stubborn person
to instill in a human being other people's distant grief and joy, understanding
scales and delusions that he himself had never experienced? Powerless
there is propaganda, coercion, and scientific evidence. But, to
Fortunately, there is such a remedy in the world! This is art. This is literature.
Such a miracle is available to them: to overcome the flawed feature of the human
centuries to learn only from his own experience, so he passes in vain
experience of others. From person to person, replenishing his short earthly time,
art transfers the entire burden of someone else's long life experience from
with all its burdens, colors, juices, recreates experience in the flesh, re-
lived by others - and allows you to assimilate it as your own.
And even more, much more than that: both countries and entire continents
nents repeat each other’s mistakes belatedly, sometimes for centuries,
when, it seems, everything is so clearly visible! but no: that which is by nations alone
already experienced, thought through and rejected, suddenly discovered by others
as the newest word. And here too: the only substitute does not
of the experience we experience—art, literature. given to them wonderful
ability: through differences in languages, customs, social structures
transfer life experience from whole nation to whole nation - never
experienced by this second difficult multi-decade national
experience, fortunately protecting an entire nation from excess, or
erroneous, or even destructive path, thereby reducing the convolutions of a person
eternal history.
I insist on this great blessed property of art.
I remind you clearly today from the Nobel rostrum.
And literature takes us in another invaluable direction
irrefutable condensed experience: from generation to generation. So she
becomes the living memory of the nation. So she keeps it warm and keeps it
lost history - in a form that cannot be distorted or slandered.
Thus, literature, together with language, preserves the national soul.
(Lately it has been fashionable to talk about the leveling of nations, about
the disappearance of peoples in the cauldron of modern civilization. I don't agree with
topics, but discussing that is a separate issue; here it is appropriate to say:
the disappearance of nations would impoverish us no less than if all people
became like one character, one person. Nations are the wealth of man
of eternity, these are its generalized personalities; the smallest of them carries its
special colors, conceals a special facet of God’s plan.)
But woe to that nation whose literature is interrupted by the intervention
exercise of force: this is not just a violation of “freedom of the press”, it is
closing of the national heart, excision of national memory. On the-
the nation does not remember itself, the nation is deprived of spiritual unity, and when
in general, it’s as if compatriots suddenly stop understanding each other’s language
friend. Silent generations live and die without telling anything about themselves.
themselves, nor their descendants. If such masters as Akhmatova or Zamyatin,
walled up alive for life, condemned to the grave to work in silence, not
hearing the echo of what they wrote, this is not only their personal misfortune, but
grief for the whole nation, but danger for the whole nation.
And in other cases - and for all humanity: when from such
silence, the whole History ceases to be understood.

6
At different times in different countries it is hot, and angry, and graceful
argued about whether art and the artist should live for themselves or
always remember your duty to society and serve it, although not
biased. There's no debate for me here, but I won't bring it up again
strings of arguments. One of the most brilliant speeches on this topic
There was a Nobel lecture by Albert Camus - and I was happy to reach its conclusions.
I'll join you. Yes, Russian literature has had this for decades
roll - don’t look too hard at yourself, don’t flutter too much
carelessly, and I am not ashamed to continue this tradition to the best of my ability. In Russian
In literature, we have long been ingrained in the idea that the writer
can do a lot among its people - and should.
Let us not trample on the artist’s right to express exclusively
own experiences and introspection, neglecting everything that
done in the rest of the world. We will not demand from the artist, but we will punish
It will be permissible for us to cry, but to ask, but to call and beckon. After all
only partly does he develop his talent himself; to a greater extent it
blown into him ready-made from birth - and along with talent
responsibility on his free will. Let's say the artist is nobody
doesn’t owe anything, but it’s painful to see how he can, going into his own creation.
worlds or into spaces of subjective whims, to give away real
the whole world into the hands of selfish people, or even insignificant, or even insane.
Our 20th century turned out to be crueler than previous ones, and its first half
All the terrible things in him did not end with guilt. Same old cave feelings
- greed, envy, unbridledness, mutual hostility,
on the go, adopting decent pseudonyms like class, racial,
mass, trade union struggles are tearing and tearing apart our world. Cave
aversion to compromise is introduced into the theoretical principle and is considered
the virtue of orthodoxy. It requires millions of victims in non-
endless civil wars, it hammers into our souls that there is no
universal human stable concepts of goodness and justice, that everything
they are fluid, changing, which means you should always act as you...
suitable for your party. Any professional group, as soon as it is found
there is an opportune moment to snatch a piece, even if not earned, even if
excessive, - he immediately pulls it out, and then at least the whole society fell apart.
The amplitude of the throwing of Western society, as seen from the outside, is
is approaching the limit beyond which the system becomes metastatic
strong and should fall apart. Less and less embarrassed by the confines of many things
legality, violence is brazenly and victoriously marching around the world, not
caring that its futility has already been demonstrated and proven many times in
stories. It is not just brute force that triumphs, but its trumpet justification -
presentation: the world is flooded with impudent confidence that power can do anything, and rightness -
Nothing. Dostoevsky's demons - it seemed like a provincial nightmare fan-
tasia of the last century - before our eyes they are spreading all over the world, in
countries where they could not even imagine - and now plane hijackings,
hostage takings, explosions and fires in recent years signal
your determination to shake and destroy civilization! And that's quite
they might succeed. Youth is at that age when there is no other
experience, except sexual, when there are no years of your own behind you
suffering and one’s own understanding,” enthusiastically repeats our
Russian disgraced backsides of the 19th century, but it seems to her that she is opening up something new
something. The newly-minted Red Guards' degradation to insignificance is
sees her as a joyful example. Superficial misunderstanding of the eternal
human essence, the naive confidence of unlived hearts: these
We will drive out the fierce, greedy oppressors and rulers, and the next
(we!), putting aside grenades and machine guns, there will be fair and compassionate
veins No matter how it is!.. And who has lived and understands who could do this
young people to object - many do not dare to object, they even ingratiate themselves,
just not to seem like “conservatives” - again a Russian phenomenon, XIX
century, Dostoevsky called it “slavery to advanced ideas.”
The spirit of Munich is not a thing of the past, it was not short
episode. I would even dare to say that the spirit of Munich prevails in the 20th century.
century. The timid civilized world suddenly turned back before the onslaught
to the grinning barbarism I found nothing else to counter-
Show him like concessions and smiles. The spirit of Munich is a disease of the will
rich people, it is the everyday state of those who have given themselves over to thirst
prosperity at any cost, material well-being as
the main goal of earthly existence. Such people - and there are many of them today -
in the outside world - they choose passivity and retreat, only stretching further
normal life would return, but not today would we step into the harsh
news, and tomorrow, you see, it will be okay... (But it will never be okay! - dis-
the price for cowardice will only be worse. Courage and victory come to
us only when we decide to make sacrifices.)
And we are also threatened with death, which is physically cramped
the world is not allowed to merge spiritually, the molecules are not given knowledge and sympathy
jump from one half to the other. This is a terrible danger:
suppression of information between parts of the planet. Modern science
knows that suppression of information is the path of entropy, universal destruction
sewing. Suppression of information makes international
signatures and agreements: inside the stunned zone, any agreement means nothing
it’s worth reinterpreting, or even easier - forgetting, it’s as if he never existed
never (Orwell understood this perfectly). They live inside the stunned zone
as if not the inhabitants of the Earth, but the Martian expeditionary force, they
they don’t really know anything about the rest of the Earth and are ready to trample it
holy confidence that they are “liberating”.
A quarter of a century ago, in the great hopes of humanity, was born
United Nations. Alas, in an immoral world you...
She grew up immoral too. This is not the United Nations organization
but an organization of United Governments, where equal and free
chosen, and forcibly imposed, and seized with weapons
power. The UN is jealously concerned with the selfish partiality of the majority
about the freedom of some peoples and neglects the freedom of others.
By an obsequious vote, she rejected the consideration of private complaints -
moans, screams and begs of isolated small simple people, too
a bunch of little bugs for such a great organization. Your best for
25 years ago the document - the Declaration of Human Rights - was not implemented by the UN
make it mandatory for governments, a condition of their membership, and so
betrayed little people to the will of governments they did not choose.
It would seem: the appearance of the modern world is entirely in the hands of scientists, everything
the technical steps of mankind are decided by them. It would seem: precisely from
should depend on the global community of scientists, and not on politicians,
where should the world go? Moreover, the example of units shows how many
could they move everything together. But no, scientists did not show a bright
attempts to become an important independently acting force of humanity
va. Entire congresses recoil from the suffering of others: more comfortable
stay within the boundaries of science. The same spirit of Munich hung over them
your relaxing wings.
What are they like in this cruel, dynamic, explosive world, on the line?
his ten deaths - the place and role of the writer? We don’t send at all
missiles, we don’t even roll the last utility cart, we are completely in
contempt from those who respect only material power. Not natural
Should we also retreat, lose faith in the steadfastness of good, in the depths of
the truth and only tell the world your bitter outsiders
observations of how hopelessly distorted humanity is, how it was crushed
people and how difficult is it for lonely, delicate, beautiful souls among them?
But we don’t have this escape either. Once you take up the word, already
then never evade: a writer is not an outside judge of his own
compatriots and contemporaries, he is a co-author in all evil, co-
accomplished in his homeland or by his people. And if the tanks of his fatherland
stained the asphalt of a foreign capital with blood, then the brown spots are forever
They spanked the writer's face. And if on the fateful night the sleeping trust was strangled
dear Friend, there are bruises on the writer’s palms from that rope. And if
his young fellow citizens cheekily declare the superiority of debauchery over
modest work, give themselves up to drugs or take hostages, then
this stench mixes with the writer’s breath.
Will we have the audacity to say that we are not responsible for the plagues?
today's world?

7
However, I am encouraged by the living feeling of world literature as
one big heart, beating about the worries and troubles of our world,
although presented in their own way and visible in every corner of it.
In addition to the original national literatures, there was also
previous centuries, the concept of world literature - as an envelope in ver-
national tires and as a set of literary mutual influences.
But there was a time delay: readers and writers recognized the
satelators of foreign languages with a delay, sometimes centuries, so that mutual
influences were late and the envelope of national literary peaks
already appeared in the eyes of descendants, not contemporaries.
And today between writers of one country and writers and chi-
holders of the other there is interaction, if not instantaneous, then close to
Well, I experience this myself. Not published, alas, in my homeland,
my books, despite hasty and often bad translations, quickly
found a responsive world reader. Critical analysis of them
Such outstanding writers of the West as Heinrich Böll took up this task. All these
recent years, when my work and freedom did not collapse, they held on
against the laws of gravity as if in the air, as if on nothing - on
invisible, silent tension of a sympathetic public film - I am with
with grateful warmth, quite unexpectedly for myself, I learned support and
world brotherhood of writers. On my 50th birthday I was amazed
receiving congratulations from famous European writers. None
The pressure on me did not go unnoticed. Dangerous for me
weeks of expulsion from the writers' union - a wall of protection put forward
prominent writers of the world, protected me from the worst persecutions, and
Norwegian writers and artists in case of my threatened expulsion from
my homeland hospitably prepared shelter for me. Finally, the nomination itself
I was not nominated for the Nobel Prize in the country where I live and
I am writing, but by François Mauriac and his colleagues. And, even later, whole
national writers' associations expressed their support for me.
So I understood and felt for myself: world literature is no longer
the entailed envelope is no longer a generalization created by literary scholars,
but a certain common body and common spirit, a living heart unity, in which
reflects the growing spiritual unity of humanity. They are still turning purple
state borders, heated with live wire and automatic
other ministries of internal affairs believe that
and literature is the “internal affair” of the countries under their jurisdiction, still
newspaper headlines: “It’s not their right to interfere in our
internal affairs!” - and yet there were no internal affairs left at all.
our cramped Earth! And the salvation of humanity lies only in the fact that everyone
everything mattered: the people of the East would not be indifferent to what
think in the West; people of the West are entirely not indifferent to the fact that
is hanging around in the East. And fiction is one of the most subtle,
the most vocal instruments of the human being - one of the first
has already adopted, assimilated, picked up this feeling of growing unity of mankind
of eternity. And so I confidently turn to world literature today -
today - to hundreds of friends whom I have never met in person and may
I will never see.
Friends! We’ll try to help if we’re worth anything!
In their countries, torn apart by the discord of parties, movements, castes and
groups, who from time immemorial was a force not dividing, but uniting?
This is, in essence, the position of writers: exponents of the national
language - the main bond of the nation - and the very land occupied by the people, and
in a happy case and the national soul.
I think that world literature is capable of
humanity to help him truly recognize himself despite the fact that
indoctrinated by biased people and parties; transfer condensed
experience from one region to another, so that we stop doubling and rippling in
eyes, the divisions of the scales would align, and some peoples would recognize correctly and
concisely the true history of others with the power of recognition and pain
sensations as if they had experienced it themselves - and thus would be protected from
belated cruel mistakes. And we ourselves may be able to
develop in yourself world vision: the center of the eye, like every person,
seeing what is close, out of the corners of our eyes we begin to absorb what is happening in
the rest of the world. And we will correlate and observe world proportions.
And who else, if not writers, should censure not only their own
to their unsuccessful rulers (in other states this is the easiest bread,
everyone who is not too lazy is busy with this), but also for his society, whether in it
cowardly humiliation or self-satisfied weakness, but also lightweight
abandoned youth, and young pirates with brandished knives?
They will tell us: what can literature do against the ruthless na-
the grip of open violence? A: let’s not forget that violence does not live alone and does not
Only one thing is capable of living: it is certainly intertwined with lies. Between them
the most related, the most natural deep connection: there is nothing to violence
there is nothing to hide behind except lies, and there is nothing to hide behind lies except violence.
Anyone who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inexorably
must choose lies as his principle. Born, violence acts
openly and even proud of himself. But as soon as it strengthens and establishes itself, it
feels thin air around him and cannot exist
further on, otherwise than by clouding yourself into a lie, hiding behind its sweet speech.
It no longer always, does not necessarily directly choke the throat, more often it requires
from subjects only an oath of lies, only complicity in lies.
And a simple step of a simple courageous man: do not participate
in lies, do not support false actions! Let this come into the world
and even reigns in the world, but not through me. Writers and artists
More is available: defeat lies! Art is in the fight against lies
always won, always wins! - visibly, irrefutably for everyone!
A lie can withstand a lot in the world, but not against
art.
And as soon as the lie is dispelled, nakedness will be revealed disgustingly
violence - and decrepit violence will fall.
That's why I think, friends, that we can help the world in its
hot hour. Do not excuse yourself by being unarmed, do not surrender carelessly
no life - but go out to fight!
In the Russian language, proverbs about truth are popular. They persistently
express considerable difficult folk experience, and sometimes amazingly:

ONE WORD OF TRUTH WILL CHANGE THE WHOLE WORLD.

It is on such an imaginary violation of the law that the
the knowledge of masses and energies is based on both my own activity and my
a call to writers all over the world.
1972

DO NOT LIVE BY A LIE!

Once upon a time we did not dare to rustle even in a whisper. Now we write and
we read Samizdat, and to each other, having gathered in the smoking rooms of the research institute, from the heart
Let's complain: why don't they play tricks, wherever they drag us!
And unnecessary cosmic boasting during the ruin and poverty of the house; And
strengthening long-distance savage regimes; and inciting civil wars; And
recklessly raised Mao Tse-tung (at our expense) - and us at
they will chase him, and he will have to go, where can he go? and they judge whoever they want, and
the healthy are being driven into the insane - everyone is “them”, and we are powerless.
It has already reached the bottom, universal spiritual destruction is already imminent.
has fallen on all of us, and the physical one is about to blaze and burn both us and
our children - and we still smile cowardly and babble
tongue-tied:
- How can we interfere? We don't have the strength.
We have become so hopelessly dehumanized that today’s modesty
let us give up all our principles, our souls, all our efforts to the new feeding trough
ancestors, all opportunities for descendants - just not to upset your
fragile existence. We have no strength, no pride, no
heart heat. We are not even afraid of universal atomic death, the third
We’re not afraid of a world war (maybe we’ll hide in a crack) - we’re just
We are afraid of the steps of civil courage! We just don't want to tear ourselves away from
herd, do not take a step alone - and suddenly find yourself without white loaves,
without a gas water heater, without Moscow registration.
Just as they drilled into us at political circles, it has grown into us, conveniently.
live well for the rest of your life: environment, social conditions, none of them
jump out, being determines consciousness, what does that have to do with us? we are nothing
Can.
And we can - in s e! — but we lie to ourselves to reassure ourselves.
It’s not “they” who are to blame for everything - us, only us!
They will object: but you really can’t think of anything! Us
their mouths are gagged, they don’t listen to us, they don’t ask. How to make them
listen to us?
It is impossible to convince them.
It would be natural to re-elect them! - but there were no re-elections -
not in our country.
In the West, people know strikes and protest demonstrations, but
we are too overwhelmed, we are scared: what is it like to suddenly give up work?
bots, how does it feel to suddenly go outside?
Yet other fatal paths have been tried over the last century in
bitter Russian history - especially not for us, and really - don’t!
Now that all the axes have been cut, when all that was sown has come up,
— we can see how lost, how lost those young, arrogant
those who thought of terror, bloody uprising and civil war
make the country fair and happy. No, thank you, fathers enlighten-
Sorry! Now we know that the vileness of the methods lies in
the vileness of the results. Let our hands be clean!
So is the circle closed? And is there really no way out? And it remains
We can only wait inactively: what if something happens to us?
But it will never come unstuck from us if we all
we will recognize it, glorify it and strengthen it, if we do not push away
at least from his most sensitive point.
From - lies.
When violence breaks into peaceful human life - his face
glows with self-confidence, it carries it on the flag, and shouts: “I am
Violence! Disperse, make way - I’ll crush you!” But the violence quickly subsided
floats for a few years - it is no longer confident in itself, and in order to hold on, so that
to look decent, - certainly calls Lies to be your allies.
For: violence has nothing to hide behind except lies, and lies can persist
only violence. And not every day, not every shoulder puts violence
its heavy paw: it demands from us only submission to lies,
daily participation in lies - and this is all loyalty.
And here lies the one we neglect, the simplest, the most
the accessible key to our liberation: personal non-participation in lies!
Let the lie cover everything, let the lie own everything, but in the smallest
let’s be stubborn: let him control not through me!
And this is a cut in the imaginary ring of our inaction! - most
easy for us and most destructive for lies. For when people retreat
They get rid of lies - they simply cease to exist. She's like an infection
can only exist in humans.
We are not called upon, we are not mature enough to go to the square and shout
the truth, saying out loud what we think is not necessary, it’s scary. But at least
Let's refuse to say what we don't think!
This is our path, the easiest and most accessible in our
sprouted organic cowardice, much easier (it’s scary to say)
civil disobedience according to Gandhi.
Our way: do not consciously support lies in anything! Realizing
where is the limit of lies (for everyone it is still visible differently), - give up
from this gangrene border! Do not glue dead seeds and scales
Ideology, do not sew together rotten rags - and we will be amazed at how
quickly and helplessly the lie will fall, and what should be naked is
will appear naked to the world.
So, through our timidity, let everyone choose whether he will remain
a conscious servant of lies (oh, of course, not out of inclination, but for the sake of
feeding the family, for raising children in the spirit of lies!), or came to him
It's time to dust yourself off as an honest man worthy of respect and children.
their own and their contemporaries. And from that day on he:
- will not write in the future, will not sign, will not print in any way -
not a single phrase that distorts, in his opinion, the truth;
- such a phrase would not be expressed either in a private conversation or in public
neither on my own, nor according to a cheat sheet, nor in the role of an agitator, teacher, educator,
nor in a theatrical role;
- pictorial, sculptural, photographic, technical, musical
will not portray, will not accompany, will not broadcast any false
thoughts, not a single distortion of the truth that discriminates;
- will not bring, either verbally or in writing, any “leadership”
quotes from pleasing, for insurance, for the success of your work, if quotes
the thought being discussed is not completely shared or does not apply exactly here;
- will not allow himself to be forced to go to a demonstration or rally, if
whether it is against his desire and will; will not take it in hand, will not raise the transpa-
ranta, a slogan that is not fully shared;
- will not raise his voting hand for a proposal that he does not agree with
feels sincerely; will not vote either openly or secretly for a person who
considers unworthy or questionable;
- will not allow himself to be driven into a meeting where forced action is expected
new, distorted discussion of the issue;
- will immediately leave a meeting, meeting, lecture, performance, cinema
session, as soon as he hears lies, ideological nonsense or
shameless propaganda;
- will not subscribe to or buy such a newspaper or magazine at retail,
where information is distorted, essential facts are hidden.
We have, of course, not listed all possible and necessary
avoiding lies. But the one who begins to purify himself, with a purified gaze
other cases can be easily distinguished.
Yes, at first it will not be equal. Someone will lose for a while
work. For young people who want to live in truth, this will make it very difficult for them
young life at the beginning: after all, the answered lessons are filled with lies, it is necessary
choose. But there is no one left here for anyone who wants to be honest.
loopholes: no day for any of us even in the most secure
technical sciences cannot skip at least one of the steps mentioned - in
side of truth or side of lies; towards spiritual independence
or spiritual lackeyness. And the one who lacks courage even to
defense of his soul - let him not be proud of his progressive views,
does not boast that he is an academician or a people's artist, an honored figure
or a general - so let him say to himself: I am a cattle and a coward, if only I
satisfying and warm.
Even this path is the most moderate of all the paths of resistance.
niya - it won’t be easy for us who have stayed too long. But how much easier
self-immolation or even a hunger strike: the flames will not engulf your body,
your eyes won’t burst from the heat, and you can always find black bread and clean water.
is for your family.
Betrayed by us, deceived by us, the great people of Europe -
Czechoslovakian - really didn’t show us how even against tanks
Can an unprotected breast endure if it contains a worthy heart?
Will it be a difficult journey? - but the easiest one possible.
A difficult choice for the body, but the only one for the soul. Not an easy path
- however, we already have people, even dozens of them, who endure for years
all these points, lives by the truth.
So: not to be the first to take this path, but to join! Them
The easier and shorter this path will be for all of us, the more friendly, the denser
we will step into it! There will be thousands of us - and they won’t be able to handle anything with anyone
to do. There will be tens of thousands of us - and we will not recognize our country!
If we're chickening out, then it's enough to complain that someone doesn't like us.
allows us to breathe - we don’t give it to ourselves! Let's bend down some more, wait, and
our biologist brothers will help bring closer the reading of our thoughts and
remaking our genes.
If we become cowardly in this too, then we are insignificant, hopeless, and
This is Pushkin’s contempt for us:
Why do the herds need the gifts of freedom?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Their inheritance from generation to generation
A yoke with rattles and a whip.

Territory of the mind

How to communicate correctly with friends and relatives from Russia

Oleg Khomyak Psychologist

If a Russian steps away from his fictional image for even a minute and realizes that there are no fascists in Kyiv, he will be forced to admit that the feeling of hatred that overwhelms him is his own feeling.
Psychologist Oleg Khomyak tells how mass processing of consciousness is happening in Russia and gives recommendations on how to communicate with relatives, friends and colleagues - Russians whose brains have been rented by the Kremlin.

In the difficult situation in which we now find ourselves, we have encountered an unexpected problem for many in communicating with relatives, colleagues, friends and employees from Russia. Why do seemingly normal, adequate people behave like crazy people? And how to react to this? Previously, when communicating with Russians, we could discuss something, argue, prove, and come to an agreement. There was normal communication. Now we find that we are simply not being heard. In response to any of our arguments, there is some kind of text consisting of a set of cliches, and we understand that this message is an obvious lie. We are discussing the state of affairs not in Russia, but in Ukraine, but at the same time the Russians take the position that they know better than us what is happening here.
I advise you, when this happens, to turn your interlocutor’s attention to the outrages that are happening in Russia - terrorism, theft, rampant drunkenness, etc. You can also ask your interlocutor about why there is now a rise in neo-Nazi sentiments in Russia, and how they intend to fight all this. This is the easiest way to reduce the heat.
Why does it suddenly become impossible to talk to a rational, adult and intelligent person? Here it would be appropriate to talk about such a mechanism as zombification or mass processing of consciousness. It is important to remember that the media in Russia have been under complete state control for many years; they broadcast a single controlled ideology created by the authorities. There are, of course, opposition media, but they are under pressure, and the further they go, the fewer they become. Soon there will be a single ideological space there. In Russia, the Soviet propaganda system in its most terrible forms has been revived and restored. This propaganda machine is very similar to the one that existed in Hitler's Germany, but clearly does not live up to it. However, the media system in Russia is very powerful.
How does zombification occur? Each person has a personal conscious and subconscious, our own emotions, feelings, relationships. But there is also the collective unconscious, which Carl-Gustav Jung spoke about. It implies a set of identical thinking stereotypes among different people included in one system. What images appear in the head of a person who grew up in the USSR, for example, me, when he hears the word “fascism”? The first thing that pops into my head is a wartime poster in which a Soviet soldier pierces a fascist with a bayonet. The second is burnt cities and villages. Further on, the fascists with their sleeves rolled up are holding Schmeissers in their hands. Also - the song “Get up, huge country!” These pictures contain a strong emotional charge, there is fear, hatred, anger, contempt and much more.
The collective unconscious contains images: a mixture of visual pictures, feelings, experiences and sounds. Moreover, it is absolutely not necessary that these images correspond to reality. For example, in Russia the image of the “world behind the scenes” works quite successfully, which is absurd in its form, although at the same time it hints at something specific.
Images can be fundamentally fictitious, unrelated to reality, but at the same time woven from elements of reality. For example, Russians are told that Bandera and fascists seized power in Ukraine. The mythical images of “fascists”, “Banderaites” are taken (also a very emotionally charged image, and for the East and West of Ukraine this charge is diametrically opposed) and combined with real Kiev, Russian-speaking citizens, Independence Square. All this is mixed in a bizarre way and creates an image of chaos.
Since we belong to very different systems (tribal, professional, national, state, etc.), we connect to different sets of images stored in the collective unconscious of these systems. Like in the movie “The Matrix”: a cord is stuck into the back of the head and a person sees the picture of the world that the system dictates to him. Such “ports” of connection between the human psyche and the system are images. On one side of the image (from the system) there is a visual picture or stereotype (the same “fascist”, which I, for example, have never seen in my life, like the vast majority of Russians), and on the other - our personal emotions (hatred , anger, fear, thirst for justice, etc.) And all a person’s personal energy is directed towards the implementation of this systemic image. That is, the feelings and forces of many Russians are now actively directed towards the fight against fascism in Ukraine, although in their lives there are many problems that should be overcome.
By joining the system (for most people this happens unconsciously and uncontrollably), we accept these images and empathize with them. Adult Russians have plenty of such historically formed images, take for example the ideological images created in Soviet times. At the same time, you need to understand that there was a real war, with its horrors and victims, and there was its image created in our collective unconscious. These are different things. But an ordinary person does not distinguish between a fictitious image and an observed image. He perceives any image as truth. If he's not too fantastic. Although sometimes even too fantastic images are accepted as truth. Remember the textbook example of how a radio dramatization of H.G. Wells’ book “The War of the Worlds” caused panic among the population. If I, you, or someone else now begins to convincingly talk about an encounter with the Chupacabra, after a while this beast will cease to be fantastic in the perception of the listeners. People do not distinguish between images obtained from their own experience and images received from the system. A simple example. We are all sure that we know what the solar system looks like: in the middle is the Sun, around which the planets revolve in their orbits. But have any of us seen this with our own eyes? We saw the picture from the textbook and took it on faith. If you understand this, you will find that we have no other confirmation of the existence of the solar system other than this image from the textbook. A significant part of our knowledge about the world is such pictures that are not obtained from our own life experience.
Due to the fact that we live in the same territory, move in the same community, and, therefore, are attached to one common system, we “swallow” the same or similar images, and this allows us to communicate, as if understanding each other. If we talk about thinking, then it is not so much the person who thinks as the system that thinks through the person. The system has loaded a certain number of images into us and now our entire understanding of reality comes through these images. That is, the thinking process is not a personal process, but a systemic one.
So, what happened in Russia? Putin began to activate and actualize a certain set of images: first of all, the image of fascism (Russians react as if fascism is on their borders) and, of course, the ideas of Soviet heroism. Here it is appropriate to remember the Victory Day holiday. This holiday, in addition to reflecting the real process - the victory of the USSR over Germany, also has a powerful ideological load. This is a holiday designed to annually maintain the spirit of the winner. 70 years have passed since the Victory. Over the years, a lot has been lost and lost, the Cold War with the West was lost (the USSR collapsed, the Russian economy is now a raw materials economy). But the holiday continues and people continue to live with a feeling of victory. Now in Russia they no longer remember those who died in this terrible war (which should be done), but rather enjoy the chauvinistic feeling of the winner. This day could be made a day of remembrance, a day of peace, a day of protest against the war, but in modern Russia, which in fact continues to be Soviet, this holiday continues to function as a way to raise heroism.
The Russians are an imperial nation, and all imperial nations have a post-imperial syndrome - an experience, to put it mildly, of sadness about lost greatness. Hence Victory Day and other holidays associated with the greatness of Russia and Russian weapons. If the manipulator superimposes on this experience of lost greatness several highly charged images, for example, of the same fascism, and indicates where exactly this fascism is located (in this case - in Ukraine), then automatically all this power of emotions rises and the majority of the Russian population is eager to fight with fascism in Ukraine.
But it’s not enough to raise emotions, they need to be supported. And the appeal to Russian unity begins (false ideas are thrown about all kinds of infringement of Russians and even Russian speakers), to the ideas of Orthodoxy (against the “shameless gays of Europe”). As a result, we have a fusion ideology that combines symbols and images of the Soviet past, the Russian imperial past, Pan-Slavism and Orthodoxy. This strange mix is presented under the guise of the concept of “spiritual bonds.” Although the only bonds that Russia has are oil and gas, everything else is an ideological superstructure designed to give it all at least some meaning. And this is understandable, because living in a meaningless world is very difficult.
You need to understand that people connected to a common system of images stop thinking, they simply react as if they were pressing a button. The media presses the button - emotions go, there is no thinking process. Therefore, when you try to talk to a Russian, you find a powerful emotion, logic does not work there. Even if you manage with incredible efforts to convince a person of something, to prove something to him, you will be surprised to find that during the next conversation he will again resume his message, and in the same form as before. Why? Because he returns home, joins the system - the TV, neighbors, colleagues and is again loaded with the same information.
How to understand that your interlocutor is a zombie? He reacts emotionally, produces powerful cliches (the same for all representatives of the same system) and does not hear your arguments at all. A person does not absorb external information that can destroy the image created in his head. A sign of a strong ideology is precisely this - a person has a built-in mechanism for protecting against “unnecessary” information. And a person clings to this defense mechanism. Because if he steps away from the fictional image for even a minute and realizes that there are no fascists in Kiev, he will be forced to admit that the feeling of hatred that overwhelms him is his own feeling, that this aggression that he experiences is his own . That he personally feels the need to kill now. And that his country is not a liberator, but an occupier. For any normal person this is a catastrophic experience.
Therefore, if you are faced with such a charge, know that it is useless to prove anything. Although, you can try, maybe your interlocutor still retains the rudiments of critical thinking. A sign that your attempt at communication may be crowned with success is that the person listens to you attentively and with interest and asks clarifying questions. This suggests that he is able to think and perceive information. You can give him this information very carefully, in measured doses, without touching, as far as possible, his stereotypes about his native country. An ordinary Russian, suddenly realizing that his country is an aggressor, and Putin is a thief and a liar, loses faith in his country, his patriotism, and instead of his own greatness, which is inextricably linked with the greatness of his country, suddenly begins to feel his insignificance.
But what to do if the zombified Russian with whom you communicate is your relative, long-time friend, colleague? The best thing you can do is to move away from the topic of collective images and steer the conversation towards personal interests. Ask how the children are doing there, whether they are paying a pension, what’s going on with salaries, whether the renovations have been completed. Or turn the conversation in a professional direction. You will see how a person in an instant will become the person you knew him before. But as soon as you touch on some geopolitical topic, the reverse process occurs. Just like in the movie “The Matrix,” when every civilian suddenly turns into Agent Smith. According to the film, Agent Smith is an autonomous module designed to maintain the system. So in this case, Dmitry Kiselev begins to emerge from every Russian. The personality disappears, the system appears. At some point you start talking not to a person, but to Putin’s speaker. Therefore, you cannot expect that you will be able to win. The system is by definition more powerful than you alone. There are hundreds of millions of such speakers in Russia.
The only thing we can do in this situation is to maintain personal contact, to feel the boundaries within which we can communicate, and we must definitely emphasize the following: “Now the situation is difficult, even very difficult, but we are normal people and we all want peace. So let's just look at it calmly. Everything will be fine, both for you and for me.” This approach can maintain some balance in the relationship. If you start losing your temper, screaming, beating your opponent with words, you will certainly feel better (this is a good way of self-regulation), but you will achieve nothing except increased retaliatory aggression and hatred. If, for the sake of self-regulation, you want to troll one of the Russians you know, troll. If relationships are not important to you. Now you won't prove anything. This system of meanings will collapse on its own over time.
Accept it as a fact: the humanistic expectation that all people are smart and can be reasoned with is an illusion. Of course, everyone has an individual mind, but if it is taken into use by a system, it becomes part of this system. But you can’t come to an agreement with her.

Like that savage who, in bewilderment, picked up a strange waste from the ocean? sand burials? or an incomprehensible object falling from the sky? - intricate in its curves, gleaming now vaguely, now with the bright stroke of a ray - it turns it this way and that, turns it, looking for how to adapt it to the task, looking for the lower service available to it, without any guessing about the higher one.

So we, holding Art in our hands, self-confidently consider ourselves its masters, boldly direct it, update it, reform it, manifest it, sell it for money, please the powerful, turn it for entertainment - to pop songs and a night bar, or with a bung or a stick, as you see it - for fleeting political needs, for limited social ones. And art is not desecrated by our attempts, it does not lose its origin, each time and in every use it gives us a part of its secret inner light.

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn

But will we cover all that light? Who dares to say that determined Art? listed all sides of it? Or maybe he already understood and told us in past centuries, but we could not stagnate for long: we listened, and neglected, and threw them away right away, as always, in a hurry to replace even the best - but only with a new one! And when they tell us the old things again, we won’t even remember that we had it.

One artist imagines himself as the creator of an independent spiritual world and takes on his shoulders the act of creating this world, its population, and the comprehensive responsibility for it - but he breaks down, because a mortal genius is not able to withstand such a load; just like man in general, who declared himself the center of existence, failed to create a balanced spiritual system. And if failure overtakes him, they blame it on the eternal disharmony of the world, on the complexity of the modern torn soul, or on the incomprehensibility of the public.

The other knows the higher power above him and joyfully works as a little apprentice under the sky of God, although his responsibility for everything written, drawn, for the perceiving souls is even stricter. But: this world was not created by him, he is not controlled by him, there is no doubt about its foundations, the artist is given only the ability to more acutely than others feel the harmony of the world, the beauty and ugliness of the human contribution to it - and acutely convey this to people. And in failures and even at the bottom of his existence - in poverty, in prison, in illness - the feeling of stable harmony cannot leave him.

However, all the irrationality of art, its dazzling twists, unpredictable findings, its shaking effect on people are too magical to be exhausted by the artist’s worldview, his plan or the work of his unworthy fingers.

Archaeologists have not discovered such early stages of human existence when we did not have art. Even in the pre-dawn twilight of humanity, we received it from Hands that we did not have time to see. And they didn’t have time to ask: For what this gift for us? how to handle it?

And all those who predicted that art would decompose, outlive its forms, and die were mistaken, and will be mistaken. We will die, but it will remain. And will we still understand all the sides and all the purposes of it before our death?

Not everything is called. Something else leads beyond words. Art melts even a cold, darkened soul to a high spiritual experience. Through art, sometimes they are sent to us, vaguely, briefly, such revelations as cannot be developed by rational thinking.

It’s like that little mirror of fairy tales: you look into it and see - not yourself, - you see for a moment the Inaccessible, where you can’t ride, you can’t fly. And only the soul aches...

So we, holding Art in our hands, self-confidently consider ourselves its masters, boldly guide it, update it, reform it, manifest it, sell it for money, please the powerful, turn it for entertainment - to pop songs and a night bar, then as a plug or with a stick, as soon as you grab it - for fleeting political needs, for limited social needs. And art is not desecrated by our attempts, it does not lose its origin, each time and in every use it gives us a part of its secret inner light.

But will we embrace that light? Who dares to say that he defined Art? listed all sides of it? Or maybe he already understood and told us in past centuries, but we could not stagnate for long: we listened, and neglected, and threw it away right away, as always, in a hurry to replace even the best - but only with a new one ! And when they tell us the old things again, we won’t even remember that we had it.

Like that little mirror of fairy tales: you look into it and see - not yourself, - you will see for a moment the Inaccessible, where you cannot gallop, cannot fly. And only the soul aches...

Dostoevsky once mysteriously dropped: “The world will be saved by beauty.” What is this? For a long time it seemed to me that it was just a phrase. How would this be possible? When in a bloodthirsty story, who was saved by beauty and from what? She ennobled, elevated - yes, but who did she save?

However, there is such a peculiarity in the essence of beauty, a peculiarity in the position of art: the persuasiveness of a truly artistic work is completely irrefutable and subjugates even a reluctant heart. Political speech, assertive journalism, a program of social life, a philosophical system can apparently be built smoothly, harmoniously, both on error and on lies; and what is hidden and what is distorted will not be seen right away. And a counter-directed speech, journalism, a program, a different-structural philosophy will come up for debate - and everything will again be just as harmonious and smooth, and again it will come together. That is why there is trust in them - and there is no trust.

It is in vain that it does not go to heart.

A work of art bears its own test in itself: invented, strained concepts do not withstand the test of images: both fall apart, they turn out to be frail, pale, and do not convince anyone. The works, which have scooped up the truth and presented it to us in a condensed-living way, captivate us, draw us into them powerfully, and no one will ever, even after centuries, come to refute them.

So maybe this old trinity of Truth, Goodness and Beauty is not just a formal, dilapidated formula, as it seemed to us at the time of our arrogant materialistic youth? If the tops of these three trees converge, as the researchers claimed, but the too obvious, too straight shoots of Truth and Goodness are crushed, cut down, and are not allowed through, then maybe the bizarre, unpredictable, unexpected shoots of Beauty will break through and soar into the same place, and So will they do the work for all three?

And then, not by slip of the tongue, but by prophecy, Dostoevsky wrote: “The world will be saved by beauty”? After all, he was given a lot to see, it illuminated him amazingly.

And then art and literature can actually help today's world?

What little I have been able to discern in this problem over the years, I will try to present here today.

To this pulpit, from which the Nobel lecture is given, a pulpit that is not given to every writer and only once in a lifetime, I climbed not three or four paved steps, but hundreds or even thousands of them - inaccessible, steep, frozen, out of the darkness and cold, where I was destined to survive, and others - perhaps with a greater gift, stronger than me - perished. Of these, I myself met only a few on the Gulag Archipelago, scattered across a fractional number of islands, but under the millstone of surveillance and mistrust I didn’t talk to everyone, I only heard about others, I only guessed about others. Those who sank into that abyss already with a literary name are at least known, but how many are unrecognized, never publicly named! and almost, almost no one managed to return. An entire national literature remained there, buried not only without a coffin, but even without underwear, naked, with a tag on its toe. Russian literature was not interrupted for a moment! - but from the outside it seemed like a desert. Where a friendly forest could have grown, after all the logging there were two or three trees that were accidentally bypassed.

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn

Your Majesty!

Your Royal Highnesses!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Many laureates have spoken before you in this hall, but probably no one has had as much trouble with the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Foundation as with me. I have already been here once, although not in the flesh; and once the venerable Karl Ragnar Girov was already heading towards me; and finally I came, not my turn, to take the extra chair. It took four years to give me the floor for three minutes, and the secretary of the Academy is forced to address the same writer for the third time.

And therefore I must apologize for causing so much trouble to all of you, and especially thank you for that ceremony in 1970, when your late king and you all warmly.

But you must admit that it’s not so easy for a laureate either: to carry a three-minute speech inside of you for four years. When I was getting ready to go to you for the first time, there was not enough volume in my chest, no sheets of paper in order to speak out on the first free platform of my life. For a writer from a captive country, the very first platform and the first speech is a speech about everything in the world, about all the pains of his country - and at the same time one can be forgiven for forgetting the purpose of the ceremony, the composition of those gathered and pouring bitterness into the glasses of triumph. But since that year, without going here, I have learned in my own country to speak openly almost everything I think. And having found myself in exile in the West, all the more so I acquired this unfettered opportunity to speak as much as I want, anywhere, something that is not valued here. And I no longer need to overload this short word, moreover, in a situation that is not at all suitable for that.

I also find, however, a particular advantage in responding to the Nobel Prize only a few years later. For example, in 4 years you can experience what role this award has already played in your life. In mine it is very large. She helped me not to be crushed in cruel persecution. She helped my voice be heard where my predecessors had not been heard or understood for decades. She helped to produce things outside of me that I would not have been able to do without her.

With me, the Swedish Academy made one of the exceptions, quite rare: it awarded me the prize in middle age, and for my open literary activity - even in my infancy, only in my 8th year. For the Academy there was a great risk here: after all, only a small part of the books I wrote were published at that time.

Or perhaps the best task of any literary and scientific prize is precisely to promote movement along the path itself.

And I offer my heartfelt gratitude to the Swedish Academy for being extremely supportive of my writing work with its 1970 selection. I dare to thank her on behalf of that vast non-state Russia, which is forbidden to express itself out loud, which is persecuted for writing books and even for reading them. The Academy received many reproaches for this decision, as if such a prize served political interests. But then they shouted from hoarse throats that do not know any other interests.

You and I know that the work of an artist does not fit into a wretched political plane, just as our whole life does not lie in it, and how could we not keep our social consciousness in it.

Explanation by N. D. Solzhenitsyna: A speech at the Nobel ceremony is a mandatory response by every Nobel laureate at the banquet after the presentation of the prize. In fact, this is already the second time for such a ceremony, the first was sent in 1970 to Stockholm and was read in the absence of the author (text - see: A. Solzhenitsyn. A calf butted an oak tree. Paris: YMCA-press, 1975, p. 548). Pronounced by A.I. Solzhenitsyn on December 10, 1974 in Stockholm. Published in the official collection of the Nobel Committee “Les prix Nobel en 1974”, Stockholm, 1975, in Russian (not entirely accurate) and English.

Composition

DURING THE CLASSES

I. Organizational stage

II. Updating of reference knowledge

Problematic question

♦ tell us about the fate of the hero of the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, his life values. Which of the heroes of Russian literature is spiritually close to Shukhov? (In Shukhov’s fate, its typicality is emphasized: in his origin, age, appearance, in the way personal tragedies merged with the tragedy of the entire country (“... their entire army was surrounded...”, “... in a group of one such Shukhov was held captive for a couple of days...” ), in assessing what is happening, in relation to people, to himself and to work. His position is supported by age-old folk wisdom, reflected in the proverbs that abound in his speech. It is no coincidence that the image of Shukhov resembles literary images that have become the personification of the Russian character - Platon Karataev (L N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”) and Andrei Sokolov (M. A. Sholokhov “The Fate of Man”).)

III. Setting the goals and objectives of the lesson.

Motivation for learning activities

Teacher. humanity at different stages of its development reflected on the role of literature in society, made some conclusions and recognitions. such recognition, for example, is the annual award of the Nobel Prize to literary figures for major contributions to the development of society.

Today, reflecting on the importance of literature in the modern world, we turn to the “Nobel Lecture...” a. I. Solzhenitsyn, delivered at the award ceremony, several years after he was awarded the prize in 1970. The path to worldwide recognition was for A. I. Solzhenitsyn is truly thorny. There are these words in his lecture: “To this department from which the Nobel lecture is given, a department that is not given to every writer and only once in a lifetime, I climbed not three or four paved steps, but hundreds or even thousands of them.” - unapproachable, steep, frozen, from darkness and cold, where I was destined to survive, and others - perhaps with a greater gift, stronger than me - perished.”

The Nobel Prize (Swedish: Mobe1pse1, English: Nobel Prze) is one of the most prestigious international prizes, awarded annually for outstanding scientific research, revolutionary inventions or major contributions to culture or society. It was established in accordance with the will of Alfred Nobel, drawn up in 1895, which provided for the allocation of funds for awards to representatives of the following fields: literature, physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, and assistance in establishing peace throughout the world. Currently, the Nobel Prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (about 1.05 million euros or $1.5 million).

IV. Working on the lesson topic

1. teacher's introductory speech

The processing of data to determine the laureate is based on the principles emphasized in Nobel's will. Thus, in his will, he declared that for the award of a prize in literature, “idealistic orientation” should be a sufficient condition.

The selection of laureates in the field of literature is often controversial. It is obvious that there are not entirely motivated awards. The decisions of the committee awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature are the most controversial among all Nobel nominations. Suffice it to say that this prize has never been awarded to such geniuses of world literature as L. N. Tolstoy, J. Joyce, V. V. Nabokov, H. l. Borges.

At the same time, the list of Nobel Prize laureates is very representative: among them T. Mann, W. Faulkner, G. Garcia Marquez, Ch. Milos and other Russian-speaking writers the prize was awarded 5 times (I. A. Bunin, B. L. Pasternak , M. A. Sholokhov, A. I. Solzhenitsyn, I. A. Brodsky).

Ivan Bunin (1933). Since 1920 (and at the time of receiving the prize) he lived in France. Without citizenship. "For the strict mastery with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose."

Boris Pasternak (1958). (Refused the prize; the diploma and medal were awarded to his son in 1989) “For significant achievements in modern lyric poetry, as well as for continuing the traditions of the great Russian epic novel.”

Mikhail Sholokhov (1965). “For the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970). "For the moral strength with which he followed the immutable traditions of Russian literature."

Joseph Brodsky (1987). (Since 1972 (and at the time of receiving the prize) he lived in the United States. US citizenship.) “For comprehensive creativity, imbued with clarity of thought and passion of poetry.”

In 1962, after the publication of the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” in which, according to the plan, “to describe the entire camp world in one day,” “the whole history of the camps” was shown, a. I. Solzhenitsyn became famous throughout the world. Then there were years of literary and political opposition to the totalitarian regime. In 1969, the writer was expelled from the Writers' Union. In 1974 a. I. Solzhenitsyn was forcibly expelled from the country, and only in 1994 did he return to his homeland.

Much of what was said and written by a. I. Solzhenitsyn is now perceived as a prophecy. His statements about the meaning of the literary word in the modern world, voiced in the “Nobel Lecture” more than 30 years ago, have not lost their relevance. Let's look at some of its fragments.

2. analytical work with fragments of the text of the “Nobel lecture...” (work with rm)

Fragment 1

“Like that savage who, in bewilderment, picked up a strange waste from the ocean? sand burials? or an incomprehensible object falling from the sky? - intricate in its curves, gleaming now vaguely, now with the bright stroke of a ray - it turns it this way and that, turns it, looking for how to adapt it to the task, looking for the lower service available to it, without any guessing about the higher one.

So we, holding Art in our hands, self-confidently consider ourselves masters, boldly direct it, update it, reform it, manifest it, sell it for money, please the powerful, turn it for entertainment - to pop songs and a night bar, or with a bung or a stick, like you'll grab it - for political, fleeting needs, for limited social needs. and art is not desecrated by our attempts, does not lose its origin, each time and in every use devoting to us a part of its secret inner light.”

Š What is unusual about the beginning of the lecture?

Fragment 2

“man has always been structured in such a way that his worldview, when it is not inspired by hypnosis, his motivations and scale of assessments, his actions and intentions are determined by his personal and group life experience. As the Russian proverb says: “Don’t trust your brother, trust your crooked eye.” And this is the healthiest basis for understanding the environment and behavior in it.

But over the past decades, humanity has imperceptibly, suddenly become united - reassuringly united and dangerously united, so that tremors and inflammations of one part of it are almost instantly transmitted to others, sometimes without any immunity to it. humanity has become united - but not in the way that a community or even a nation was previously steadily united: not through gradual life experience, not through one’s own eye, good-naturedly called crooked, not even through a native understandable language - but over all barriers, through international radio and the press... We are being overwhelmed by the onslaught of events... In different parts of the world they are applying their own, hard-won scale of assessments to events - and they are uncompromisingly, self-confidently judging only by their own scale, and not by someone else’s.

And there are, if not many, then at least several such different scales in the world... The division of scales is glaringly inconsistent, they are colorful, they hurt our eyes, and so as not to hurt us, we dismiss all other people’s scales as madness, delusion, - and We confidently judge the whole world according to our home scale. That’s why it seems to us larger, more painful and unbearable, not what is actually larger, more painful and unbearable, but what is closer to us...

And for this... dumbfounded lack of understanding of someone else’s distant grief, human vision cannot be blamed: that’s just the way man is structured...”

Š What feature of the human worldview is the writer talking about in this passage?

Fragment 3

“But who will combine these scales and how? Who will create a single system of reference for humanity - for atrocities and good deeds, for intolerant and tolerant, as they are differentiated today?.. Propaganda, coercion, and scientific evidence are powerless here. But, fortunately, there is such a remedy in the world! This is art. This is literature.

Such a miracle is available to them: to overcome the flawed feature of a person to learn only from his own experience, so that the experience of others is in vain. From person to person, replenishing his scant earthly time, art transfers the entire burden of someone else’s long life experience with all its hardships, colors, juices, recreates in the flesh the experience experienced by others - and allows it to be assimilated as one’s own...

I persistently remind you of this great blessed property of art today from the Nobel rostrum.

And in another invaluable direction, literature transfers irrefutable condensed experience: from generation to generation. thus it becomes the living memory of the nation. This is how it warms within itself and stores its lost history - in a form that cannot be distorted or slandered. Thus, literature, together with language, preserves the national soul. At different times in different countries there have been heated and angry and graceful debates about whether art and the artist should live for themselves or always remember their duty to society and serve it, albeit with an open mind. For me there is no dispute here, but I will not raise the strings of arguments again. Yes, Russian literature has had this tendency for decades - not to look too much at itself, not to flutter too carelessly. And I am not ashamed to continue this tradition to the best of my ability. In Russian literature, we have long been ingrained in the idea that a writer can do a lot among his people - and should.”

Š What important functions of literature in the life of the world community does the author name?

What centuries-old tradition of Russian literature is A. talking about? I. Solzhenitsyn?

Š In prose a. I. Solzhenitsyn often comes across words that are not in explanatory dictionaries, but they seem understandable to us. These are words created by the author. Find them in the text.

Fragment 4

“What is the place and role of the writer in this cruel, dynamic, explosive world, marked by ten deaths?

Once he has taken up his word, he can never evade it: the writer is not an outside judge to his compatriots and contemporaries, he is a co-author of all the evil committed in his homeland or his people. And if the tanks of his fatherland poured blood on the asphalt of a foreign capital, then brown spots forever splattered the writer’s face. And if on the fateful night they strangled a sleeping, trusting Friend, then there are bruises on the writer’s palms from that rope. And if his young fellow citizens cheekily declare the superiority of debauchery over modest work, give themselves up to drugs or seize hostages, then this stench is mixed with the writer’s breath.”

Š How a. I. Solzhenitsyn defined the place and role of the writer in the modern world? Who is he?

Fragment 5

“Will we have the audacity to say that we are not responsible for the ills of today’s world?

However, I am encouraged by the living feeling of world literature as one big heart, beating in the worries and troubles of our world, although presented and visible in its own way in every corner of it.

And today between the writers of one country and the writers and readers of another there is interaction, if not instantaneous, then close to it.

...my nomination for the Nobel Prize itself was not initiated in the country where I live and write.

So I understood and felt for myself: world literature is no longer an abstract envelope, no longer a generalization created by literary critics, but a kind of common body and common spirit, a living heartfelt unity, which reflects the growing spiritual unity of humanity, and yet internal affairs are not at all left on our cramped Earth! And the salvation of humanity lies only in the fact that everyone cares about everything: the people of the East would not be indifferent to what they think in the West; Westerners are not entirely indifferent to what is happening in the East. And fiction, one of the subtlest, most responsive instruments of the human being, was one of the first to adopt, assimilate, and pick up this feeling of the growing unity of humanity.

I think that world literature is capable of helping mankind to truly recognize itself in these troubled hours, despite what is instilled by biased people and parties; to transfer the condensed experience of some regions to others, so that our vision would cease to double and ripple, the scale divisions would align, and some peoples would correctly and concisely know the true history of others with the same power of recognition and painful sensation, as if they had experienced it themselves - and thus they would be protected from belated, cruel mistakes. and at the same time, we ourselves may be able to develop world vision in ourselves: with the center of the eye, like every person, seeing what is close, we will begin to absorb from the edges of the eye what is happening in the rest of the world. And we will correlate and observe world proportions.

Anyone who once proclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose lies as his principle, and the simple step of a simple courageous person: not to participate in lies. Writers and artists have access to more: defeating lies!

That is why I think, friends, that we are able to help the world in its burning hour. Don’t make excuses for being unarmed, don’t give in to a carefree life, but go out to fight!”

♦ What feature of world literature does the author note? what does he call the writer?

♦ what literature can do, according to A. I. Solzhenitsyn, help the world in its hot hour? How can she resist the brutal onslaught of open violence?

♦ Has your understanding of the importance of literature in modern society changed?

♦ What should modern Russian literature be like in order to be in demand by readers?

V. Reflection. Summing up the lesson

“Press” (in groups)

♦ Solzhenitsyn was always convinced that the line of battle between

Good and evil do not have an obvious, visual straightness, that it is often labyrinthine, that revolutions and all sorts of reforms do not straighten the paths of history, but often confuse and complicate them, that human history itself is already burdensome, unbearable for nature, for the human soul. Where does he advise us to look for support, the light of hope, a system of moral orientations? ♦ Read “dashing potion” a. I. Solzhenitsyn - one of the “tiny ones” (a series of micro-sketches, parables, essays, diary entries of the writer in the spirit of “Notes” by V. Astafiev and “Pebbles in the Palm” by V. Soloukhin), published in 1998, and try to catch the elements of hope , faith in man, breaking through the cover of fatigue and anxiety of the great ascetic moralist.

DASHING POTION

How much work the farmer puts in: preserving the grains until the deadline, sowing as desired, bringing good plants to fruit. But with wild joy the weeds are thrown up - not only without care and inspection, but against any care, as a mockery. That’s the proverb: a dashing potion will not go into the ground soon.

Why do good plants always have less strength?

Seeing the impossibility of human history, both in the distant past and today, you bow your head dejectedly: yes, to know - this is the universal law. today, - you bow your head dejectedly: yes, you know - this is the universal law. And we will never get out of it - never, no good ideas, no earthly projects.

Until the end of humanity.

And each living person was given only his own labor and his own burden.

VI. Homework

1. creative task. Write an essay (miniature) “people and destinies. A. I. Solzhenitsyn is a true intellectual, the conscience of our era.”

2. individual task (2-4 students). Prepare messages “The life and work of P. Suskind and his novel “Perfume”” (review); “The life and work of P. Coelho and his novel “The Alchemist”.”