Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s efforts to restore Moscow’s imperial might have their roots in a series of deep seated – and deeply flawed – myths about history. Proponents of these myths include early 20th century White Russian thinkers such as Ivan Ilyin and contemporary Eurasianists like Aleksandr Dugin.
But one such inspiration has received scant notice. In 1990, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, the Nobel Prize winning anti-Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn published a book called Rebuilding Russia.
In this 90-page manifesto, the author of The Gulag Archipelago, Cancer Ward and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, argued for the creation of a new “Russian Union” that would comprise Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and northern Kazakhstan. He also provided something of a blueprint for Putin’s current imperial project.
On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Casey Michel, author of the recently published article “How Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Became Putin’s Spiritual Guru: The strange story of a global literary hero who went on to inspire Russia’s war on Ukraine.”
SHOW NOTES
Casey Michel’s article in Foreign Policy, “How Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Became Putin’s Spiritual Guru: The strange story of a global literary hero who went on to inspire Russia’s war on Ukraine,” which was discussed on the podcast, can be accessed here. Casey Michel’s other published work can be accessed here.
The Power Vertical Newsletter on Substack can be accessed here. Recently published work by Brian Whitmore can be accessed here and here.