We Have Ceased to See the Purpose by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
This collection brings together ten of Nobel Prizewinner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyns most memorable and consequential speeches, delivered in the West and in Russia between 1972 and 1997. These annotated speeches, including the timeless Nobel Lecture and ""Harvard Address,"" have been rendered in English by skilled translators, including Solzhenitsyns sons."Nobel Prize laureate, Soviet political prisoner, Russian prophet and religious believer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s writing casts a large shadow over the short and terrible twentieth centuryIn this collection of his selected speeches, some of which are translated into English for the first time, Solzhenitsyn offers his reflections and insights about role and purpose of art, the human need for God, and the forces from both East and West that seek to destroy the human spirit. We Have Ceased to See a Purpose is essential reading for those who wish to learn from one of the giants of twentieth-century world literature and understand the line that 'separates good and evil' in 'every human heart.'" —Lee Trepanier, co-editor of Walk Away
"As a professor of Russian and European history, I welcome this new collection of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s speeches, which invites a new generation of students and other readers to hear his provocative and prophetic arguments on key cultural, political, literary, and moral questions. Readers who have encountered his Nobel Lecture, Harvard Commencement Address, or Templeton Lecture will appreciate the opportunity to read them in the context of other messages and reflect on his convictions that 'One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world' and 'Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.'" —Matthew Lee Miller, author of The American YMCA and Russian Culture
"This welcome selection of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's most penetrating speeches from 1972 to 1998 center around his richly enduring themes: art as a witness to life and truth, the threats to the integrity of the soul under brutal tyranny and decayed democracy alike, the 'orbital journey' of modern man and the limits of 'modern progress' ideologically defined, as well as the need to find humane and viable paths forward for the East and West alike. Expertly edited and introduced by his son Ignat, these speeches and addresses are light years from the Jeremiads of legend. Instead, they appeal to, and renew, the 'sparks of the spirit' that alone offer hope in this and other troubled times." —Daniel J. Mahoney, co-editor of The Solzhenitsyn Reader
"Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn belongs to the select category of writers who not only chronicled global events, but actually shaped them. Part of an ongoing endeavor by the University of Notre Dame Press to make the writer’s legacy available to the English-speaking reader, this expertly curated collection brings together Solzhenitsyn’s most important speeches. Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years after they were given, they continue to have the capacity to dazzle, engage, and surprise." —Richard Tempest, author of Overwriting Chaos
"The totalitarianism from which Solzhenitsyn had escaped loomed as the West’s likely future . . . He thought it his duty to warn us, but nobody listened. Today, his warnings seem prescient." —Commentary
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008), Nobel Prize laureate in literature, was a Soviet political prisoner from 1945 to 1953. His story One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) made him famous, and The Gulag Archipelago (1973) further unmasked Communism and played a critical role in its eventual defeat. Solzhenitsyn was exiled to the West in 1974. He ultimately published dozens of plays, poems, novels, and works of history, nonfiction, and memoir, including In the First Circle, Cancer Ward, The Red Wheel epic, The Oak and the Calf, and the Between Two Millstones memoirs.
Ignat Solzhenitsyn is a pianist and conductor based in New York City. The middle son of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, he is translator and editor of several of his father's works in English.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780268208585 |
| ISBN 10 | 0268208581 |
| Title | We Have Ceased to See the Purpose |
| Author | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn |
| Series | The Center For Ethics And Culture Solzhenitsyn Series |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | University of Notre Dame Press |
| Year published | 2025-04-01 |
| Number of pages | 208 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |