Horizon

Could it be old pre-Communist orthography, like the lettering in Russian Orthodox religious inscriptions?

That's my guess too, and he's using it as an archaism -- but meaning what? Given the context, I can guarantee it's not for "ye olde shoppe" cutseyness.

Solzhenitsyn has, I gather, been accused of taking Czarist and other paleolithoconservative positions via the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" mentality. I don't know much about this specifically except that in *Gulag Archipelago* he does make a point of noting the czarist government's comparatively respectful treatment of political prisoners.

Language Hat responds via email:

That letter is part of the pre-Revolutionary alphabet (along with yat', now replaced by e, and a couple of other less common ones); it was normally used only before other vowels, but was also used in the work mir 'world' to distinguish it from mir 'peace.' I don't know if Solzh was using it purely for clarity (since both meanings are likely to come up in a Nobel talk) or if it was part of his overall Orthodox/back-to-the-soil/nostalgic worldview, but that's the story.

Here's the Wikipedia article on the orthographic reform:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforms_of_Russian_orthography

And on the alphabet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_alphabet

(Incidentally, there's a ridiculous urban legend that occasionally makes the rounds in Russian-speaking circles: supposedly the Tolstoy novel was actually "War and the World," but because of the confusion of letters after the reform it was misunderstood as "War and Peace." A glance at the original title page, easily available on the internet, would clear this up, not to mention a moment's thought about the fact that translations of the novel published in Tolstoy's lifetime were called "War and Peace" without any authorial protest, but people do love these little stories.)

Thanks, Language Hat!

I thought it was War - What Is It Good For?

Or could it be the Orange Revolution has caught the fancy of Russia's leading dissident?

The unknown WW 1.5 in Ukraine that claimed more than all soldiers killed in WW I has not escaped Solshenitsyn as it has escaped western intelligentsia.

After all, what person educated in a western university would ever know that the first modern concentration camp replete with a knock in the night and trade rides to barbed wire happened in ...........Canada. And it is only now being recognized.

http://www.infoukes.com/history/internment/

Well, this use certainly isn't a reference to the Orange Revolution, as the Harvard commencement speech was in 1978.

Do you have any pointers to things Solzhenitsyn's written on Ukraine (including before the OR, of course)? In many ways he seems more authoritarian than I'd like (see below), and definitely is a Russophile, so I suspect his opinion wouldn't exactly match mine.

And by "written on Ukraine", I mean other than the passages in Gulag Archipelago about collectivization, which I've already read.

Actually Solzhenitsyn is a bit of an imperious russophile that would be on the "the ukraine" side of the issue of an independent Ukraine.

Having said that, he did grow fond of the Ukrainian language which was the preferred means of communication among the Gulag inmate leadership. The guards did not understand it well.

And Russophiles are in for a rude awakening - the Orange flu is reaching epidemic levels there and Yush will go down in history as having dragged Russia into the 21st century.

which was the preferred means of communication among the Gulag inmate leadership

How interesting! Don't remember that from GA, but then I'm only halfway through.

Glad to hear your opinion on Solzhy.

Yush will go down in history as having dragged Russia into the 21st century

Sure hope so.

Solzi wont admit it - his upbringing denies everything Ukrainian - Ukophobes consider "it" to be a border area of Mother Russia where the language was basterdized by Poles.

You can probably find him saying this in just as many words.

Appelbaums book is a more acurate treatment.

http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2003/430317.shtml

Excellent link -- thanks!

The only thing I (half) remember from GA was Solzhenitsyn talking about how desperately famished new arrivals from dekulakization were, and what rubbish bins they'd go through looking for scraps.

I can look it up if you like.

"After all, what person educated in a western university would ever know that the first modern concentration camp replete with a knock in the night and train rides to barbed wire happened in ...........Canada. And it is only now being recognized."

Yes, there is hope for the world - the leftist scourge of North America is soon to fall.

Another victim of the rising orange tide?

Talk about Orwellian, the liberal govt has banned all discussion of trial testimony that implicates these leftist hamfisted thugs with massive graft, drug running, and organized crime .

Oh Canada!

Hopefully the genocidal paternalism of the indiginous tribes will come to an end.

Now maybe there is hope for the elimination of leftist thuggery in Europe.

This very old article is the best news available at this point.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/253857p-217343c.html

blackminorcapullets