Self Preservation

(Installment #2 in my series of brief observations from The Gulag Archipelago)

“Every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself.” (Page 17)

I appreciate Solzhenitsyn’s humility. He doesn’t set himself up as a hero or a man among men. He admits he was silent when he should have spoken up. He had his reasons – excuses. Excuses he came to see as cowardice.

He wrote: “I did not open my mouth, and the escalator dragged me implacably down into the nether world. And when I got to Okhotny Ryad, I continued to keep silent. Nor did I utter a cry at the Metrophole Hotel. Nor wave my arms on the Golgotha of Luybyanka Square…”

There is, I believe, a sense in which “The Gulag Archipelago” is a fruit of repentance. Like Peter, who denied Jesus while warming his hands around the fire, and repented in bitter tears; Solzhenitsyn recognized his cowardice, confessed it, and did what he could to rectify his error by penning this work.

God was merciful, and his silence among his few compatriots was answered by his voice echoing among millions through the decades since his testimony was put on paper and published.