Thread by @SeanBerube4

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was the “writer who took down an empire”

His work Gulag Archipelago details the horrors of life in the USSR, and made a global mockery of the evil regime

Here are some excerpts from Gulag that explain how to destroy an evil empire:

“The object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.”

Solzhenitsyn learned this in prison: tyrants can take everything from you but your soul...

Being virtuous is the ultimate rebellion

You fix the world by fixing yourself

“the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

Spiritual maturity is painful:

You have evil inside of you

To truly grow, you must sacrifice your bad habits and immoral ways of being

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us… we are implanting it, and it will rise up 1000-fold in the future”

Ignoring evil only gives it deeper roots inside you

You need courage to call out evil when you see it... Reality hates cowards

“When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers... [we rip] the foundations of justice from beneath new generations”

Injustice today destroys society tomorrow

Conversely, there’s no limit to the ripple of virtue

Your single act of goodness today can change course of history

“Do not pursue what is illusionary -property and position…Live with a steady superiority over life”

The fortune you spent decades building can be taken, but tyrants can't touch your soul

True rebellion to tyranny requires indifference to wealth... then no one can hurt you

“Our envy of others devours us most of all... prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well”

Resentment breeds ugliness in even the most beautiful of souls. Charitable love is the antidote

Selfless kindness saves your spirit and redeems your life

“Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career”

The status quo rarely breeds virtue

The rebellious life of virtue requires courage to deny the path valued by society

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.”

The truth sets you free

If you’re unsure what’s true, make a commitment to stop lying

This alone begins your rebellion against tyranny

“No, how can one preserve one's life and at the same time arrive at the truth?”

Embracing Truth risks preservation of life

Socrates and Jesus knew this well: they both lost their lives defending Truth...

You don’t truly find your life until you lose it in servitude to virtue

“when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power—he’s free again.”

Paradoxically, rock bottom brings freedom

By losing everything you find out what actually matters

Money and materials are illusory

Love, and the legacy of your actions are forever

“Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me”

This is the conclusion of Solzhenitsyn’s 4800 page attack on the USSR:

You resist tyranny by rejecting the lie

This is how you destroy evil, triumph, and save the world

To conclude, below is a BEAUTIFUL excerpt by Solzhenitsyn

It describes how losing your life in servitude to truth will:

- ground you in love
- transform your soul
- help you begin to see life as a miracle

I can’t recommend reading this passage enough:

“As soon as you have renounced that aim of "surviving at any price" then imprisonment begins to transform your former character in an astonishing way. To transform it in a direction most unexpected to you.

And it would seem that in this situation, feelings of malice, the disturbance of being oppressed, aimless hate, irritability, and nervousness ought to multiply. But you yourself do not notice how, with the impalpable flow of time, slavery nurtures in you the shoots of contradictory feelings.

Once upon a time you were sharply intolerant. You were constantly in a rush. And you were constantly short of time. And now you have time with interest. You are surfeited with it, with its months and its years, behind you and ahead of you—and a beneficial calming fluid pours through your blood vessels—patience.

You are ascending…

Formerly you never forgave anyone. You judged people without mercy. And you praised people with equal lack of moderation. And now an understanding mildness has become the basis of your uncategorical judgements. You have come to realize your own weakness—and you can therefore understand the weakness of others. And be astonished at another's strength. And wish to possess it yourself.

The stones rustle beneath our feet. We are ascending…

With the year, armor-plated restraint covers your heart and all your skin. You do not hasten to question and you do not hasten to answer. Your tongue has lost its flexible capability for easy oscillation. Your eyes do not flash over with gladness over good tidings, nor do they darken with grief.

For you still have to verify whether that's how it is going to be. And you also have to work out—what is gladness and what is grief.

And now the rule of your life is this: Do not rejoice when you have found, do not weep when you have lost.

Your soul, which formerly was dry, now ripens with suffering. And even if you haven't come to love your neighbors in the Christian sense, you are at least learning to love those close to you.”

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