2,121 words
The past few months have seen the dissolution of several dissident narratives, even as the year 2020 worked overtime to produce them. Many people developed a healthy skepticism of the governments and reigning elites in the West. More who were already skeptical about governments and elites upgraded their skepticism to outright distrust of and hostility towards those groups. (more…)
3,648 words
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn et al.
From Under the Rubble
Boston: Little, Brown & Company (1975)
Shortly before being deported from the Soviet Union in 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn contributed three essays to a volume that was later published in the West as From Under the Rubble. (more…)
W. Trentsensky, Cavalry skirmish during the Battle of Komárom, 1849.
W. Trentsensky, Cavalry skirmish during the Battle of Komárom, 1849.
1,777 words
When I was living in Hungary, I took my girlfriend on a day trip to the border town of Komárno, Slovakia. Despite having a nice meal and a scenic walk around the town, I ended up complaining and arguing about trivial matters. Near the end of the day, we saw a memorial to Mór Jókai, the famous Hungarian writer (more…)
2,412 words
2,412 words
The 2008 film Milk is a docudrama about America’s first openly gay politician. He served in the city government of San Francisco. (Where else, right?) Harvey Milk’s reputation has grown over the years. The circumstances of his demise turned him into a martyr figure. This overshadows some of his less clever moves, such as his support of Jim Jones. He wasn’t the only liberal politician who looked very silly after the People’s Temple did their final act as a death cult, but still — really, dude? (more…)
5,026 words
5,026 words
Known mostly as a novelist, memoirist, and historian, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had actually completed four plays before his first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, was published in 1962. He composed his first two, Victory Celebrations and Prisoners, while a zek in the Soviet Gulag (more…)