Solzhenitsyn's Warning to the West, Part IV

 

Day four of selected passages from Solzhenitsyn’s Warning to the West, from his speech to the AFL-CIO in D.C. on 30 June 1975.  In ’75, for those too young to remember, the U.S. Government was trying to avoid Nuclear War with the USSR by pandering and détente.  Ford was not a strong voice for freedom.  Here’s what Alexandr thought of that diplomatic approach.  Again, note how this lines up with current events and how we’re dealing with China currently:

You have to understand the nature of Communism, all of Lenin’s teachings, are that anyone who doesn’t take what’s lying in front of him is considered a fool.  If you can take it, do so.  If you can attack, strike.  But if there’s a wall, then retreat. [No shit, that’s a direct fucking quote.]  The Communist leaders respect only firmness and have contempt for persons who continually give in to them.  Your people are now saying—and this is the last quotation Iam going to give you from the statements of your leaders—'Power, without any attempt at conciliation, will lead to a world conflict.’  But I would say that power with continual acquiescence is not power at all.

 From our experience I can tell you that only firmness makes it possible to withstand the assaults of Communist totalitarianism.  History offers many examples, and let me give you some of them.  Look at little Finland in 1939, which by its own forces withstood the attack.  You, in 1948, defended Berlin by your own firmness of spirit, and there was no world conflict.  In Korea in 1950 you stood up to the Communists, only by your firmness, and there was no world conflict.  In 1962 you forced the missiles to be removed from Cuba.  Again it was only firmness, and there was no world conflict.  The late Konrad Adenauer conducted firm negotiations with Khrushchev and initiated a genuine détente with Khrushchev, who started to make concessions…

 …We, the dissidents of the USSR, have no tanks, no weapons, no organization.  We have nothing.  Our hands are empty.  We have only our hearts and what we have lived through in the half century under this system.  And whenever we have found the firmness within ourselves to stand up for our rights, we have done so.  It is only by firmness of spirit that we have withstood.  And if I am standing here before you, it is not because of the kindness or good will of Communism, not thanks to détente, but due to my own firmness and your firm support.  They knew that I would not yield an inch, not a hair’s breadth.  And when they could do nothing they themselves fell back.

 …Finally to evaluate everything that I have said to you, we need not remain on the level of practical calculations.  Why did such and such a country act in such and such a way?  What were they counting on?  Instead we should rise above this to the moral level and say: ‘In 1933 and 1941 your leaders and the whole Western world made an unprincipled deal with totalitarianism.’  We will have to pay for this; someday it will come back to haunt us.  For thirty years we have been paying for it.  And we’re going to pay for it in an even worse way in the future. 

Look around.  Check’s come due.  Pay attention.