Harvard Address

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Commencement Address at Harvard University-8 June 1978. {Russian audio with English-translation audio overlay; and English subtitles.} PLEASE NOTE: THERE DOES NOT EXIST A VIDEO WITH ONLY ONE LANGUAGE AUDIO. SORRY. THIS IS HOW IT WAS RECORDED. PLEASE TURN ON CC/SUBTITLES TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE ENGLISH.
Full Russian text here: antology.igrunov.ru/authors/so...
Full English text here: www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/a-...

[@kennethalbert4653]

He told us, 45 years ago, and we still haven't heard......

[@regalchange]

There are some that have the ears to listen

[@migmigjohnson9351]

Totalitarianism is a necessary part of the circle of life. With times of prosperity, people lose their spine and become so dependent on the state and so weak that we need a period of hell to re-teach the value of freedom/sovereignty, over and over and over again.

[@kennethalbert4653]

@MigMig Johnson I've had the same thought...I'm still not certain it is correct (necessary).

[@wolfpack4694]

“A decline in courage.” “The beginning of the end.” Man, he saw it and warned us of it in the 70’s, and here we are today.

[@panzeralienofficial]

"Socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death" What a profound statement that is!

[@l-y-d-s]

"The Western world has lost its civil courage" totally spot on.

[@koroglurustem1722]

And the reason he gave was the comfortable lifestyle

[@tomcat8662]

Koroglu Rustem This is something I try to tell people all the time. Life is too good, too easy, too cushy for us Americans. But instead of acknowledging this, so many complain about how much money the rich have. Or they demand free healthcare. Televisions screens in homes get larger, but libraries get visited less and less. Fast food is never fast enough. Most never step foot outside of their state, much less visit another country. Few have understanding of our own history as a country, much less understand the histories of societies living in the rest of the world. The most popular film and music is superficial and shallow. It has no value, and is consumed for instant gratification much like cake or pornography. We have the inverse problem of a feudal society. Our serfdom is not dictated, but self-prescribed. We keep ourselves in the peasantry, living paycheck to paycheck and beholden to creditors because we bought stuff that we didn’t need. We don’t understand real adversity like our great grandparents who lived through the Great Depression or the world wars. The feast has already been laid out for us. And now we complain about the trimmings.

[@Doooooooooooood]

The West has it so good we've had to invent micro-isms in an attempt to deny it.

[@williammorse8330]

@@tomcat8662 hello Tomcat: would you mind if I used your comment as an example of feedback given this speech? I host a local VT cable TV program that has been discussing this former resident of the USSR and Cavendish, Vermont. thank you, Bill

[@HerbMoore3]

@@Doooooooooooood Because those who seek ultimate control need a "problem" in order to pose as "savior"... If there is no problem, they will CREATE a problem.

[@AkiraFollower]

Right now I am on the last few pages of the Gulag Archipelago (Abridged edition) , thanks to the suggestion of Dr Jordan Peterson, whom without I’d otherwise not have heard anything of this most important pernicious epoch in history. The book has left me shook and now I have found your uploaded video. All I can say is thank you a thousand times for sharing this video with the world.

[@AirsickHydra]

Currently several pages in via the same route. All I can say is I am astounded how ignorant of history and human nature I am and have been.

[@michaelkohn9238]

I came to the book the same way you did. If it were not so long, and so brutal, perhaps more people might read it and see Marxism for what it is: an evil, dangerous idea.

[@buggulugs]

I know it's a long, hard read, but try the full seven part version. With all the footnotes. It's a hell of a slog, but worth it.✌️👍

[@migmigjohnson9351]

The fact that we allow such masterpieces to be defiled by the likes of Peterson - a shill, is one of the many reasons we need Totalitarianism. People must be taught - against their will in most cases - the value of freedom and sovereignty.

[@pn5721]

Somewhere in Gulag he tells the story of sitting next to another prisoner, in the depths of despond. The other prisoner knew how he felt and took a stick and drew a cross on the ground without a word.

[@rayanakesty]

If this was now, students would probably protest him.

[@Spiral.Dynamics]

Rayana At Harvard? Probably not lol

[@heathholtz2605]

you are absolutely correct...i read quite a bit of the Gulag Archipelago..I find it hard to read such disturbing acts even though I know it is important. I feel the same about literature about other horrors throughout history or current.

[@alexs6250]

You mean “de-platform” or some term like that

[@jklmn101]

Even if they didn't, their professors wouldn't even let him on campus.

[@martinprochazka3714]

@N K: That's boring, they need to survive so they can come back and tell us all how terribly mistaken they were.

[@floriangeyer1886]

He was the western elites poster boy for 15 seconds, erroneously thinking that he was some western liberal democrat jellyfish. But Alexander was a Dostoyevsky traditionalist, an Orthodox Russian Slavophile patriot who condemned Bolshevik mondialisme & Financial technocratic materialism and nihilism.

[@GMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGMGM]

Also, he was guilty of noticing the [REDACTED]' ethnocentric tendencies.

[@danieldietsche2954]

He would be banned from campus in 2020...

[@DeutschlandIstSchuld]

Bullshit

[@Profile.4]

He would be killed

[@royclaire1]

that is a kill shot comment! Thanks for connecting those ideas together for me.

[@kerrysavas7805]

of course, heaven forbid the snowflake generation hear anything that challenges them or make them feel unsafe.

[@JoshuaHole99]

In full agreement😀😅

[@bobbywhitehead4204]

Remember when American Universities embraced great thinkers of all kinds?

[@petroniaskho]

If he spoke today, Antifa would protest to shut him down.

[@johntarpley9707]

Harvard would never allow him to speak. The 2nd Amendment is dead there.

[@bendirval3612]

@@johntarpley9707 First amendment too. That's the relevant one.

[@Greg400]

A. Solzhenitsyn was a genius, every single sentence in this speech is brilliant.

[@vadymmatusov4112]

I was a 5 year old Soviet boy when the speech was delivered. Let me tell you that Solzhenitsyn's way of thinking is entirely different from the way the Soviet Union was thinking at that time. At that time it was even incomprehensible to think that the country would adopt the Western lifestyle and ideology. Looking back now I only marvel how prophetic he was

[@anthonyjames4478]

***** It would seem Lenin was the wanker!

[@vadymmatusov4112]

Lenin. The great idea of revolution turned out so badly

[@anthonyjames4478]

Revolution against the Russian aristocracy - yes, but using Marxist principles further exaggerated by Bolshevism is why it turned out so badly!

[@anthonyjames4478]

I'm not even sure what it is you're saying here, David. That Bolshevism won out after a nearly 3 year civil war is simply standard history, and nothing about it was pretty. The Bolsheviks accelerated the doctrine of Marx bypassing the natural phase of historical progress wherein a spontaneous uprising of the proletariat would occur after the excesses of industrialism. As for "facts," you've had nearly 80 years to consider the plight of those having followed Marxist principles, in many countries, actually. I fail to see how it is that you've applied your own dictum for evidence undergirding anything you've said.

[@anthonyjames4478]

The only man-made construct here, aside from your one-sided progressive nonsensical reasoning, is your devotion to some bizarre idea that private ownership is the basis for all evil. What a dolt! But of course, you're above it all and see what no one else does! Typical leftist bs that feeds on its own demise! I thought you were someone who could wage a practical discussion, but instead you're a liberal knucklehead who's into vetting himself! Go home and read your latest issue of Rolling Stone and then drop dead!

[@jccusell]

The most prescient, relevant, thought-provoking and important speech for our current times.

[@roberthagan1602]

Scary how accurate he was,pity his message wasnt heard

[@jameslippincott7440]

As an American, his words shame and inspire me. Old fashioned is exactly what is needed, and I don’t know how to bring his courage into my life. Listening to him, I realized that Russians have a say in our lives even though they lost the Cold War, and we should still make an effort to understand those that have been left out of our mainstream culture

[@martinasulova9989]

BTW the fact that he was able to read books in english but never learned this language makes me in awe. He was genius. He saw where society heads 30 years before...He was not afraid to speak the truth of west and east society simultaneously. What a man!

[@ocrancienthistory3326]

Well, he clearly did learn the language if he was able to read books in English.

[@TremendousSax]

It's well established that Soviet education gives you the power to read languages you don't understand

[@WetaMantis]

@@ocrancienthistory3326 Speaking it is not the same.

[@johangervais1288]

42:48 "In World War 2 against Hitler, instead of winning that war with its own forces, which would certainly have been sufficient, Western Democracy grew and cultivated another enemy which would prove worse." Ouch. That's some painful truth there.

[@michaelfern4079]

The wrong pig was butchered.

[@johncitizen3227]

Bless his eternal soul. Thank you 🙏😔

[@RustyOrange71]

This could have been written yesterday. Still relevant in 2019.

[@martinhanley9524]

It’s already here ! The fifth column has infiltrated our academic and legal institutions and our politics . Orwell warned about the sane thing in Animal farm and 1984 ! The Chinese Communist party can’t believe their good fortune esp with who now occupies the White House no thanks to our corrupt Media and press. All forewarned by Solzhenitsyn in this prescient speech. What a great man he is and what a soul and giant literary figure !

[@kennethalbert4653]

59:10 "Only voluntary, inspired, self restraint can raise man above the world's dream of materialism" !!

[@buggulugs]

"Freedom spoils, and lack of freedom teaches".

[@samsungsamsung4208]

Best

[@2cool4fluoride]

Like that Hugo quote “Adversity makes men and prosperity makes monsters”

[@MavMelodic]

Prophetic. 43 years ago, but accurate assessment of our current situation.

[@cezarperez6881]

One of the greatest thinkers of our time.

[@mename4359]

If he was invited to speak today the students (at the professors behest) would complain & riot & he would be cancelled

[@nebwachamp]

"Truth is seldom pleasant..."

[@murraycowie9234]

"we cannot apply moral criteria to politics; thus we mix good and evil, right and wrong, and make space for the absolute triumph of absolute evil in the world" - George Cannon. Well, here we are!

[@shifra6]

This is so relevant today. Had no idea so much of this were issues back then as well.

[@simplekindofman6265]

Can you imagine, Harvard today, safe spaces and all, with Alexandr Solzhenitsyn speech. Peterson and Shapiro would have nothing on him and the riot on campus at his speech.

[@prayunceasingly2029]

And yet they in many ways agree with him about the western world.

[@WniGrup]

@@prayunceasingly2029 This^ points out why they are confused because of propaganda. It is easier to be apathetic than it is too be a critical thinker.

[@Ayushkumar-cv3er]

I really believe we are morally obliged to know about our history.

[@Laggy2000]

And you won't find it on google or youtube.

[@H3c171]

Especially when we are on the fast track to repeat the same mistakes that cost so many millions of lives just a few decades ago!

[@Citadin]

this involves a lot of work, in terms of learning to read through the lies about our history.

[@wheatdevon]

Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me. George Orwell, 1984

[@yvanguez2077]

@@wheatdevon so true

[@nebwachamp]

This man knew oppression on levels no American can comprehend.

[@Jeff_Farrell]

In his words, true evil can only be done by those who think they are doing good.

[@Ot-ej5gi]

..But, unfortunately, probably will in not so distant future.. if indeed his vision is correct.. All people are the same and will act the same if placed under certain conditions...

[@schmittyhanrahan8126]

We [Americans] may soon find out.

[@yeahso5004]

@@schmittyhanrahan8126 I don't understand how can you spell such horrible things out of your mouth without getting shocked psychologically. assuming you are right are you not going to do anything about it today? and if you were wrong are you going to think back and wish you didn't say such a thing?

[@christopherrobbins9985]

Prescient. His take on the US media was spot on in 1978 and its only compounded its misery production from then til now.

[@danielecanepa4362]

He certainly did not lack courage by addressing a Western audience like that

[@hyphenlife]

After living through GULAG and being persecuted by the Soviet Union, he had nothing to fear in the US.

[@yaneponimaunahetonado]

@@hyphenlife вот только травили его и в США

[@vkorchnoifan]

He criticizes the "press" of having no moral obligation to recognize evil.

[@1982violinist]

many things that he said proved to be right int years afterwards

[@mename4359]

Shocking how low this nation has sunk due to the media & the Left just as he warned. Just the fact that when he began to criticize the media I naturally expected the cameras to be turned off & his speech to be censured is truly shocking. I then suddenly remembered that it's not how it used to be or is supposed to be, it's just how low this country has sunk into the abyss. Thanks Hillary, Obama, DNC, Media you're an evil despicable group of people

[@lesliecunliffe4450]

Brilliant! Solzhenitsyn is one of the few great thinkers of our time. His suffering at the hands of wicked people, not to mention his commitment and great creative gifts, allow him to occupy the highest of all moral grounds.

[@mikejones1628]

I wish he were alive today to see what they’ve done with Covid.

[@Sohave]

He is dismantling western globalism, notably its culture relativism. Never has he been so clearly right as right now in 2021 after the fall of Kabul! He also delivers a few blows to the moral relativism running rampant in a free secular west. Sort of like Friedrich Nietzsches worries of how to fill out the void after divine meaning was lost. A few valid worries about the power of journalists. We like to sick his words and writings on leftists whom he is known for rebuking, but he also has an excellent rebuke for libertarians and anarcho-capitalists here on what dangerous forces appears in a world only guided by the moral vapidness of the free market.

[@ianofliverpool7701]

It`s about time people found out more about the Bolsheviks and their role in the 1917 revolution.

[@roundandsquareful]

He makes the argument for God

[@Michael-rx7ff]

This video deserves a hundred million views!

[@stephenstuart9881]

As of July 2019, 157,634 views. When I think of some of the frivolous nonsense on youtube getting hundreds of millions of views - and this gets less than 200,000 six years after being published, that alone says a lot about the shallowness of 21st century consciousness. People need to relax and have fun, but come on, this genius is all but universally ignored? What a lucid mind this guy had!

[@JustMe-bu1ln]

Prophetic speech for today's times. Incredible!

[@roberthak3695]

Maybe you should read more marginalized writers and thinkers. Schopenhauer, Spengler, Henry Adams, Dostoevsky etc...

[@Greg400]

Solzhenitsyn was such a gentleman.

[@ShawnWilsonPrime]

Remember when our academic institutions were not afraid to have an anti communist speak

[@blahdeblah1975]

37:16: "The forces of evil have begun their offensive...you can feel their pressure..."

[@victoreremita5075]

Amazing! "Only voluntary, inspired self-restraint can raise man above the world stream of materialism." This speech will undoubtedly change my life.

[@jeffteza8644]

WOW. I have to listen to this a few more times. Profoundness abounds.

[@archaeopteryx91]

Good Heavens this guy was a prophet.

[@chrisr7597]

History. That's how we remember... how to ID past evils.

[@raystargazer7468]

He had balls. One of my five favourite writers.

[@DavidKirwanirl]

Took 40 years but the press is finally getting its comeuppance.

[@a.g.1893]

54:43 "The communist regime in the East could stand and grow due to the enthusiastic support from an enormous number of Western intellectuals who felt a kinship and refused to see communism's crimes." Happening in the 1970s, still happening in the 2020s.

[@magemaatikko]

That is wrong assumption. Capitalism has made this Circus that Rich get richer and poor get poorer. Western Intellectuals enabled USA massive technological boom. Many top scientists fled to USA. Finland is vastly ahead of USA in terms of technology. Finland is fearing technology hijacking by USA. Finland should join into NATO asap. Problem is how long it would take Finland to apply in member of NATO, How long it would take that NATO would accept Finland as a member of NATO? Finland is genuinely willing to apply into NATO right away!

[@akiva7774]

A very brave man. We need more like him, or even a little bit like him.

[@Jasonxxx-uv4be]

Harvard students would riot if he spoke there today.

[@andrewmcmillan2921]

Needs subtitles and sent to every college student. Im almost finished The Gulag, and it put a fire in my belly to fight for the freedom and civil courage of USA and Colombia.

[@SolzhenitsynCenter]

Subtitles are available simply by pressing the CC button. Thank you.

[@karenglenn2329]

The Gulag Archipelago has almost 1800 pages. It is worth reading.

[@JustinPavoni]

even better read "200 Years Together" by the same author

[@HerbMoore3]

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned us they would do this, in his 1978 Harvard Commencement Address. Harvard Address - KZbin m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/jaa5eGuJo92rea8

[@eddiet.grijalva7291]

I just finished it. Masterpiece.

[@GrubenM]

As a westerner speaking over 40 years later, this is still something to learn from.

[@karenglenn2329]

More now than ever. We need God.

[@kinnish5267]

He warned us and now look how fucked our country is

[@akallstar5]

And Harvard would never fucking invite him to speak at their school these days. Depressing.

[@cornbreadisbetterthanpizza6866]

The crowd there at Harvard should have listened closer.

[@jakebate1533]

He and Yuri Bezmenov warned us.

[@jerkennedy3621]

Solzhenitsyn, Peterson, Kreeft; so many people giving solid feedback, yet the blind still lead the blind into the pit.

[@lamp-stand575]

Did he realize he was delivering this speech even in the enemy's camp?

[@seniorbuttocksbiggusdickus7147]

I don't think America in 1978 Harvard was as fucking disgrace was it is today.

[@japanatrandom5593]

Needs to be listened to now more than ever. Especially focusing on the spiritual dimensions.

[@Spiral.Dynamics]

“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart and through all human hearts. This line shifts inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts there remains an un-uprooted small corner of evil. Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world ; they struggle with the evil inside a human being, (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person." Alexander Solzhenitsyn

[@nickmelucci]

JOHN LENNON?!? REALLY!?!...He is the Anti-Solzhenitzyn. This great man would be appalled to be in any way associated with such a middlebrow, modernist hero. Please wake up and stop worshiping such, ultimately, inconsequential persons.

[@Spiral.Dynamics]

Abner's Boy It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

[@bentnotbroken4192]

Why did his into make me cry? I'm happy I found this video And so proud of him May God forgive us

[@JustinPavoni]

definitely read "200 Years Together" as well as the "Gulag Archipelago"

[@violinsinthevoid4579]

Is 200 years together translated in English in full anywhere? All I see are some sections of the book included in “The Solzhenitsyn Reader.”

[@SolzhenitsynCenter]

Please see here: www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/his-writings/large-works-and-novels/two-hundred-years-together With respect to an English edition-to recapitulate the above-an authorized translation of the full work is in progress and scheduled for publication in 2024. Meanwhile, readers need to be forewarned that any and all English versions available on the Internet (with two important exceptions listed below) are illegal, pirated, a gross violation of international copyright law, and/or entirely unauthorized; often poorly and loosely translated; and redact passages, and indeed whole chapters, that apparently do not support the prejudices of those behind these illegal editions. English-language readers who wish to learn more about the book are invited to consult the resources listed at the webpage above.

[@eddiet.grijalva7291]

Is that the one about the Jews in Russia?

[@justinw2232]

@@eddiet.grijalva7291 yes

[@Adrian-oe1ee]

@@eddiet.grijalva7291 yes

[@edbroaotearoa1198]

Imagine the internal tormoil of knowing certain truth which only a few know and agree with. Frustration must surely flood the sane to insanity. The question is how do you jolt the masses to view the world using eyes which see this world in all its colours, textures, differences and flaws. I ask all to use love as its ultimate solution.

[@joshuasusanto4258]

The curse of the wise, is I think, is to have a deep tragic view of the world alone.

[@eldeguello9154]

This is King Solomon level wisdom. Other books at this level at Tolstoy's Kingdom of Heaven is Within You, Machiavelli's Prince, and Ecclesiastes.

[@macnslosh2374]

"...After the suffering of decades of violence and oppression, the human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits, introduced as by a calling card by the revolting invasion of commercial advertising, by TV stupor, and by intolerable music..."

[@Albertanator]

What a quote.....and that was in 78...think how much worse it is today.

[@lkrnpk]

It's not worse, there are those things called ''books'', and ''philosophy'' still exists, religion etc. The problem is that you are lazy and choose to fill your life with that crap, that's all. I am in no way bothered in my life by any of these things and I still make good money and have a good life. ''revolting invasion of commercial advertising, TV stupor, and intolerable music'' are things that we choose to adopt ourselves, nobody is forcing us to be a part of that carrousel. I doubt great writers, great scientific minds, Elon Musk who sleeps on a factory floor or Steve Jobs who drove years old car and wore simply jeans cared much about such things. It's plebs who chase the noise. Nobody has changed much, in the 18th or 19th century farm workers would find amusement in farts of their colleagues at work and fucking a girl in a barn, while people doing better things... just did better things.

[@Airel17]

lkrnpk you’re head in sand if that’s your thoughts 💭 of the simplicity of today’s culture.

[@kerrysavas7805]

Have not his insights into what a totalitarian state really is and means to the west (between 38-45mins mark) and his warning about the west appeasing China, not come true now.

[@artandculture5262]

Yes.

[@FrankCunhaIII]

Kerry Savas @38:00 Thanks!

[@Citadin]

I don't think Solzhenitsyn would look at China today any less favorably than he would look at most of the West. In fact he would appreciate many elements of the modern Chinese transition away from communism.

[@mariekatherine5238]

Kerry Savas Absolutely.

[@thermionic1234567]

I was a pimply 13-year-old living 35 miles from this event. What a great honor! Wish I'd known! My father was a 1971 Harvard grad. Am sure he'd have gone had he known...

[@RuminatingWizard]

Just last week a had a 25 year old coworker who told me we need Communism. I weep for our future.

[@michaelmattison5463]

So much willfull ignorance from jaded lemmings. Ignore history (real history) and see what happens

[@user-eu9ht5me5j]

i understand what you mean, however i feel that they don't mean what they say, like they don't really understand what communism mean when they say it.

[@kimsmithih]

Forced vaccinations are the norm now in America. Isolation camps are be prepared.

[@karenglenn2329]

I am 77 years old. I am very conservative. The infiltration of was snaking in the 1970s. Peace love hippy liberals sucked punch many.

[@themeltingdesert]

I’m used to a prophet closing with “may you who have ears to hear, hear”

[@johangervais1288]

52:03 "All the glorified technological achievements of progress, including the conquest of outer space, do not redeem the twentieth century's moral poverty." This man had seen and experienced the horrors which follow when a nation forgets God. He looked at our situation with not just the narrow-minded view of the secular man who does not know God and cannot see or understand spiritual things.

[@kennethalbert4653]

How do you say, in Russian : These clapping seals still don't get it....

[@koroglurustem1722]

His thinking is quite deep and subtle one.

[@kerrysavas7805]

he had years to think while in the gulag death camps

[@zhukhov]

Thank you for uploading this.

[@dkostic2400]

She didn’t translate correctly, he does not say courage but manliness, he did not say craziness but courage.

[@sm12hus]

This is such an epic Moses moment

[@emtube9298]

What vision! His analysis and prognosis are perfect. I only hope that our brothers and sisters in the "modern" world soon awaken to the truth he spoke.

[@dkschupack]

I heard about this speech many times over the years, but it's only just now that I heard that the crowd actually booed him! That is certainly their bad...

[@michaelchan9874]

Prophetic. Telling of the importance of looking deep into the foundational universal issues regarding human nature.

[@ingy2468]

I fully recommend the book 'A Warning To The West' by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn which are his speeches in text from 1975 & 1976 in England and the US.

[@JustinPavoni]

one of the greatest writers ever

[@HHM706]

When America was a beacon of free speech Sadly gone now

[@yeahso5004]

why give up the battle so easily? such a sickening defeated attitude

[@krutoikulak-kingofthegulag5653]

"It is time for the west to spend less time defending human rights and instead defend human obligations."

[@ADUAquascaping]

Yeah stop pandering and tolerating entitlements and delusions

[@ADUAquascaping]

👏👏👏

[@dnaka723]

The first time listening to this speech. It is packed full of "prophetic" wisdom... our "public servants" (cough cough) need to to heed.

[@bacov101]

When he talks about lack of courage,it's like he's talking about 2017 and the easy lives of many young people today including mine.We need to rise up and take responsibility. People who would rather do the easy thing,people who would rather not vote than try to find the better alternative.Solzhenitsyn must know something important from all his experiences.

[@savedbygrace895]

This speech is now more relevant than ever! And sadly it is now more evident than ever that this speech has been totally ignored by the west! The self-destruction of the west is now irreversible...apart from a miracle.

[@mariekatherine5238]

This aught to be required study in every US high school. Open your eyes!

[@diegobrand6970]

Truly a marvelous speech. The most important thing to take away from it, I think, is what he said about voluntary self-restraint and self-denial. Rather than complain about the media or antifa or whatever restricting free speech and so on, we should consider how well each of us personally is resisting the temptations of materialism and humanism in the soul. How much have we ourselves been sucked in and complicit with the evils he lists? What state are our own souls in? How can we personally improve that state? What can we give up for the sake of our souls? how can we deny ourselves? I think we would do better, as he said, to consider our obligations than to complain about our rights.

[@ChristinaChrisR]

This is it. You’re so right. I’m thinking - We hear a speech like this, from a man who’s been through so much, and if we use it to keep pointing fingers, assigning blame to others, the other side, “them”, then how much did we really learn from him. Thank you for your comment. /Chris

[@SAO430]

I know both of these languages and this was so hard to listen to....

[@davidperi]

The democratic and republican candidates for presidency for 2016 should listen and take heart to this message.

[@quabot]

I agree!

[@quabot]

***** Sad but true.

[@thermionic1234567]

david peri Trump did.

[@quabot]

Jeffrey Morrissey I hope so!

[@cindys9491]

Jeffrey Morrissey wait, so Trump turned out not to be a hedonistic western materialist after all? ;)

[@blahdeblah1975]

31:50 "I hope that no one present will suspect me of...present[ing] socialism as an alternative. NYET!"

[@olgareshota8541]

Great speech!

[@camilacotrim2458]

What a wonderful person. ♥️

[@killertofu9188]

too bad..Harvard has fully adopted Communism.

[@newsungsails3651]

Among the most important talks I've ever listened to for where I am in life now. Solzhenitsyn is something of a literary saint.

[@varmintgetter]

How ironic how Harvard shows this video...while doing/condoning the opposite

[@karentamminen9135]

The dangers he talks about are exactly where the present democrat party wants to take us today. The press he warns us of is exactly the press media that we have today. We have to depend on independent news sources.

[@aeroflopp]

I really want to know what the administration at Harvard thought about this speech. They had to know his reputation and the fact that he would not give a lifeless graduation speech, full of platitudes. The way he is calling out Western culture is really courageous. I wonder if the attendees were open to his words or did his speech anger them. As far as his ability to prophecy about the decline of our culture, it is as if he time warped forward to 2018, returned to 1978 and spoke from his observations. I am really surprised at his accuracy.

[@iuliam5766]

It was met with outrage in the entire US media, not just at Harvard. At the time they thought that just because they were a democracy, everything was hunky-dory and Soljenițîn did not appreciate the welcome he and his work had received, and he should go back to where he came from. More balanced comments began to emerge only after a massive wave of public outcry.

[@TorMax9]

"If the attendees were open to his words or did his speech anger them?" No, they were more like "Whatever, blah, blah, blah... I've got mine, I've got a good salary and a cushy job... Oh, I wonder if Luigi has come up with an exciting new sauce at my favourite restaurant... I wonder if I can spin this to advance my career... He's talking about God and spirit and soul, so old fashioned... To get ahead in this world, you've got to go along to get along... I really must make a new appointment at the manicurist... "

[@2cool4fluoride]

I was disappointed that Christopher Hitchens just reverted to name calling him “the ayatollah” instead of countering his argument that faith in rational laws preventing pain will better mankind.

[@prayunceasingly2029]

What kind of laws did Solzhenitsyn mean?

[@johnnysprocketz]

The crowd is full of bleeding heart liberals- I'd be on my feet if I heard someone utter such splendor in my presence.