Dimensional Spaces in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Two Hundred Years Together

Abstract

The history of Russian culture provides sufficient evidence that a renowned writer can also be a great historian. Indeed, Nikolai Karamzin (The History of the Russian State), Aleksander Pushkin (The History of Pugachev), and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (The Red Wheel), to name a few, have proven their exceptional erudition, historical intuition, and research capabilities in interpreting history. However, Solzhenitsyn’s latest historical undertaking, Dvesti let vmeste [Two Hundred Years Together], despite its undeniable literary worth, has evoked strong reactions from many scholars, who doubt in particular his factual data and ideological approach to the history of Russian Jews and their history in the Russian and Soviet Empires. To consolidate the major questions raised about Solzhenitsyn’s interpretation of this history, the present study provides a review of the critical literature inspired by Two Hundred Years Together. The article also addresses dimensional spaces in this work and examines how they influence the reader’s views of the writer’s socio-historic, literary, and cultural intentions. These issues include the nature of Solzhenitsyn’s nationalism as illustrated by the realities of Belarusan Jews who were among the first en masse foreign settlers in the Eastern Slavic territories. This article also considers the literary devices and concentrates on Solzhenitsyn’s concept of repentance. The above named topics are examined in conjunction with the notions of nationalism, anti-Semitism, faith, repentance, and responsibility, all of which are pondered on the pages of Solzhenitsyn’s historical opus.