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Line 137: − + + + − Nothing is easier than stamping your foot and shouting: “That's mine!” It is immeasurably harder to proclaim: “You may live as you please.” We cannot, in the latter end of the twentieth century, live in the imaginary world in which our last, not very bright Emperor came to grief. Surprising though it may be, the prophecy of our Vanguard Doctrine [i.e., Marxism-Leninism—Ed.] that nationalism would fade has not come true. In the age of the atom and of cybernetics, it has for some reason blossomed afresh. Like it or not, the time is at hand when we must pay out on all our promissory notes guaranteeing self-determination and independence—pay up of our own accord, and not wait to be burned at the stake, drowned in rivers, or beheaded. We must prove our greatness as a nation not by the vastness of our territory, not by the number of peoples under our tutelage, but by the grandeur of our actions. And by the depth of our tilth in the lands that remain when those who do not wish to live with us are gone. − [[File:FN1JZWwWYAIMnRZ.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Official [[Maidan regime]] [[nazi]] [[propaganda]] posted to [[Twitter]] in 2022. It was later deleted. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220315202518/https://twitter.com/Uinp_gov_ua/status/1503439897025204224] Solzhenitsyn evidently was a liar, and the [[USAID]]-funded [[Nazi]] [[propagandist]]s spoke the [[truth]], per [[User:Conservative]].]]
→Alexander Solzhenitsyn on Ukraine from the Gulag Archipelago
== Alexander Solzhenitsyn on Ukraine from the Gulag Archipelago==
== Alexander Solzhenitsyn on Ukraine from the Gulag Archipelago==
[[Image:A Solzhenitsyn.jpg|thumbnail|250px|right|[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] ]]
[[Image:A Solzhenitsyn.jpg|thumbnail|250px|left|[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] ]]
[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]: From The [[Gulag Archipelago]], part V, chapter 2, “The First Whiff of Revolution.” Published 1974. English translation by Harry Willetts, © 1978 Harper & Row.
[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]: From The [[Gulag Archipelago]], part V, chapter 2, “The First Whiff of Revolution.” Published 1974. English translation by Harry Willetts, © 1978 Harper & Row.
"For me this is a painful subject. Russia and the Ukraine are united in my blood, my heart, my thoughts. But from friendly contact with Ukrainians in the camps over a long period I have learned how sore they feel. Our generation cannot avoid paying for the mistakes of generations before it.
"For me this is a painful subject. Russia and the Ukraine are united in my blood, my heart, my thoughts. But from friendly contact with Ukrainians in the camps over a long period I have learned how sore they feel. Our generation cannot avoid paying for the mistakes of generations before it.
[[File:FN1JZWwWYAIMnRZ.jpg|right|400px|thumb|Official [[Maidan regime]] [[nazi]] [[propaganda]] posted to [[Twitter]] in 2022. It was later deleted. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220315202518/https://twitter.com/Uinp_gov_ua/status/1503439897025204224] Solzhenitsyn evidently was a liar, and the [[USAID]]-funded [[Nazi]] [[propagandist]]s spoke the [[truth]], per [[User:Conservative]].]]
Nothing is easier than stamping your foot and shouting: “That's mine!” It is immeasurably harder to proclaim: “You may live as you please.” We cannot, in the latter end of the twentieth century, live in the imaginary world in which our last, not very bright Emperor came to grief. Surprising though it may be, the prophecy of our Vanguard Doctrine [i.e., Marxism-Leninism—Ed.] that nationalism would fade has not come true. In the age of the atom and of cybernetics, it has for some reason blossomed afresh. Like it or not, the time is at hand when we must pay out on all our promissory notes guaranteeing self-determination and independence—pay up of our own accord, and not wait to be burned at the stake, drowned in rivers, or beheaded. We must prove our greatness as a nation not by the vastness of our territory, not by the number of peoples under our tutelage, but by the grandeur of our actions. And by the depth of our tilth in the lands that remain when those who do not wish to live with us are gone.
The Ukraine will be an extremely painful problem. But we must realize that the feelings of the whole people are now at white heat. Since the two peoples have not succeeded over the centuries in living harmoniously, it is up to us to show sense. We must leave the decision to the Ukrainians themselves—let federalists and separatists try their persuasions. Not to give way would be foolhardy and cruel. And the gentler, the more tolerant, the more careful to explain ourselves we are now, the more hope there will be of restoring unity in the future.
The Ukraine will be an extremely painful problem. But we must realize that the feelings of the whole people are now at white heat. Since the two peoples have not succeeded over the centuries in living harmoniously, it is up to us to show sense. We must leave the decision to the Ukrainians themselves—let federalists and separatists try their persuasions. Not to give way would be foolhardy and cruel. And the gentler, the more tolerant, the more careful to explain ourselves we are now, the more hope there will be of restoring unity in the future.