The Lion of Russia Roars Again!

Alexander Solzhenitzyn is a man among men. And, in many ways, Chesterton's spiritual brother.

Since his return to Russia in 1994, after decades in exile, he has kept quiet and guarded his privacy. But in the aftermath of a terrorist bomb exploding under a train south of Moscow, injuring at least 15 people, he believed he had to speak.

Justin Raimondo - author, Libertarian activist and chief columnist for the popular Antiwar.com - wrote a column on June 13th on Solzhenitsyn speaking to the world in the bomb's aftermath. As told by Raimondo, Russia cannot be pushed into a 'democracy' from the top-down. "Democracy can only grow upwards, like a plant," he said. As Solzhenitsyn sees it, Russia is next in line to undergo "regime change" like what happened during Ukraine's "Orange Revolution".

So it seems he - and Raimondo - are backing Putin and some of his policies, vis-a-vis the Chechen rebels at least. Certainly the current Russian opposition is nothing to sing about.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, still struts on the Russian political stage, promoting hatred of the West and Jew-hatred. The still active Communist Party, reconstituted since the supposed fall of the Soviet Union, and led by Genadii Zyuganov, still continue to work for returning Russia back under the Hammer-And-Sickle. The Union of Right Forces, a coalition of pro-Western and capitalist parties, do their best under depressing conditions to further liberate Russia from her tyrannical past.

But Putin himself is no prize. Consolidating the nation's media under government control, moving to strengthen military and economic ties with Red China, India and Brazil, putting more chains on Russia's struggling private sector, hidden persecution of Catholic activity...all this and more removes the presidential veneer of this 'former' KGB colonel. It shows him pushing Russia back into dictatorship.

And what for the people of Russia? With the neo-Stalinist Putin running the show and the neo-Trotskyite New Right Western powers - with Bush and Blair in the lead - wishing to make them their puppets, it is like asking which chief devil of Hell you wish to be possessed by.

In either case, you will still be possessed and damned.

Our Savior said that "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country." So it is with Solzhenitsyn, both yesterday in exile in Vermont and today back home in Russia. Neither Moscow nor Washington are listening to him. But such has always been the case. Both are committed to setting up their own rival New World Orders and will brook no opposition.

And - forgive the obvious - there is no known Distributist movement in Russia today. But this must change.

NOTE: Joseph Pearce, author of the Chesterton biography Wisdom and Innocence also wrote a biography of the Lion of Russia called Solzhenitsyn: A Soul In Exile. This work is very highly recommended here at the DR. Pearce also recommends a book by him called Rebuilding Russia, which he believes should be put side-by-side with Chesterton's Outline of Sanity.