Fatima for Today, by Father Andrew Apostoli

We've just passed the centenary of the Fatima apparitions, so I wanted to learn more about them.  This book makes an excellent one stop shop about the apparitions.  Everything you could possibly want to know about them is in here.  Fr. Apostoli relates the content of what the three children saw, the historical context in which they happened, biographical information about the children and their families, and about the history of their town and of Portugal, how the Fatima apparitions were determined to be reliable, how they meshed with other preceding and contemporaneous apparitions given to other visionaries, the Church's interpretation of the visions, how successfully the Church has followed the instructions of our Lady, and how the predictions came to pass.  There is also practical information in the book about how to do the devotions properly, as well as the prayers taught to the three children.

Tortured for Christ, by Richard Wurmbrand

In his  1978 Harvard commencement speech, Solzhenitsyn said:

Through intense suffering, our country has now achieved a spiritual development of such intensity that the Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not look attractive...A fact that cannot be disputed is the weakening of human beings in the West while in the East they are becoming firmer and stronger.  68 years for our people, and 30 years for the people of Eastern Europe: during that time we have been through a spiritual training far in advance of Western experience.

If you were to become curious about the nature of the spiritual training Solzhenitsyn means, Richard Wurmbrand's life provides a good example.  Wurmbrand was a Romanian who grew up in a secular Jewish family, converted to Christianity as a young man, and became a Lutheran pastor.  When the Soviets took control of Romania after driving out the Nazis, they established a Communist totalitarian government that drove the genuine churches underground.  For standing up to them, Wurmbrand and his wife were both sentenced to lengthy terms in what can only be described as a torture camp.  Despite the horrific conditions, this is an inspiring story of hope, endurance, and the great consolation of faith in God.

The Origin of Russian Communism, by Nicolas Berdyaev

Excellent book on the various influences in Russian history, culture, and religion that helped shape how Communism was implemented in the Soviet Union. 

Berdyaev cites the Muscovite period and the reign of Peter the Great as particularly influential, because that was when the governments were most absolutist and repressive, using methods to control the population and the church that prefigured those used by the Bolsheviks. 

He cites the messianic cast of mind of the Russian Orthodox Church, which thought of Moscow as the Third Rome (after the fall of the Roman and Byzantine Empires) and believed that it had a great mission to fulfill in the world. Similarly, Soviet Russia took upon itself a special mission: it was the means by which communism was to be spread throughout the world. 

Berdyaev also discusses how the Russian Orthodox peasantry, unlike their Western Christian counterparts, never developed a strong concept of private property. They saw the land and its resources as belonging to God, and anyone who works them ought to be able to make a living off them. They had a feeling that the gentry were wrong to have such large estates, so that when the Bolsheviks began confiscating the estates and turning them into collective farms, the peasants were easily sold on the idea. 

Berdyaev himself was a disenchanted Marxist who converted back to the Russian Orthodox Church. He was among the exiles in the “philosophers’ ships” of the 1920’s, when Lenin threw out much of Russia’s dissident intelligentsia. Unfortunately, despite his disappointment with Marxism, Berdyaev did retain (at least at the time he wrote this book—I don’t know about later in life) the same mistake to which some Christians are prone: the view that socialism is a more moral economic system than the free market, and that there must be some way to make it work without resorting to evil means or evil results. 

One Word of Truth- Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Lecture

This speech is just as good as A World Split Apart, and that's really saying something.  He describes the existential gulf between people living under oppressive governments and those in free countries.  There is a disconnect between the two, and the latter group very often cannot understand where the former is coming from.  As a representative of the former group transplanted into the world of the latter, Solzhenitsyn cites art as the means by which the gap can be bridged.
It is the means by which one can enter into another person's experience.

He also talks about the "spirit of Munich" and how it has dominated the 20th century (inclination of the free world to appease and tolerate unjust violence elsewhere provided it left the West alone) and how violence inevitably requires lies to maintain its position of power-- to deceive people about its true nature and give itself legitimacy.

The task of the artist above all is to remain honest in the face of violence and lies.

"Let the lie come into the world, even dominate the world, but not through me."

The Solzhenitsyn Center has released a video made with an excellent (English) reading of this speech, which is available to view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ITbFdTaB_E.

A World Split Apart- Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Commencement Address, 1978

I think this is one of the best speeches ever written. On anything. Alexander Solzhenitsyn turns his keen powers of observation and understanding, sharpened by long years of oppression under a totalitarian regime, on the West and diagnoses the cause of its ills: a decline in moral courage. Despite having been written 40 years ago, it's even more relevant now than it was then.

Even better than reading this is hearing the man himself deliver it at Harvard in 1978-- the video of the complete speech, with a simultaneous translator translating it into English is available on Youtube. Awesome stuff.

And if you can, listen also to Dr. Peter Kreeft's excellent commentary on it and the impression it made on him as a member of that audience in 1978--also available on Youtube.

Moscou sans voiles, by Joseph Douillet

The author, Joseph Douillet, is a Belgian citizen who spent thirty five years living in Russia—first as Belgian consul when the tsar was still in power, then with humanitarian organizations that set up in the USSR to help alleviate the effects of the economic problems and famine caused by increasing nationalization of the factories and farms after the October Revolution. The timing of his career, the positions he held, his fluency and familiarity with the Russian language and culture put him in a perfect position to observe the transition from tsarist to Soviet Russia and to draw comparisons between the two. If there was any historical event that proved that not all change is for the better (to put it mildly), this is it. 

It is a very well organized book that details the effects Communism had on different aspects of life. He starts off with how the USSR presents itself to foreigners, which is like a type of theater. Then he moves on to discussing Communism’s effects on the working and living conditions of peasants and factory workers: the level of their earnings, prices and availability of necessities, use of taxes to disadvantage disfavored groups, the educational system, the disintegration of marriage and family, illegitimacy, crime rates, treatment of people at the beginning and at the end of life, treatment of religious people, confiscation of church property, and the omnipresent surveillance of the secret police, whose power surpassed even that of the Politburo. He even spent 9 months in KGB custody at the Loubianka prison in Moscow prior to being deported to Latvia in 1925, so the later chapters are about his experiences in that jail, the effects of torture and interrogations on fellow inmates, their various fates--often deportation to gulags in Siberia or Solovetzky Island, or execution in the prison compound itself. The last chapter is about the Comintern, the Party’s foreign outreach and propaganda arm, whose aim was to spread the movement in Europe. 

My edition is dated 1928, so this was written soon after being expelled from the USSR. There does not seem to be an English translation, so this book is only accessible to French speakers. Great read for those interested in Russian and Cold War history. I’m surprised at how early this book appeared (just 11 years after the October Revolution), as I had the impression that information about the real conditions inside the USSR took longer to become known in the West.

Karl Marx As a Religious Type: His Relation to the Religion of Anthropotheism of L. Feuerbach, by Sergei Bulgakov

Since this is the centenary year of the Russian Revolution, I've been trying to read more about the history of that time and the people who were involved or contributed to it in some way. Karl Marx, as the originator of Marxism, was definitely an intellectual contributor to it. 

In this short book, Russian Orthodox priest and philosopher Sergei Bulgakov analyzes the personality and background of Karl Marx based on his writings and the writings of Marx's contemporaries, and Marx's impact on the socialist movement. Bulgakov was a contemporary of Lenin rather than Marx; he was himself a Marxist in his youth and later returned to and was ordained in his faith. Bulgakov points out how important atheism, the materialist worldview, and the elimination of religion were to Marx (i.e. it was the main feature, not a side show). Marx saw socialism as a means to eliminate religion, rather than elimination of religion being a side effect of socialism eliminating poverty. Among other topics, Bulgakov also cites evidence of Marx's dictatorial and vindictive personality as observed by writings of his contemporaries and his treatment of them, his greater affinity for the ideas of Feuerbach rather than Hegel, and his attitude towards his own ancestral people, the Jews.

This book is available online here.

Réflexions sur la révolution de Février, par Alexander Solzhenitsyn

In this book, Solzhenitsyn analyzes the toxic mix of conditions that brought about the events and consequences of three fateful days in St. Petersburg, from February 28-March 2, 1917 by the Julian calendar, or March 13-15, 2017 by the Gregorian.  Because of an insurrection in St. Petersburg, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Grand Duke Michael, who was equally disinclined to fulfill the obligations emperor.  Solzhenitsyn discusses how conditions, which only affected a small number of people, combined to destroy an enormous country, the majority of whose population were still attached to their traditions, their religion, and their way of life.  These include a lack of responsibility and sense of duty on the part of the royal family and government officials, the intelligentsia’s embrace of radical politics and revolutionary ideas, bad management of the military (which led to large numbers of inexperienced new recruits sitting idle in St. Petersburg), and the incompetence of the Kerensky government that replaced the monarchy.  Thus the Russian empire fell, not because of tyranny or high-handedness on the part of the Czar, but from weakness and lack of leadership.

Marx and Satan, by Richard Wurmbrand

This is a very convincing book, written by a Romanian victim of Marxism, that brings forward the hypothesis that Karl Marx and some of his most infamous followers may have been strongly influenced by Satanism.  Wurmbrand cites excerpts from Marx's books, poetry, and correspondence that point in that direction, such that further research into the possibility is warranted.  I also did not realize that a very large portion of Marx's writings have been sitting in Russian vaults and kept from being disseminated, translated, and discussed. Very surprising for a thinker whose work has made such a huge, albeit negative, impact upon the world.

The Mortal Danger, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This book consists of a long essay Solzhenitsyn wrote in 1980 for <i>Foreign Affairs</i> magazine, some reaction letters from readers (mostly university professors) and Solzhenitsyn's rebuttal to the letters.  I liked the format because it shows both sides of the issue and you get the back-and-forth of a debate.

The essay addresses an important question, especially for those who think real Communism hasn't been tried yet because it's always been adulterated by the local history and traditions of the countries where it was implemented.  Did the mass murders, oppressive policies, and other negative features of the Soviet government have their roots in some evil tendency from Russia's tsarist past which re-emerged under Stalin, or does the evil reside in Communism itself? Solzhenitsyn argues the latter position, pointing out the intellectual roots of Bolshevism and misconceptions about both 19th century Russia, often presented as worse than it really was, and Lenin's government, often presented as the antithesis to Stalin, when Stalin was just continuing the same policies.

The letter-writers cite, among other things, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and some of the features of Nicholas II's reign as providing precedent for oppression, and Solzhenitsyn shows why their arguments are implausible or based on a mistaken interpretation of historical facts.

Very interesting reading for those interested in the Cold War and for those who are puzzled about how an economic system with an awful track record every place it's been tried still attracts supporters.

Matryona's House and Other Stories, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This collection includes 6 short stories and about a dozen prose poems, which are basically short sketches of a character or situation that illustrates an idea.  My three favorites among the short stories were <i>Matryona's House</i>, <i>The Right Hand</i>, and <i>An Incident at Krechetovka Station</i>.

<i>Matryona's House</i> is narrated by a schoolteacher who has just arrived to work in the school of a little rural town.  Looking around for lodgings, and preferring peace and quiet, he is directed to the house of a poor elderly widow named Matryona.  She is a simple peasant woman who has worked hard all her life, lives alone in an old-fashioned decrepit house, and over time, the schoolteacher comes to appreciate her qualities: reliability, endurance, common sense, generosity, loyalty, faith in God, and love of life in its many forms, from the lame cat she has adopted to the fig plants she cultivates in her home.  He comes to realize just how rare these qualities are after her death in an accident, when he learns more about her life from how her friends and relatives talk about her--often in ways that showed that they did not understand or appreciate her worth at all.

<i>The Right Hand</i> is a story told by a man who notices a homeless and obviously very sick old veteran being ignored by passersby on the street.  The veteran has traveled a long way in a weakened condition in the hopes of being admitted to a hospital in Tashkent.  The narrator is an ex-prisoner who has gotten in trouble in the past for counter-revolutionary activities, while the old veteran served with distinction as a Red revolutionary, and has the papers to prove it.  The veteran thinks his proof of loyal service to the Communist cause will help him get admitted for treatment in his time of need, but the joke is that the machine-like bureaucracy of the hospital treats both men in exactly the same way, regardless of past service, political views, or state of health: neither can get any service because the admissions office has stopped taking new patients for the day, and mere human considerations are not allowed to take precedence over that ironclad rule.

<i>An Incident at Krechetovka Station</i> is about an official at a busy railway station in wartime whose job it is to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.  One day, a soldier who has somehow got left behind by his transport shows up at the station, and it is up to the official to decide whether or not he is who he says he is and what is to be done with him.  It's a story about the conditions of war, the bureaucracy involved in dealing with the complex logistics of moving massive amounts of people and cargo, and how easily an individual can fall through the cracks to either beat the system or be crushed by it.

Warning to the West, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This book consists of four speeches and one BBC interview given by Solzhenitsyn to American and British audiences during the mid 1970's.  In them, he talks about his observations about dangerous tendencies in Western culture and intellectual climate that could lead to weakness and lack of preparedness to face the Communist threat.  Among them are the West's refusal to recognize the true nature of Communism despite straightforward exposition of it, lack of moral clarity, a materialist view of the world and of human nature, unwillingness to take a strong stance against the threat, and lack of interest in the plight of its victims.  He also points out some trends in the culture of that time (which are still trends today) that mirror conditions in imperial Russia before the Revolution.

I think this book is still very relevant today because even though the Cold War is over, we're not through with totalitarian movements yet, as can be seen in the destructive Islamist movements in the Middle East.  Solzhenitsyn points out that the temptation to create heaven on earth no matter what the cost is a recurring theme throughout history, and we must be in constant vigilance to guard against it.

Astolphe de Custine and His Russia, by George F. Kennan

This is an excellent review of Astolphe de Custine's <i>Russia in 1839</i> and the times in which it was written. I read it right after <i>Russia in 1839</i> and it was very helpful as I knew nothing about Custine and it was the first book of his I had read.  George Kennan gives a very well-balanced amount of information in his book such that the reader gets a thorough overview of the context in which <i>Russia in 1839</i> was written.

Included is biographical information about the author, a French aristocrat who had lived through the French Revolution as a child, the social milieu in which he lived in Paris, as well as a short exposition of where Russia was in its history when Custine visited, and the reaction to his book in France and in Russia when it came out in the 1840's.

Kennan was a historian who served briefly as U.S. ambassador to the USSR during the Cold War and his thoughts about what Custine observed--reactionary traits that were on their way out under the 19th century Czars but that came back with a vengeance under the Soviets--are chilling.

Also interesting is Kennan's comparison of <i>Russia in 1839</i> with Alexis de Tocqueville's <i>Democracy in America</i>. The two authors were contemporaries, both keen observers, both liberal-minded French aristocrats, and between them they made prophetic speculations about the two countries that emerged as superpowers in the century that followed.

The Case for Democracy, by Natan Sharansky

Natan Sharansky, an erstwhile political prisoner in the Soviet Union, writes about how to accurately tell a free society from a "fear" society (one in which people do not enjoy basic liberties and are kept in check by their leaders through fear of punishment). He makes a good case for why it is in the interest of free societies to conduct their foreign policy in such a way as to link benefits granted to fear societies with requirements that the fear society reform its domestic practices.

Fear societies tend to be poorer and less innovative than free ones, so they often need aid, technology, and other things from free societies, but two of the ways they keep their population in check is 1) to distribute the benefits received so as to keep their population dependent on the dictator's good graces and 2) to present the free society to their people as an enemy in order to produce a state of internal solidarity and hostility against it (as if there were a war going on). Appeasement of dictators is therefore counterproductive as it leads to a vicious circle of increasing their power, aggravating tensions between the countries, and further appeasement by the free society.

It was particularly interesting to read this book shortly after George Kennan's At a Century's Ending: Reflections, 1982-1995 because Kennan has a more traditional view on foreign policy, i.e. stay out of other countries' domestic policy and just concern yourself with their foreign policy. Sharansky uses the relations between the US and USSR during the Cold War and the (seemingly endless) Israeli-Palestinian peace process as examples to illustrate why the traditional approach doesn't work when dealing with fear societies.