Validating the Alexander Solzhenitsyn ‘Bolsheviks were not Russians’ Quote

Recently I was asked to validate the following Alexander Solzhenitsyn quote that is often found in – and cited by – various anti-jewish memes seeking to raise the awareness about the historical reality of Judeo-Bolshevism and the strong jewish historical relationship (and association) with communism internationally.

I was able to give my initial observations, but I didn’t properly validate it which I will do here.

The quote as given in memes such as the ones below is as follows:

The quote from Solzhenitsyn is that:

‘You must understand. The Ieading Bolsheviks who took over Rússia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. It cannot be overstated. Bolshevism committed the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this enormous crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrators.’

The origin of this quote is from the introduction to David Duke’s 2013 book ‘The Secret Behind Communism’ where he gives the quote, and its context as follows:

‘"You must understand. The Ieading Bolsheviks who took over Rússia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse.

The October Revolution was not what you call in America the 'Russian Revolution.'

It was an invasion and conquest over the Russian people.

More of my countrymen suffered horrific crimes at their bloodstained hands than any people or nation ever suffered in the entirety of human history.

It cannot be overstated. Bolshevism committed the greatest human slaughter of all time.

The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this enormous crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrators."!

— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

These were startling words, spoken to me by the famous Russian writer and philosopher Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn when I had the privilege of meeting him in Moscow in 2002.’ (1)

Now clearly the meme quote has been substantially altered with the first and the last two paragraphs put together with Solzhenitsyn comments in the middle removed. This is understandable as it doesn’t significantly alter Solzhenitsyn’s meaning and if anything, actually tones it down with Solzhenitsyn’s original quote being both more lengthy and more extended.

So far so good but is this quote actually from Solzhenitsyn given that we only have Duke’s word that he stated this to him when Duke was in Ukraine in 2002. This means that Solzhenitsyn’s having said it is hearsay and while Duke’s authority is in my opinion insufficient by itself to believe it to be a correct and true representation of Solzhenitsyn’s comments to him (and specific views).

We do thankfully have two reasons to believe it to be accurate.

Firstly, we have the fact that Solzhenitsyn has never denied he said this despite the prevalence of the quote in the English-speaking world and Solzhenitsyn also speaks English. We would reasonably suspect had this quote be inaccurate then Solzhenitsyn would have publicly denied it and this would have been at least somewhat trumpeted round the world as an attack on David Duke and used as ‘another example’ of why ‘anti-Semites are liars’ and not to be trusted.

Secondly, we have Solzhenitsyn’s own works which argue pretty much the same thing.

For example, in his famous ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ he implies that the Bolshevik revolution was in fact a jewish and not a Russian revolution when he states that:

‘The names of the six principal lieutenants of Stalin and Yagoda, the chief overseers of Belomor, six hired murderers each of whom accounted for thirty thousand lives: Firin – Berman – Frenkel – Kogan – Rappoport – Zhuk.’ (2)

Similarly, decades later Solzhenitsyn writes in his ‘Two Hundred Years Together’ concerned jewish involvement in the Bolshevik revolution that:

‘What about the Jewish renegades? As we have seen, during the year 1917, there was no particular attraction for the Bolsheviks that manifested among the Jews. But their activism has played its part in the revolutionary upheavals. At the last Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) (London, 1907), which was, it is true, common with the Mensheviks, of 302- 305 delegates, 160 were Jews, more than half—it was promising. Then, after the April 1917 Conference, just after the announcement of the explosive April Theses of Lenin, among the nine members of the new Central Committee were G. Zinoviev, L. Kamenev, la. Sverdlov. At the Vlth summer Congress of the RKP (b) (the Russian Communist Party of the Bolsheviks, the new name of the RSDLP), eleven members were elected to the Central Committee, including Zinoviev, Sverdlov, Trotsky, Uritsky. Then, at the “historic meeting” in Karpovka Street, in the apartment of Himmer and Flaksermann, on 10 October 1917, when the decision to launch the Bolshevik coup was taken, among the twelve participants were Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sverdlov, Uritsky, Sokolnikov. It was there that was elected the first “Politburo” which was to have such a brilliant future, and among its seven members, always the same: Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sokolnikov. Which is already a lot. D. S. Pasmanik clearly states: “There is no doubt that the Jewish renegades outnumbered the normal percentage...; they occupied too great a place among the Bolshevik commissioners.”’ (3)

Given that Solzhenitsyn published the second and last volume of ‘Two Hundred Years Together’ in 2002 at roughly the same time that he allegedly uttered the words that Duke is quoting and that Solzhenitsyn’s thesis in ‘Two Hundred Years Together’ is extremely close to Duke’s thesis albeit Solzhenitsyn’s contains significant caveats to it that Duke’s own does not.

We thus have every reason to believe that while Duke is an imperfect vehicle for transmission of the quote; the quote he gives is never-the-less extremely likely to be genuine.

References

(1) David Duke, 2013, ‘The Secret Behind Communism: The Ethnic Origins of the Russian Revolution & The Greatest Holocaust in the History of Mankind’, 1st Edition, Free Speech Press: Mandeville, p. 11

(2) Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1986, ‘The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation’, 1st Edition, The Harvill Press: London, pp. 205-208

(3) Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 2017, [2002], ‘Two Hundred Years Together’, 1st Edition, The Incorrect Library: Internet, p. 435