The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Writer, philosopher and novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn survived a decade in Soviet prison camps, his time documented in the two-volume set titled “The Gulag Archipelago.” He exposed the dangers of political abuse of power in the Soviet Union and his outspoken critiques earned him a Nobel Prize among other accolades. In one account, he shares a story of political abuse of power and how easy it is to be drawn in. I offer no interpretation of his story other than to allow it to rest on its own convictions. Parables often stand alone with little explanation. That construct, much like the parables of Jesus, encourages us to take a more critical and honest view of ourselves and the Divine Nature that surrounds us. The following is from “The Gulag Archipelago, Vol. 2 (www.solzhenitsyncenter.org).”

“At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up (just as everyone had leaped to his feet during the conference at every mention of his name) ... For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the stormy applause, rising to an ovation, continued. But palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching. And the older people were panting from exhaustion. It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who really adored Stalin.

“However, who would dare to be the first to stop? … After all, NKVD men were standing in the hall applauding and watching to see who would quit first! And in the obscure, small hall, unknown to the leader, the applause went on — six, seven, eight minutes! They were done for! Their goose was cooked! They couldn’t stop now till they collapsed with heart attacks! At the rear of the hall, which was crowded, they could of course cheat a bit, clap less frequently, less vigorously, not so eagerly — but up there with the presidium where everyone could see them?

“The director of the local paper factory, an independent and strong-minded man, stood with the presidium. Aware of all the falsity and all the impossibility of the situation, he still kept on applauding! Nine minutes! Ten! In anguish he watched the secretary of the District Party Committee, but the latter dared not stop. Insanity! To the last man! With make-believe enthusiasm on their faces, looking at each other with faint hope, the district leaders were just going to go on and on applauding till they fell where they stood, till they were carried out of the hall on stretchers! And even then those who were left would not falter…

“Then, after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat. And, oh, a miracle took place! Where had the universal, uninhibited, indescribable enthusiasm gone? To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved!

“The squirrel had been smart enough to jump off his revolving wheel. That, however, was how they discovered who the independent people were. And that was how they went about eliminating them. That same night the factory director was arrested. They [convicted and sentenced him to ten years] on the pretext of something quite different. But after he had signed [the interrogation document], his interrogator reminded him: ‘Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding.’”