Martinson

 Martinson

“The Soviet Union was one big camp.”-(page 253)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described how the truth was not allowed to be spoken by the Soviets because individuals would learn about the truth. We learn about the story of Nina who was taken to gulag for having written a humorous rhyme about preferring that the Soviet studies where interrupted instead of Church. We learn that the truth was not well received by Soviets. We learn that humor also was not something that was liked by Soviets socialists.

In the story of Martinson, we learn that he was taken to gulag for saying that the Soviet Union was one big camp. The individual had stated that essentially the Soviet Union under Stalin was gulag. For speaking the truth, the Soviet socialists took the individual Martinson to gulag for ten years. This is interesting because Christianity speaks about the importance of speaking truth. In the Soviet Union, individuals needed to speak temporary lies so that they did not get taken to gulag. However, we learn that even Bolshevik Soviets were taken to gulag.

We learn that socialism does not like that individuals preach truth or that individuals have a sense of humor. We learned that everything was offensive to the socialists and describes the hipocrisy of socialism. We learn that while the socialists advocated for a “utopia” in the Soviet Union, it was actually far from a real utopia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described how individuals could not express their faith to others because they would be taken to gulag. Individuals also could not speak truth because then individuals would not want to practice idolatry.

We learn that socialism did not help individuals and instead led to envy and coveting. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described how for making a single comment about the Soviet Union being essentially a big camp, Martinson was taken to gulag. We learn that freedom of speech was not allowed in the Soviet Union and describes the discrepancy and incongruency between the temporary lies of socialism and the truth seen in Christianity.