Political Criticism of Secularism as the Main Line of Western Modernity in the Journalism of A.I. Solzhenitsyn

Abstract

This article raises questions related to the political interpretation of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. It is demonstrated that Solzhenitsyn’s work in this aspect can be described as a political and philosophical legitimation of the project of “conservative modernity”. The main plot dominant in Solzhenitsyn’s reflections is the political and philosophical criticism of Western secularism and its political consequences. Secularism is described by Solzhenitsyn as a “perversion” of the Christian idea, in this respect Bolshevism and Western liberalism are equated with each other, embodying the radical features of the Western modernist project. The main question that worries Solzhenitsyn: how is modernity possible, in which the basic Christian principles and rules are preserved and developed? The solution to this issue is connected with the political implementation of this project — the construction of a conservative version of democracy, in which the observance of human rights and the construction of a rule of law state is based on Christian, not secular values.

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