[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 21 (Wednesday, March 2, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 2, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                              SOLZHENITSYN

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of NEW YORK

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 2, 1994

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, listen to these words:

       Communism, which is based on the theory that the economy is 
     the basis of all human activity, collapsed for economic 
     reasons. It could survive only with an iron grip. When 
     Gorbachev first tried to ease that iron grip, the process of 
     collapse accelerated. Gorbachev did not have in mind that 
     negation of socialism * * *
       Gorbachev and his circle were locked into a Marxist 
     ideology * * * [but] * * * he really understood that the 
     country was in such a difficult economic situation that 
     sustaining the tension of the old rivalry with the West was 
     no longer possible. The cold war was essentially won by 
     Ronald Reagan when he embarked on the star wars program and 
     the Soviet Union understood that it could not take this next 
     step. Ending the cold war had nothing to do with Gorbachev's 
     generosity; he was compelled to do it. He had no choice but 
     to disarm.

  Mr. Speaker and Members, I hope you have listened closely to these 
words--but I have to tell you that they are not mine. They are the 
words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
  The man who is by all odds the greatest literary figure of this 
century attributes victory in the cold war to Ronald Reagan.
  I can only conclude by noting that the Bible tells us of how the 
ancient prophets were always looking for men who understood the signs 
of the times. And I can tell you that it was Ronald Reagan who 
understood the signs of our times--and it was Strobe Talbott and Bill 
Clinton who did not.

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