Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 for his books describing the cruelties of Soviet Union labor camps and prisons. One of the most famous dissidents of the Soviet era, Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974 and resided in the United States for twenty years. He moved back to Russia in 1994. In the following viewpoint, he argues that, for all its changes since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia cannot be considered a true democracy in which the people rule themselves. Instead, an inept oligarchy of presidential appointees and bureaucrats has created a system of centralized power that is not accountable to Russia’s citizens.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Why does Solzhenitsyn consider freedom of the press in Russia to be illusory...