"Today when we say the West we are already referring to the West and to Russia. We could use the word "modernity" if we exclude Africa, and the Islamic world, and partially China"
About this Quote
A cold little act of border-drawing masquerading as a definition. Solzhenitsyn’s sentence doesn’t describe “the West” so much as annex it: the term, he argues, has swollen to include Russia by default, as if geography and history can be folded into a single civilizational brand. It’s a rhetorical sleight of hand with a strategic purpose. By yoking Russia to “the West,” he pressures Western listeners to stop treating Russia as an exotic exception or a permanent adversary; by the same move, he also gives Russia a claim on the moral and cultural inheritance usually reserved for Europe and America.
The real bite is in the next pivot: “We could use the word ‘modernity’ if we exclude…” Modernity becomes less a shared condition than a club with bouncers. The exclusions aren’t incidental; they reveal a hierarchy dressed up as taxonomy. Africa and the Islamic world are bracketed out entirely, China only “partially” granted entry, as if modernity arrives in measured doses depending on proximity to European institutional norms. That hedging “partially” is doing heavy work: it concedes China’s power without conceding China’s legitimacy as a co-author of the modern world.
Context matters. Solzhenitsyn spoke from the late Cold War and post-exile moment, when “the West” was both a geopolitical alliance and a moral self-congratulation. His subtext is a warning about Western universalism: the West names itself as the future, then treats everyone else as a deviation. At the same time, he’s carving out a civilizational shelter for Russia - not Soviet, not Asian, not fully European, but eligible to be counted among the defining forces of the age.
The real bite is in the next pivot: “We could use the word ‘modernity’ if we exclude…” Modernity becomes less a shared condition than a club with bouncers. The exclusions aren’t incidental; they reveal a hierarchy dressed up as taxonomy. Africa and the Islamic world are bracketed out entirely, China only “partially” granted entry, as if modernity arrives in measured doses depending on proximity to European institutional norms. That hedging “partially” is doing heavy work: it concedes China’s power without conceding China’s legitimacy as a co-author of the modern world.
Context matters. Solzhenitsyn spoke from the late Cold War and post-exile moment, when “the West” was both a geopolitical alliance and a moral self-congratulation. His subtext is a warning about Western universalism: the West names itself as the future, then treats everyone else as a deviation. At the same time, he’s carving out a civilizational shelter for Russia - not Soviet, not Asian, not fully European, but eligible to be counted among the defining forces of the age.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|
More Quotes by Aleksandr
Add to List
