Professor to discuss Russian author

The author of a new collection of Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s works will speak at 7:30 p.m. today in Woodburn Hall 101. \nDaniel J. Mahoney, a professor of political science at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., will present his book “The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947-2005.”\nAurelian Craiutu, an assistant professor of political science, will host the lecture. Craiutu said he organized Mahoney’s visit to fit in with a course in the Department of Political Science he is teaching this semester, Y281: Modern Political Ideologies.\n“One of the major ideologies we study is communism, and we read Solzhenitsyn in the class,” Craiutu said. “His work is an unparalleled account of communist reality. ... However, this lecture is not intended just for political science students. It’s open to everyone, and we hope to have a large turnout.”\nSolzhenitsyn, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, is known best in the U.S. for his novel “The Gulag Archipelago,” which is based on his experiences in a Soviet prison camp.\nSolzhenitsyn is also the author of numerous poems, short stories, novels, memoirs, political and historical essays and speeches, according to an IU news release.\nAbout 25 percent of the material in the book, mostly essays written since 1993, has never been published in English before. Editors Mahoney and Edward E. Ericson Jr. worked with Solzhenitsyn’s sons on the translations, Craiutu said.\nThe lecture is sponsored in part by IU College Republicans, but Craiutu emphasized there is no political agenda on the part of any of the sponsors. The other sponsors are the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Russian and East European Institute on campus.\n“Solzhenitsyn is thought of as a conservative in the U.S. because he rejected American relativism and consumerism, but that isn’t an accurate understanding of his ideas,” Craiutu said. “This new collection emphasizes the liberal elements of Solzhenitsyn’s thinking.”\n“The Solzhenitsyn Reader” was published in November 2006 and has already sold out its first printing, Craiutu said. Ten free copies of the book will be available at the lecture on a first-come, first-serve basis, but the book will not be for sale at the lecture.