“For a country to have a great writer … is like having another government. That’s why no régime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.”

— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , book The First Circle

Innokenty, in Ch. 57.
Variant translation: For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.
The First Circle (1968)

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 120

Russian writer 1918–2008

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