Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Radio Liberty in the 1970s: An Attempt at Conversation

Abstract

This article considers the relations between Solzhenitsyn and one of the leading Western centres of information and propaganda of the Cold War — Radio Liberty. The author aims to analyse relations between Solzhenitsyn and the American management of Radio Liberty (hereinafter RL) during the first years of Solzhenitsyn’s exile from the USSR, referring to methodological principles of qualitative analysis of personal historical documents. The sources of the article are the personal correspondence of management and officers of RL kept in the Special Collections of the Georgetown University Library (Washington, D.C., USA); Solzhenitsyn’s journalistic works, and materials of press-conferences and interviews. This study shows that upon Solzhenitsyn’s exile from the USSR, the RL management tried to establish a dialogue with him. Solzhenitsyn and F. Ronalds, one of the directors of RL, sustained personal correspondence. The article mostly focuses on the letter written by Solzhenitsyn to Ronalds on 30 October 1975 devoted to the Russian writer’s attitude to the activity of RL (this letter was found by the author of the article in the American archive). The idea of contacts between RL and Solzhenitsyn was supported by Vladimir Maksimov, a well-known writer and editor-in-chief of the Kontinent journal. But the American management of RL wanted to use the popularity of Solzhenitsyn’s name, without actually supporting his ideas. Solzhenitsyn did not agree with such a way of cooperation. Therefore, the attempt of conversation between Solzhenitsyn and Radio Liberty failed.

Keywords

• А. И. Солженицын
• радио «Свобода»
• холодная война
• внешняя политика США
• третья волна русской эмиграции
• история СМИ.