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About this quote

What does it mean?
Solzhenitsyn criticizes the specific transition path taken by former communist states, implying it was poorly managed or chosen.
In plain terms
The way they left communism was the worst possible way.
What can you take from it?
Transition strategies matter greatly for outcomes.

Where it applies

  • post communist societies
  • political analysis

Putting it to work

  • study historical transitions
  • critique policy choices

Questions to consider

  • What makes a political transition successful?
  • How do we judge historical decisions?

Another view

It is hard to prove any path was definitively worse without knowing alternative outcomes.

More from Alexander Solzhenitsyn

  1. If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?

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  2. The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. 'One word of truth outweighs the world.'

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  3. I have not painted the dark reality in rose-tinted shades but I do include a clear way, a search for something brighter, some way out - most importantly in the…

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