WORDS OF WARNING TO AMERICA by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

“We, we the dissidents of the USSR, don’t have any tanks, we don’t have any weapons, we have no organization. We don’t have anything. Our hands are empty. We have only a heart and what we have lived through in the half century of this system. And when we have found the firmness within ourselves to stand up for our rights, we have done so.

“It’s only by firmness of spirit that we have withstood. And if I am standing here before you, it’s not because of the kindness or the good will of communism, not thanks to detente, but thanks to my own firmness and your firm support. They knew that I would not yield one inch, not one hair. And when they couldn’t do more they themselves fell back.”

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr “Words of Warning to America.” 30 June. 1975. Imprimis, Hillsdale College, https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/words-of-warning-to-america-september-1975/. Excerpt from transcript.