Russian exile Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, delivered a dramatic speech, not only a warning to what is left of Western Civilization, but also a denouncement of the West for financially and materially building up the strength of the Communist regimes.
The text of the New York address that follows is the translation approved by the author and reprinted with permission of the AFL-CIO, which invited him to speak. This was the Nobel Prize winning author's second major public address (New York, 9 July 1975) since his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1974, the first being his address in Washington, D.C, on June 30th, 1975.
‘Marxism has always apposed freedom. I will quote just a few words from the founding fathers of communism, Marx and Engels (l quote from the first Soviet edition of 1929): "Reforms are a sign of weakness" (vol. 23, p. 339); "Democracy is more to be feared than monarchy and aristocracy," (vol. 2, p. 369); "Political liberty is a false liberty, worse than the most abject slavery" (vol. 2, p. 394). In their correspondence Marx and Engels frequently said that after achieving power, terror would be indispensable, that "it will be necessary to repeat the year 1793. After achieving power, we'll be considered monsters, but we couldn't care less" (vol. 25, p. 187). ‘ – A. Solzhenitsyn
