(np) but who would?

[jody2.718]

Point taken. And for a friendlier appraisal of Solzhenitsyn see the current NYRB, and-

"What Solzhenitsyn Understood..." by Gary Saul Morson-

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/05/12/what-solzhenitsyn-understood-march-1917-between-two-millstones/

Pay wall, but the excerpt gives a flavor. The left leaning press in the west is smug, and The Left, in general, seems a bit rudderless in the current maelstrom of events.

None of which excuses the Russian atrocities in Ukraine, and their justifications by it's autocratic leader. There is no argument that can justify them.

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While I agreed with this, I meant to differ slightly with this one
expression: “Right wing fascism has deep historical roots in Russia. No way
was it going to be transformed into some Harvard version of western
capitalism by "Shock Therapy"

Imho, not only societies inured to fascism would fail to be liberalized by
“Shock Therapy.” It’s a sucky strategy invented by people like Summers, who
suck, and its results always suck.

Jody 2.718 wrote:

Larry Summers- I'd half forgotten about that clown. What a disaster,
along with the rest of the geniuses at Harvard, like Andrei Schleifer,
who were going to "fix" Russia with "Shock Therapy," and ended up
creating a feeding trough for the Oligarchs, and maybe themselves. But
Pinochet was only a more recent model for Putin. From an historical
perspective, Putin is more of what Solzhenitsyn was hoping for-.....