Art for Liberty

Art has a vital role in the struggle against lies and violence. The Russian moralist and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote:

 

“Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence…

“And the simple step of a simple courageous person is not to partake in falsehood, not to support false actions! Let that enter the world, let it even reign in the world – but not with my help. 

“But writers and artists can achieve more: they can CONQUER FALSEHOOD! In the struggle with falsehood art always did win and it always does win! Openly, irrefutably for everyone! Falsehood can hold out against much in this world, but not against art.”

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Lecture in Literature, 1970