The Economist is a weekly news and business publication written for top business decision-makers and opinion leaders who need a wide range of information and views on world events. It explores the close links between domestic and international issues, business, finance, current affairs, science and technology.

Regular editorial departments include American Survey, Asia, Europe, International, Business, Finance, Science and Technology, and the Arts. In additions, The Economist also publishes special monthly editorial surveys that focus on industries, markets or countries. (Amazon.com)

The Economist Magazine is a business news publication edited for senior management and policy makers in finance, industry, and government in the United States and throughout the world. It reports on and analyzes world politics, business, economics, finance and the issues and developments that affect them, including science, technology, human rights issues, culture trends, military conflicts, and important personalities. Your subscription to The Economist Magazine includes free access to the Economist's web edition and archives! (magazineline.com)

The Economist is published weekly by The Economist Group who also publishes European Voice and Roll Call –“the magazine of Capitol Hill.” Originally started in 1843 and employing many famous editors throughout the years, The Economist is known for its staunch viewpoints presented in the articles and the lack of a byline tied to most articles. The Economist is targeted at top business executives as well as leaders and political figures worldwide.

Published in magazine format, The Economist is actually regarded by many as a newspaper due to its ability to feature many articles in each issue all presenting pressing issues. Topics range from reports of individual countries as well as international business news, new releases in the arts and technology. From national disasters to elections in Japan, as well as international education, business and human rights and Swiss private banks you’ll find all the issues affecting our business and economy today.

The Economist brings you an international perspective for some of the most important topics that are being discussed today and helps you gain an informed viewpoint and get involved. (Magazines.com)

Read The Economist, August 9, 2008 Online

Online HTML Edition.

Speaking truth to power
Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s example—and the heirs who failed him

GEORGE KENNAN, the dean of American diplomats, called “The Gulag Archipelago”, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s account of Stalin’s terror, “the most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be levied in modern times”. By bearing witness, Solzhenitsyn certainly did as much as any artist could to bring down the Soviet system, a monstrosity that crushed millions of lives. His courage earned him imprisonment and exile.

But his death on August 3rd (see article) prompts a question. Who today speaks truth to power—not only in authoritarian or semi-free countries such as Russia and China but in the West as well? ...

About Alexandr Solzhenitsyn:

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (December 11, 1918 – August 3, 2008) was a Russian novelist, dramatist and historian. Through his writings, he made the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's labour camp system, and for these efforts, Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. He returned to Russia in 1994. He was the father of Ignat Solzhenitsyn, a conductor and pianist. He died at home after years of declining health on August 3, 2008. (Wikipedia.org)

Autobiography by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn:

I was born at Kislovodsk on 11th December, 1918. My father had studied philological subjects at Moscow University, but did not complete his studies, as he enlisted as a volunteer when war broke out in 1914. He became an artillery officer on the German front, fought throughout the war and died in the summer of 1918, six months before I was born. I was brought up by my mother, who worked as a shorthand-typist, in the town of Rostov on the Don, where I spent the whole of my childhood and youth, leaving the grammar school there in 1936. Even as a child, without any prompting from others, I wanted to be a writer and, indeed, I turned out a good deal of the usual juvenilia. In the 1930s, I tried to get my writings published but I could not find anyone willing to accept my manuscripts. I wanted to acquire a literary education, but in Rostov such an education that would suit my wishes was not to be obtained.

To move to Moscow was not possible, partly because my mother was alone and in poor health, and partly because of our modest circumstances. I therefore began to study at the Department of Mathematics at Rostov University, where it proved that I had considerable aptitude for mathematics. But although I found it easy to learn this subject, I did not feel that I wished to devote my whole life to it. Nevertheless, it was to play a beneficial role in my destiny later on, and on at least two occasions, it rescued me from death. For I would probably not have survived the eight years in camps if I had not, as a mathematician, been transferred to a so-called sharashia, where I spent four years; and later, during my exile, I was allowed to teach mathematics and physics, which helped to ease my existence and made it possible for me to write. If I had had a literary education it is quite likely that I should not have survived these ordeals but would instead have been subjected to even greater pressures. Later on, it is true, I began to get some literary education as well; this was from 1939 to 1941, during which time, along with university studies in physics and mathematics, I also studied by correspondence at the Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature in Moscow. ...

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1968-1980, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993

This autobiography/biography was first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

About The Economist Magazine:

The Economist Magazine, a weekly news and business publication written for top business decision-makers and opinion leaders who need a wide range of information and views on world events. It explores the close ties between domestic and international issues, business, finance, current affairs, science and technology.

According to its contents page, its goal is "to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress." Subjects covered include international news, economics, politics, business, finance, science and technology and the arts.

The publication is targeted at the high-end "prestige" segment of the market and counts among its audience influential business and government decision-makers.

Although The Economist calls itself a newspaper, it is printed in magazine form on glossy paper, like a newsmagazine.

The Economist belongs to The Economist Group. The publication interests of the group include the CFO brand family as well as European Voice and Roll Call (known as "the Newspaper of Capitol Hill"). Another part of the group is The Economist Intelligence Unit, a research and advisory company providing country, industry and management analysis worldwide. Since 1928, half the shares of The Economist Group have been owned by the Financial Times, a subsidiary of Pearson PLC, and the other half by a group of independent shareholders, including many members of the staff. The editor's independence is guaranteed by the existence of a board of trustees, which formally appoints him and without whose permission he cannot be removed.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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