Solzhenitsyn questions whether democracy would bring real freedom to Russia. "The multiparty parliamentary system is impracticable in Russia," he writes. "It has never been necessary to the prosperity and high achievements of mankind. Authoritarian regimes are not terrible in themselves--only those which are not answerable to God or their own conscience. Russia will most probably move from one authoritarian form of government to another. This will be the most natural and least painful path of development. Our present system is terrible not because it is undemocratic and based on force--a man can still live without harm to his soul under such regimes--what makes ours uniquely horrible is that it demands total surrender of the soul. What we need is not political liberation--only liberation of the soul from participation in the lie forced upon us."
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What's also interesting is that Solzhenitsyn was not necessarily an enemy of authoritarian governments. Time Magazine ran an article in 1974, as he was expelled from the Soviet Union (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943077-1,00...):
Solzhenitsyn questions whether democracy would bring real freedom to Russia. "The multiparty parliamentary system is impracticable in Russia," he writes. "It has never been necessary to the prosperity and high achievements of mankind. Authoritarian regimes are not terrible in themselves--only those which are not answerable to God or their own conscience. Russia will most probably move from one authoritarian form of government to another. This will be the most natural and least painful path of development. Our present system is terrible not because it is undemocratic and based on force--a man can still live without harm to his soul under such regimes--what makes ours uniquely horrible is that it demands total surrender of the soul. What we need is not political liberation--only liberation of the soul from participation in the lie forced upon us."