Solzhenitsyn and Russia’s Deepening War
by Bob Hickok
Bob Hickok examines Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign through Solzhenitsyn’s warnings about war, state power, and the hidden decay behind outward strength.
An article in The National Interest recently claimed that the war in Ukraine is entering a different phase. The struggle is no longer confined to trenches, ruined villages, and fortified lines. It now reaches factories, railways, refineries, depots, and power stations far inside Russia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned in his Harvard address, A World Split Apart, that modern states often mistake material strength for lasting security. A country may possess armies, weapons, and vast territory while the foundations beneath them grow steadily weaker.
Since the beginning of 2026, Ukraine has changed its military strategy. Kiev is no longer spending all its strength on attempts to break the Russian front. It has turned instead towards the factories, railways, depots, power stations, and refineries that keep the front alive. Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles can now strike targets as far as 2,000 kilometres from the battlefield, while the number of deep attacks has reportedly risen by 1,150 percent since the start of the year. Solzhenitsyn understood this form of collapse in The Red Wheel. Armies and governments do not fail only because soldiers lose battles. They fail when transport breaks down, fuel disappears, orders arrive late, and the machinery behind the soldier begins to fall apart.
