Two readings of a book by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This article offers two critical readings of the first volume of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's *Two Hundred Years Together*, devoted to relations between Jews and Russians from 1795 to the revolution of 1917. Sister Cécile Rastoin and Father Jean Roberti each provide an independent review of this ambitious historical essay. The former analyzes Solzhenitsyn's approach, which aims to impartially retrace the Jewish presence in Russia — from its origins to the pogroms and the revolution — while identifying the "Great Russian" lens that shapes his interpretation. The latter finds the work disappointing from a historiographical standpoint: an accumulation of quotations, a lack of analytical distance, limited sources, and above all, the near-total absence of the Orthodox Church, whose role in Judeo-Russian relations would have required thorough treatment. The article thus highlights the ecclesiological and methodological shortcomings of a work that, despite its documentary richness, fails to offer a fully satisfactory historical synthesis.