I always wonder what Ludwig Wittgenstein is doing there. He's on the right, who's on the left? One of those complete mysteries around here.
Oh, OK, Solzhenitsyn. He's OK, he's a big hero of mine. Wittgenstein was nuts.
I've done years of research on Wittgenstein, so I can't help noticing his picture. Extremely weird story altogether. He was at primary school in Linz with Adolf Hitler, they were born six days apart. Something happened between them at that school. They both spoke about a "betrayal" at school – Wittgenstein ratted someone out, he admits this. Hitler was expelled from the school for unknown reasons. He railed about being betrayed by a traitor at the school. I think it was Wittgenstein, and Hitler never forgave him…
Something along those lines. Hitler managed to seize just about the whole Wittgenstein fortune. They were virtually the Rothschilds of Austria. Wittgenstein studied aero engineering at Manchester before WW1 and helped Rutherford get radium for his early nuclear experiments. At Cambridge he was close to all the spies – Philby, Blunt, Burgess. Particularly close to Alistair Watson, one of the very worst spies, who gave all UK's submarine detection secrets to the Soviets. Also close to Alan Turning, who was decoding Enigma messages. Wittgenstein may have been one of the greatest spymasters ever. The circumstantial connections are just too dense.
Read a book called The Jew of Linz by Kimberly Cornish – this is basically his thesis. He proves that the first anti-Semitic statement Hitler made (recounted in Mein Kampf) was against Wittgenstein. He says he called this kid a bloody Jew, but the boy didn't even know he was Jewish. Kim Cornish (Australian guy) checked all the records at this school. There were a few halachic Jews, all clearly identified, and then there was one Catholic boy who didn't know his parents were actually Jewish and had converted – this was Wittgenstein.
There's more, it's a very convoluted tale, but I think this guy Cornish was on to something. No one has ever followed it up.
Wittgenstein was known to be very left, and very sympathetic with Stalin. He was offered a philosophy chair at Kazan University, Lenin's alma mater. The Soviets would never have done that, if he wasn't their guy. He chose to stay at Cambridge. Right in the middle of all the spies, he was their guru.