Many many moons ago I read the Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn and vaguely I

remember his analysis on the psychological reason and impact of the huge

palaces and other buildings erected during the Tsarist and Bolsheviks eras .From shetchy

memory I think he posited that these buildings with their magnificence were erected with

purpose of overawing the populace to the point where they [the people] saw themselves

as miniatures unable to resist the status quo.

Does anyone remember this analysis ? The book is out of my library and my grandson

has stumped me with a school essay on Solzhenitsyn's analysis of Tsarist palaces.

Thanks for any imput.