его/свои

[pimlicodude]

From Solzhenitsyn:

А когда он (Сахаров) пытался поднять тему (отказников) пошире, – простодушно рассказывал он мне, не понимая всего кричащего смысла, – академик Гельфанд ответил ему: «Мы устали помогать этому народу решать его проблемы»

Shouldn't this be свои?

 

[Vovan]

No, "свои" would rather refer to the speaker's problems (however logically ridiculous/unbelievable that might be).

 

[pimlicodude]

No, "свои" would rather refer to the speaker's problems (however logically ridiculous/unbelievable that might be).

Very odd, because the speaker (a реаниматор, emergency care doctor, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences) was himself Jewish...

 

[Awwal12]

From Solzhenitsyn:

Shouldn't this be свои?

The controller of the reflexives is, by default, the subject (though there may be some exceptions in Russian), which in this case would be "мы" (> "our problems").

 

[Vovan]

Very odd, because the speaker (a реаниматор, emergency care doctor, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences) was himself Jewish...

Well, not all refuseniks were Jewish, and that's precisely what Sakharov meant to say ("поднять тему пошире").
By "этому народу", Gelfand meant Soviet people.

 

[pimlicodude]

Well, not all refuseniks were Jewish, and that's precisely what Sakharov meant to say ("поднять тему пошире").
By "этому народу", Gelfand meant Soviet people.

Thank you. I didn't realise that the Soviet people were intended. It makes more sense now.

 

[Rosett]

Well, not all refuseniks were Jewish, and that's precisely what Sakharov meant to say ("поднять тему пошире").
By "этому народу", Gelfand meant Soviet people.

«Этому народу» означает «советскому народу за исключением советских евреев».