Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, R.I.P.
One of the titans of 20th Century literature has died, aged 89.
Reading The Gulag Archipelago, which I picked up for 50 cents at the local library in my home town, was really the first time I started to grasp the full enormity of the horror of the Soviet Union. While Solzhenitysn in his later years transformed himself into something resembling a hardcore Russian nationalist with a nasty religious bent, most people, myself included, will remember him as a brave dissident and a writer who helped inoculate many of us against collectivist thinking.
[EDIT 08/04]
Some thoughtful comments from Ilya Somin.
Plus, BBC’s “Life in Pictures“.
And more from Hitchens.
Well, he was 89…
Beat me to the post, Vincent. I would add that the Gulag finally got him. Victory for the Communists, even if it took decades.