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Article: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, R.I.P.(OBITUARY)(Obituary)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AFTER the fall of the Soviet Union--so thunderous, so unexpected--the bystanders wondered who had brought it about. Was it the main actors on the spot, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, pulling sometimes in tandem, more often at loggerheads? Was it Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, who rallied the willpower of the West? Was it John Paul II, who inspired the men of iron in Poland?
A case could be made for all of them, but a case could also be made for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008). Certainly Solzhenitsyn was the bravest: Gorbachev and Yeltsin were powerful insiders, Reagan and Thatcher possessed nuclear weapons, the pope led a great and ancient church. ...