Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Sent to a Goulag for Free Speech

Captain in the Red Army during WW2

After witnessing the horrible conduct of the Red Army to the survivors of Berlin at the end of WW2 and being arrested for criticizing Stalin in a letter he wrote, Solzhenitsyn was sent to a gulag (prison/slave camp) for 8 years. He put his suffering down in words in various books he wrote and became an outspoken critic of Socialism and Communism and oppressive governments that limit free speech. Eventually, the Soviets forced him to leave (after the KGB tried to kill him) and he finished many of his writings after he moved to the United States in 1976 to a small town in Vermont. A huge fan of America, he had many insights that were ahead of his time as to the future of the United States. A devout Christian (after his brief stint with atheism) he foresaw a problem with American society which he outlined in his 1978 speech at Harvard University. He spent his remaining years in Russia when he moved back there in 1994 (his citizenship was restored) until his death in 2008 at age 89. He earned many awards in literature including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970.

“Should one point out that from ancient times declining courage has been considered the beginning of the end?” Valor is in you. Set it free.