Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, RIP

A hero of mine died on Sunday. He was a Russian writer who was imprisoned in the Gulags (Soviet slave-labor camps) for criticizing Stalin in the 1940s. During his 8 years in prison and many years later in exile, he converted to Catholicism. He used to write on small scraps of paper, memorize them and throw them away (like everything else, writing in the Soviet labor camps was illegal). He wrote entire books and memorized them for later. He even once destroyed an entire manuscript while in exile to keep it from being discovered by the police. He rewrote it after.

Can you imagine understanding your vocation like that? His books were later published in the West, making him one of the very few people with the courage to tell the world about the atrocities of Soviet Russia.

His novel, Cancer Ward, is one of the greatest novels I ever read, so beautiful. The last chapter is the best last chapter in the world.

I always thought of him as lion-like--fierce and noble and willing to say what is true despite all. Maybe it's the beard.

If you are curious about him, this is a nice article:
http://cusack.norumbega.co.uk/2008/08/03/alexander-solzhenitsyn/