My New Friend

I only learned of Alexander Solzhenitsyn yesterday, when his death was announced. I have learned that he was a man who stood up against evil, and sacrificed much in the cause of righteousness and freedom. Now I need to get a copy of his book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and find out more about this great man. I never met him, but I am sure I will be able to catch up with him one day.

Doug Philips of Vision Forum writes at his blog,

“Today, Vision Forum Ministries and freedom-loving Christians all over the world mourn the death of the man most responsible for revealing the evil of the anti-Christian regime of Joseph Stalin and waging war against a machine of Marxist oppression that caused the death of tens of millions.

“Tortured and persecuted within Stalin’s death camps, Solzhenitsyn nonetheless endured, secretly authoring his greatest work, The Gulag Archipelago, on scrounged toilet paper. In the years that followed, Solzhenitsyn emerged as the single most important anti-communist voice of freedom in the world. But for Solzhenitsyn’s relentless campaign to bring the truth of Marxist tyranny to the public forefront, untold millions more might have died. During the Cold War, his message was pivotal in strengthening the resolve of the West to stand firm against Soviet oppression. In all, he would publish twenty-five books, not including plays and numerous speeches.

“Though Solzhenitsyn was a devoted Russian nationalist, he was also a grateful resident of the United States during his years in exile from his homeland. That gratitude took the form of the message of a prophet committed to helping Americans stay the course by remembering their own Christian foundations and rejecting the destructive trends of humanism and secularism. There were times at the height of the Cold War in which Solzhenitsyn — a Russian — appeared the most outspoken conscience of the West, ever reminding us of our Christian foundations and warning us of the consequences of moral weakness and lack of resolve when engaging international Marxism. For this he was often despised by the press, by pundits, and politicians.

Click here to read the rest of Doug's post, which includes an amazing quote from Solzhenitsyn's Harvard speech.