Solzhenitsyn Honored by Ex-KGB Thug
In 1994, Alexander Solzhenitsyn "refused to accept a high state award from then-President Boris Yeltsin, saying he could not accept honors from a leader who brought misery to his people." Reuters reports that the Gulag Archipelago author has apparently reversed position on accepting awards from thuggish ex-party members:
"Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who berated the Soviet Union with searing tales of Stalin's labor camps, was honored by President Vladimir Putin with a state award Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
…Solzhenitsyn's wife, Natalya, told Interfax that her husband viewed the award as a sign that his life's work had been noticed. "It gives a certain hope, and Alexander Isayevich would be glad if this hope really was fulfilled in life, hope that our country will learn from the lessons of destroying itself in the 20th century and never repeat it," she said
Solzhenitsyn, a tireless defender of free speech, apparently missed this story.
Cathy Young on Yeltsin's legacy here and the anti-Semitism of Alexander Solzhenitsyn here .