By Lubna Abdel-Aziz He was an inspiration to all men who cherished freedom everywhere. Confined physically to a world of oppression, his heart, mind and spirit remained independent, unrestrained and untouched by the persecution of despots and autocrats. My whole generation looked up to him though we had never seen him, never heard him, never looked into his eyes. We never even wondered about his features. Was he tall, short, slender, stout, fragile, robust? Did he smile, did he frown, did he weep? Yes he did! Perhaps audibly, perhaps silently. Perhaps the tears flowed on his face, or perhaps they stayed deep in his heart, unable to rise and gather in his eyes. But he did weep and we too wept with him in shame and horror. His chilling words carried by the sweeping winds to the free world broke every heart, seared every eye. He was the 1970 Nobel Laureate , the dauntless Russian dissident who singlehandedly waged war against a super- power with the only tool in his possession -- his words. Solzhenitsyn died at his home near Moscow August 3rd, of either a heart attack or a stroke. He was 89. It was almost a century ago that Alexander was born (December 11, 1918) against the bleak backdrop of the Russian Civil War. He was raised by his widowed mother having lost his father in an accident before his birth. Growing up in a family of Cossack intellectuals, he joined the University of Rostov-na-Dona, graduated in mathematics, then joined the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History before the onslaught of WW-II. He served as A Soviet artillery officer in the Red army and was decorated for his courage. Disillusioned with the inhuman Stalinist regime, he expressed his concerns in a letter to a friend. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested and found guilty of anti-Soviet propaganda. He spent the next 8 years in the Soviet prison system, known as the Gulag. In his autobiography he writes: "I served the first part of my sentence in several correctional work camps....I worked as a miner, a bricklayer and a foundryman..." When it was time for his release after serving his full term of an eight-year sentence Solzhenitsyn discovered, that without any new judgement, and even without a resolution from the OSO (Special Committee of NKVD), he was not to be released, but to be exiled for life to Kok- Terek in Southern Kazakhstan. Throughout his years was engaged in writing. "Even as a child, without any prompting from others I wanted to be a writer, and indeed I turned out a good deal of the usual juvenilia." But the "usual juvenilia" soon developed into a masterful account of the inhuman communist practices of Stalin's totalitarian regime. In 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, an explosive account of the labour camps in his homeland. It made him a celebrity during the post-Stalin political thaw. Phillip Larmett described it as "the single book which showed me the power of literature," and how it can change the world. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970, and his first volume of the Gulag Archipelago was published in 1974. He was immediately stripped of his citizenship and expelled from his homeland. Unable to accept his biting criticism, Leonid Brezhnev sent to exile the Nobel Laureate of the Soviet Union. The Gulag Archipelago was a most damning account of the vast network of Soviet labor camps. So corrosive and irrefutable its influence, it is thought to have been the first seeds that caused the Soviet collapse. No longer was there any doubt in or out of Russia, of the rotten system and the cruel despotism of its leaders. It was the coming of Mikhail Gorbachev that paved the way for Alexander to go back home to his native Russia. Said Gorbachev: "He was one of the first to talk about the inhumane Stalinist regime and about the people who experienced it, but were not broken." His works changed the consciousness of millions of people especially within Russia and the communist world. During his 20 years in exile, Solzhenitsyn settled in the verdant state of Vermont, USA. Unable to harbour lies, Solzhenitsyn must speak the truth, and so he did. He expressed frankly his reservations of, and disillusion with the ways of the West! Where was that romantic view of a free and happy democracy? He condemned what he saw as America's moral laxity. He chose to engage as little as possible with the ways of the country that granted him exile. He was a "beacon of integrity for those who cared to subject their country to an honest accounting." He remained deeply tied to his mother Russia, although he did not return immediately upon the collapse of the USSR in 1992, unlike other exiles. The Boris Yeltsin brand of democracy did not appeal to him. He did return 2 years later. What a dramatic affair it was, as the world watched the hero return to his native land. Yet eyebrows were raised when in 2007 Solzhenitsyn, a former Gulag inmate, was offered flowers from former KGB officer. Putin who also awarded him the State Prize of the Russian Federation for humanitarian achievements. In an article entitled Live not by Lies, Solzhenitsyn insists that the most accessible key to liberation is the non-participation in lies. Apart from essays and interviews, his last major work was Two Hundred Years Together, which examined the position of Jews in Russian society and their role in The Revolution. "Adamant, uncompromising and severe in his judgment," he condemned both East and West for the abuses of man against mankind. He knew the Soviet system was doomed, but found many faults in democracy as well. Did he have any thoughts about Guantanamo, the Iraq war, the Bush years? A vigorous young Solzhenitsyn would have had much to say. He died quietly at 89, before he saw the hundreds of tanks march into Georgia, reminiscent of the early days of the ruthless Russian style of wielding power over a weaker neighbour. We shall soon find out if his legacy will produce others like him who possess the same calibre of Solzhenitsyn courage, that would speak the truth and stand up against the tyranny of injustice. While he was spared that final blow, history will single him out as a great man of courage. Though lies conceal everything, though lies embrace everything, they will not get any help from me! -- (1918 -- 2008)
