RE: Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

As I said before, my exposure to Solzhenitsyn's works are limited. At Interlochen I read the speech he gave at Harvard, ironically, in my Political Philosophy class. This was my first experience with Solzhenitsyn, and I remember being stunned by him, especially by his deep spirituality. At the end of our final exam, there were a series of questions that didn't count for anything asking our opinion of the philosophers we read, wondering which we found the most interesting, who we agreed with, disagreed with, would like to speak to in person, and so on. I believe I wrote Solzhenitsyn's name several times, since I found him the one of the most interesting, and found myself agreeing with him the most.
I came across Solzhenitsyn again in my Russian lit class at IU with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I knew some of his life, but not in the detail that I dove into it at IU, learning of how he came to writing, of the horrors he experienced under Stalin's cruelty, and of his unique political and literary place in the world. And I'm amazed by him, of how anyone can endure the things he did and so many did, and how he held to what he believed in despite the political and social pressure and persecution. That kind of strength is to be admired and sought after.

And I thought I had interesting roommates...

As I was checking out msn.com, I noticed a news story reporting the death of Nobel winner and Russian author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. My exposure to Solzhenitsyn is mostly limited to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, one of the most interesting and insightful books I have ever read. My Russian lit teacher at Interlochen didn't have us read any of his works, mostly because there was not room in the schedule for it. On an interesting note, one of her former students ended up being the college roommate of Solzhenitsyn's son Ignat, an acclaimed pianist and conductor. Can you even imagine move-in day?