free variable

Many media accounts of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s recent death have rightly emphasized his remarkable literary output and his courageous opposition to one of the most tyrannical regimes the world has ever seen. However, I’ve not yet seen one that has mentioned that Solzhenitsyn also survived Stage II testicular cancer under Soviet medicine in an era when such a diagnosis was a death sentence even in the best hospitals of the free world.

You might enjoy “A World Split Apart”, Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard address. May his memory be eternal.