Alexandr SOLZHENITZIN (Rest In Peace) is not among us any more!

I think the same thing these days as I have always thought. I think he was a courageous and brilliant man. I think that the world is very fortunate that he survived his travails and was capable of elucidating them in a broad and insightful way so that the rest of us could learn from his experiences and his analysis of them. I regret his passing but I am glad that he had the opportunity to live for many years peacefully. His work will certainly live on long beyond him, and I doubt he would have wished for more. Still, I mourn him.

Great answers, all. And yes, we Russians--well, I'm only part-- are complex and mysterious. But Einstein was right--the mysterious is beautiful :)

He was such an inspiration. He opened peoples' eyes to so many critical issues, and he's way up on my list of favourite Russians, alongside Dostoevsky. He, coupled with a few other brilliant minds, was instrumental in my campaign against prescribed thought, and really inspires people to be curious and live a life based in curious self-awareness.

It was interesting that Putin seemed so friendly with a man who was haunted by the secret police, since he started his career with the KGB; but I read that he and Putin had grown closer? Strange.

Anyway, he lived a long, full life, had a wife and three (I think?) sons, and won a Nobel...what more could you want from life? :)

May he rest in peace.

Oh wow, I missed that he passed away over the weekend!

I can't say much really, my mother read his work, but I can't say I did. However, I do remember that I learned about the Gulag and what it was by listening to her talk about the book to my dad when I was a child (in the 1970s). That's also how I found out who he was (plus seeing his books in the house. I was young and I was not into truly deep material back then.

May he rest in Peace.