Solzhenitsyn took a lot of criticism in the 80s for being a reactionary. He believed that religion was the primary determinant of a civilization, he says. Do you think he was at anti-Semite? I've heard that claim. No, he was not. That's a really spurious charge.
Historian and author Stephen Kotkin of Princeton University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the historical significance of the life and work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Solzhenitsyn's birth.