Russia celebrates Defender of the Motherland Day in February, and Victory Day in May. But shouldn't Russia also celebrate an entirely different calibre of hero -- the untold thousands who passed through the horrors of the GULAG with their humanity, their kindness, their intellect, even their sense of humour and their sense of proportion intact? Surely it is these people who faced the worst that a rogue regime could do to them and survived it with good grace, who serve as a compelling model for Russian young people. Their example teaches what a regime is capable of doing when ordinary people do not take responsibility for valuing and defending their own human right, and do not insist that their rulers be held accountable for their actions. And once a land falls into such a national calamity, their example embodies the true heroism which can help a society survive that kind of outrage. People with guns and uniforms can be either heroes or tyrants, depending from whose viewpoint you consider them. But there can be no doubt about those who survived the GULAG with their humanity intact -- they are heroes, unreservedly and unambiguously, every one of them.