Russian commentators determinedly overlook The Gulag Archipelago’s Estonian connection. Solzhenitsyn wrote a large part of its manuscript in Estonia, and the original manuscript was hidden for years in the farmhouse of Estonian friends, to keep it safe from the KGB. The Estonian link was formed by a follow-prisoner, Arnold Susi, who befriended Solzhenitsyn in prison. Susi had been a lawyer in pre-War Estonia and was appointed Minister of Education in the 1944 Estonian government that was established in the brief period between the end of the German occupation and the re-establishment of the Soviet occupation. Soviet “liberators” arrested every one of its members they could find, including Susi. Solzhenitsyn writes the following about Susi in The Gulag Archipelago: “He breathed a completely different sort of air (to Solzhenitsyn’s Soviet orientations), and he talked to me enthusiastically about his own world, and that world was Estonia and democracy. And although it had never occurred to me before to take an interest in Estonia – still less in bourgeois democracy – I listened and listened to his loving stories about the twenty free years of that reticent, hard-working, small nation of big men with their slow, solid ways. I listened to the principles of the Estonian constitution drawn from the best European experience and how it had been worked out by their single chamber parliament of a hundred deputies. And although I didn’t know why, I began to be attracted by it all and to store it all away as part of my experience.” It is ironic that Russia, which latterly proclaims that it agreed with Solzhenitsyn all along, still demonizes the country that provided both the initial inspiration to their latterly-found hero, and which physically preserved the manuscript of his work.

Solzhenitsyn has lived a determined life and using his name, or some of the opinions of his modern and past interpreters - is but a tool and a ploy to advance the goals that were not his. Being a life-long admirer of his life, being among the first to have read a samizdat copy of his 'GULag Archipelago' that produced an effect of an exploded shell inside my head, resulting for all of my family life paths so radically different and breathtakingly new - I am raising my voice in support of those who would choose to not to use Solzhenitsyn's name and memory for any personal advancement, right or wrong. Let's remember - he drew the lines for the countless who were scared to death and intimidated into silence and lackeying, he marked the uncharted historical and ethical territories and taught us to think and base our conclusions on the known facts, he insisted on developing the skills of learning and independent information acquisition; he taught those willing to be patient, to be wise, kind, and loving. He taught memory and forgiveness, exactly according to the Russian proverb that states: 'He who will not forgive - may one eye be taken out; he who will forget - may two eyes be taken out.' Severe, true, and fair. He taught me my ethical principals that I am proud to follow as much as I can - Do What Is Right and Fear No Man. His courage, ability to take a punch, his Faith and loyalty to justice - are the life-long inspiration to the countless vulnerable and uniquely singular individuals. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was 'dobriy', not 'dobrenkiy'. Memory Eternal!