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“Sozhenitsyn has done a billion times more than anyone on this forum to oppose communism”

Really? Reagan, Thatcher, and Pope Paul come to mind and none of them ever, or would ever, support Putie as Solzi does.

I assume you meant Pope John Paul II, not Pope Paul VI. If any of these three are on this forum, I want their screen names!

Seriously, Reagan and Thatcher admired Solzhenitsyn greatly, Reagan citing him regularly. Frankly, Reagan said some foolish things about Lenin late in his term that were probably evidence of the onset of Alzheimer's.

JP II probably would had mixed feelings about Putin, and like me, he probably didn't like the long-standing Russian policy of stifling Catholic activity in the country. Solzhenitsyn is Russian Orthodox, so he probably wouldn't have much of an issue with it. Those policies started under Yeltsin (though probably not by his hand personally.)

I don't think anybody (except maybe departed A. Pole, who argued his side intelligently) would pretend that Putin is Thomas Jefferson. That doesn't make him Stalin or Napoleon, either.