Solzhenitsyn is one author who changed my life. Before him I was a relatively harmless typical liberal Californian who grew up in the 60s. Then I read “A Day in the Life...”, Cancer Ward the Gulag Archipelago, and August 1914. Couldn’t be liberal any more. Finally saw the horror of Communism for what it really was. As you say, he wrote like a Russian, but he spoke to me. One of the great writers of the 20th century in my opinion. I regret not thanking him somehow for opening my mind.
And whereas Solzhenitsyn was banned in the Soviet Union, today he is required reading in Russian schools.