Writer Solzhenitsyn Lived in Fear After Exile

SOVIET DISSIDENT writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn (pictured) lived in fear of the KGB for years after his exile from the Soviet Union – even as the FBI was secretly watching him, newly disclosed documents reveal.

The Nobel Prize-winning author’s FBI file shows that the U.S. law enforcement agency closely, but quietly monitored Solzhenitsyn for years, knowing the discovery of its surveillance would lead to political repercussions.

Solzhenitsyn, perhaps best known for writing “The Gulag Archipelago” and “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” which chronicled the brutality of Stalin’s labor camps, died in 2008 at age 89.

The NYCity News Service obtained the FBI file under the Freedom of Information Act, which . . . → Read More: Writer Solzhenitsyn Lived in Fear After Exile

Stalin Killed Millions: Was It Genocide?

When it comes to use of the word “genocide,” public opinion has been kinder to Stalin than Hitler. But one historian looks at Stalin’s mass killings and urges that the definition of genocide be widened.

by Cynthia Haven

Mass killing is still the way a lot of governments do business.

The past few decades have seen terrifying examples in Rwanda, Cambodia, Darfur, Bosnia.

Murder on a national scale, yes – but is it genocide? “The word carries a powerful punch,” said Stanford history Professor Norman Naimark. “In international courts, it’s considered the crime of crimes.”

Nations have tugs of war over the official definition of the word “genocide” itself – which mentions . . . → Read More: Stalin Killed Millions: Was It Genocide?