Rice hails 'moral witness' Solzhenitsyn

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a statement Monday paid tribute to Russia's late Alexander Solzhenitsyn as "great writer and a moral witness."

"We are saddened by the death of Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and express our condolences to his surviving wife and sons," Rice said.

"Solzhenitsyn was a great writer and a moral witness bringing the evils of the gulag to the attention of the world," she said.

"His brave and arduous life's journey, which included surviving the gulag, internal and external exile, made him one of the 20th century's most important voices in the struggle against the tyranny of totalitarian regimes."

Solzhenitsyn died at his Moscow home late Sunday at the age of 89.

© 2008 AFP