High on the honor roll of those who helped bring down the Soviet empire is the name of Leszek Kolakowski

National Review, Dec 8, 2003

* High on the honor roll of those who helped bring down the Soviet empire is the name of Leszek Kolakowski. An academic philosopher by trade, Kolakowski was expelled from his teaching post at Warsaw University in 1968 for heresies against Marxist dogma. He went into exile in Britain, where he wrote the three-volume classic Main Currents of Marxism, a thoroughgoing and profound demolition of what he called "the greatest fantasy of our century." When the Solidarity movement came up in the 1980s, Kolakowski worked tirelessly in its behalf; one Solidarity leader described him as "the awakener of human hopes." Kolakowski went on to write 30 books on philosophy, history, and religion, and is still writing today.

On November 5, at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress, Kolakowski became the first recipient of the Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the social sciences and humanities. The million-dollar award is intended to honor those who advance our understanding of politics and human society; to honor them, that is, in the same way, and on the same scale, that the Nobel prizes honor achievement in physics, economics, and so on. A worthier first recipient could hardly have been found.