We live in a generation that cares little for the past, which is why it is almost certainly doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. One can only imagine what the tens of millions who died horrific deaths as a result of Marxist ideology would say if they could see another generation of young people sticking their finger into the same electrical socket.

I’m not 100% sure, but Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn may have been the first Christian author I ever read. I had just started my first semester of college in the Fall of 1985, and while browsing through the library, I ran across a three-volume work titled The Gulag Archipelago. The book is about the Soviet prison camps, and since the Cold War was still hot in 1985, I was intrigued. I took the first volume to the circulation desk where the librarian proceeded to tell me in a very condescending way that I would never finish all three volumes. As much out of spite as enjoyment of the books, I did complete all three volumes. I then began to look for and read other works by the author.

Something struck me about this man who had begun his adult life as an atheist and ardent supporter of Marxism but had converted to Christianity during his time of imprisonment in the Soviet prison camps. He spoke out vociferously against the communists and the disastrous effects of their ideology on his beloved homeland. But he also warned the West of its own spiritual deadness and the effects that would have if it continued. He made everyone uncomfortable because he didn’t fit neatly into any of the ready-made categories.

I recently had the opportunity to read Joseph Pearce’s updated biography of Solzhenitsyn. The first edition was published in 1999 when Solzhenitsyn was eighty years old. The revised edition was published in 2011 to take into account the last decade of Solzhenitsyn’s life. Pearce is best know to Tolkien fans like myself for his biography of Tolkien and his books Bilbo’s Journey and Frodo’s Journey, in which he explores the deeper Christian themes in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but he has written numerous other works including biographies of G.K. Chesterton and Oscar Wilde.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on keithmathison.org—however, the link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]