And does the relative failure of Mr Solzhenitsyn's later life invalidate the history-moulding claim?

ECONOMIST: Solzhenitsyn��s Russia

But since his expulsion from Russia in 1974, Mr Solzhenitsyn's creative life has been more ambiguous and less titanic.

ECONOMIST: Solzhenitsyn��s Russia

Mr Solzhenitsyn is an old-fashioned, God-fearing romantic: anti-industrial, anti-materialist, anti-Enlightenment, and against what he sees as the deadening excesses of rationalism.

ECONOMIST: Solzhenitsyn��s Russia

Handwritten sympathies to the editor's widow from Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn were displayed at a reception afterward, at which Russia's ambassador to the UN briefly spoke.

FORBES: Remembering Paul Klebnikov

Michelangelo was the son of a local official and had the Pope for a patron, while Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn grew up fatherless and was sent by the state to prison camps.

FORBES: Thought Leaders

For a start, as befits a fine novelist himself, Mr Thomas offers a more rounded portrayal of Solzhenitsyn the man and a more measured and telling assessment of Solzhenitsyn the artist.

ECONOMIST: Solzhenitsyn��s Russia

Later came Solzhenitsyn and Rand.

NEWYORKER: No Death, No Taxes