This brief paper, published as an Acton Institute Occasional Paper, provides an introduction to Ericson's larger work of the same title. As a simple text then, it argues that Solzhenitsyn has been misunderstood, and outright misrepresented, in the west, and that he must be understood on his own terms, as a moral writer rather than a political one. With some great citations, this text based on a lecture is a helpful starting place for anyone looking to understand one of the greatest writers and Christian thinkers of the 20th century. ( )

If I were to identify the principal trait of the entire twentieth century, I would repeat once again: 'men have forgotten God."