But it turns out that this episode probably never happened to Solzhenitsyn at all, and according to a Solzhenitsyn biographer it appears nowhere in his published writing. Columbia University professor Michael Scammell, the author of
Solzhenitsyn: A Biography, says the episode "never happened," and didn't appear in Solzhenitsyn's book,
Gulag Archipelago, either.
One key source being cited on the internets right now for the story that this supposedly happened to Solzhenitsyn is this sermon by Luke Veronis, an American priest who preached it in Albania in March of 1997. It was reprinted in a journal called In communion.
He says Veronis' telling of the tale doesn't fit with what actually happened to Solzhenitsyn "in any way."
"Nobody who's read Gulag Archipelago knows that story,"
This never happened to Solzhenitsyn, and there's no way McCain could have picked it up from his works.
clipped from: tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com