This day in history: On this day in 1967, Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn took a stand against censorship by the government of the USSR, signing his name to, and mailing, 250 copies of a letter mailed to members of the Union of Soviet Writers and to editors of literary newspapers and magazines. In order to avoid the risk of anyone other than himself being blamed for the contents, he addressed each of the envelopes, in his own writing, prior to the Fourth Writers' Congress. Listing eight instances where he had been silenced by the government, he complained that his work had been "smothered, gagged, and slandered" and called on the recipients to work toward abolishing censorship and defending Union members against unjust persecution.
"Can you name any time in human history, when looking back, you believe the censors were the good guys? The censors are always pretty much the villains." Robert Kennedy Jr
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