As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn embarked on a slow train journey across Russia with his family, one of the few journalists with whom he spoke was TIME senior correspondent David Aikman, who had interviewed the Russian writer in Vermont in 1989. During their conversations, Aikman made the following notes on Solzhenitsyn's thoughts about his return home.
ON THE CONDITION OF RUSSIA: I have discovered with some satisfaction that people's moods do not seem to be as pessimistic and apathetic as I might have expected after observing them from the West. On the contrary, many people have preserved a great intensity, a desire to...
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