The year 2008 saw the death of one of the towering figures of the twentieth century, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. More than any other single man, Solzhenitsyn helped morally delegitimize what had seemed the unchallengeable monolith that was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. His life is a standing example and inspiration to those American academics and intellectuals who hesitate to speak out against political correctness and campus leftism, or who feel their struggle against them is hopeless. In addition to his world importance and the example he gives, the author has personal reasons for remembering Solzhenitsyn. In this article, the author describes how Solzhenitsyn had been her portal into history, by which she means that through reading his book, "The Gulag Archipelago," she began to grasp more clearly that there is something called history, which living people make and in which living people partake.