So, at a public assembly of the prisoners, he sat in a front row, planning to get up and walk toward an exit, compelling a guard to kill him. But to his surprise, another prisoner sat down, blocking his exit. That unknown man leaned over and, to Solzhenitsyn’s astonishment, drew a cross on the dirt floor.

There in prison Solzhenitsyn became a Christian and was eventually set free to bear witness to the world. There is still life changing power in the cross.