My friend Adam Michnik turns 70 today.
He is an extraordinary man—a journalist, dissident, and human rights defender. For his political work, he was imprisoned, and in the end he became one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, which defeated the communist regime in the late 1980s.
Today, Michnik is the editor-in-chief of one of Poland’s largest newspapers, *Gazeta Wyborcza*, and one of Europe’s leading public intellectuals.
Adam and I met in May 2015. We talked for three days straight, and this book grew out of those conversations.
He’s a really cool guy.
Michnik speaks Russian excellently and quotes our great classic writers with a command one could only wish every Russian had.
He loves plov (a rice pilaf dish) and calls himself an “anti-Soviet Russophile”—a wonderful definition. Every anti-Soviet Russophile is, of course, by definition a friend of Russia.
With all my heart, I wish Adam health and strength.
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