Sharansky

Natan Sharansky was a refusnik in the USSR, during the Cold War --- denied a visa to emigrate to Israel. He was put in prison for nine years. He was in a "punishment cell" --- two meter by two meters, dark cold, no warm clothes, 3 pieces of bread a day, three cups of water. He spent 405 days in such conditions. But he was resolute. Later, he was released during the Gorbachev reforms.

When President Reagan used the phrase "Evil Empire" he communicated to his comrades in prison by using talking through the toilet. They were jubilant. Someone in The West understood what was going on.

He said (on my television program Think Tank that they thought then that days of the USSR "were numbered." And so they were.