A Letter From The Publisher, Feb. 18, 1980

"Alexander Solzhenitsyn was one man who certainly was not surprised by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan last December," says Associate Editor Patricia Blake.

"For years he has predicted that country after country would continue to fall victim to Moscow's imperialism." In this period of increasing strain in U.S.-Soviet relations and world condemnation of the Afghanistan invasion, TIME sought the views of Russia's most famous living author. Blake, an acquaintance of Solzhenitsyn's and a scholar, translator and editor of Soviet literature, was an appropriate emissary. The result, which appears in this week's World section: Solzhenitsyn's stern warning to the Western world about the threats posed by Communism. Blake is well versed in the views of the man who, she says, "remains, even in exile, the most powerful and resonant voice speaking for the oppressed peoples of the Soviet Union." For several years, Blake has been preparing a biography of the writer, or as she describes it, "a selective history of Russia with Solzhenitsyn as the central figure." Moreover, since joining TIME in 1968, she has turned out more than 50 articles on the novelist, ranging in length from a 1974 cover story on his deportation from the Soviet Union to a 1972 translation of his little known 14-line prayer in verse. She also was greatly responsible for the 1969 publication in TIME of Solzhenitsyn's The Easter Procession, a short story that had never previously appeared in English. Blake did not meet her favorite author until 1974, when she interviewed him in Zurich, an early stop in Solzhenitsyn's exile. Recalls Blake: "He was unexpectedly approachable, despite the fact that he was agonized by the ordeal of his expulsion." Invited to revisit the author at his home in Cavendish, Vt., Blake found him "more robust, infinitely more at ease, though he remains profoundly attached to his homeland. Even the 50-acre property on which he spends his days has the distinctive wild look of his beloved Russia."

Paul Keating, a freelance photographer whose pictures have appeared in TIME for more than six years—often, and as recently as last week, on this page—died last week at 27. He was fatally shot while going to the aid of a mugging victim on a New York City street, an act that was typical of his generosity. "Paul was a shy, kind and sensitive man," says Picture Editor Arnold Drapkin. "You could give him almost any assignment, but he was particularly good at putting subjects at ease and capturing their distinctive spirit." TIME and its readers have lost a talented photographer and a courageous friend.