Alexander Solzhenitsyn—the writer, exiled political prisoner and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, who was not only one of the fiercest opponents of Soviet despotism but also deeply critical of the policies of the Western bloc in his own time—draws for us a picture of Soviet society under despotism that will be familiar to any society living under authoritarian rule.

Solzhenitsyn is presented here as writing that the most painful aspect of the humiliation of truth in such a society is this:
They know that they are lying.
We also know that they are lying.
They know that we know
that they are lying.
And we know that they know
that we know they are lying.

In his view, the first step for courageous individuals in any society is refusing to surrender before this lie, and speaking and repeating the truth, because sometimes one drop of truth can destroy an ocean of lies.

Aydin Areta