<Since you have mentioned Solzhenitsyn, quite a funny story comes to mind. Once, when I was World Champion, I was invited to one small town to give a lecture and a simul. I was speaking about my salary. For instance, I said that I did not have enough money to pay my trainers, that my work as a trainer was a sinecure, etc. Suddenly one of my listeners asked me which writers I liked. I answered that one of my favourite writers was Solzhenitsyn. After the lecture I was told that just the day before the party bosses of this town had been ordered by Moscow to launch an ideological campaign against Solzhenitsyn! And, naturally, a secret report denouncing me was sent immediately to the KGB. But the most curious thing about it was that in the report he sent to Moscow the party secretary of this town did not even mention my words about Solzhenitsyn! He wrote about my complaints concerning my miserable salary, about my irresponsible attitude to work, etc. He even mentioned that I was proud of my grandfather who was a famous priest in Russia. During the lecture I said that if I had not become a chessplayer, I should have preferred to be a priest. But there was not a single word about Solzhenitsyn in this dirty letter. So great was the fear!

[...]

Bovinnik did a lot for chess. He won the World Championship, as he had promised, he gave a lot of good advice to chess players, especially mediocre players. But for me he has always remained a Bolshevik. Once I was reading his memoirs about the 30s and I came across the following sentence: <Life was difficult, collective farms had not yet become strong...>. For many years after this I wanted to ask him, <Mikhail Moiseyevich, when did collective farms become strong? And how did they become strong?> I think in this respect Karpov and Kasparov continued Botvinnik's Communist traditions.

[...]

No, I was not yet 16, and I was living in another dimension. But two years later during the junior World Championship in Antwerp I did not find anything better to ask Mr. Solovyov, who was the head of our delegation, than whether it was true that Lenin had died of syphilis. Besides, I enquired why in Belgium, where nobody studied Marxism-Leninism, people were leading a prosperous life.

[...]

I had read an interview with Botvinnik that took place in New York, long after he had stopped playing competitive chess. He said that he was still a communist, despite the changes in Russia. My theory is that he couldn't bring himself to admit that his pandering to the Soviet leadership and always following the Party line were a life long lie, based in self preservation.