Totalitarian Valentines

Valentine's Day conjures up happy images, at least for some. For two world famous authors, however, February 14th marks the date their lives were officially threatened by totalitarian regimes:

-In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued his infamous fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie and anyone involved in the publication of The Satanic Verses. (Expect to see more on this later today)

-In 1974, Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was charged with treason by the Soviet state, just one day after his expulsion from the USSR. Under Soviet law, treason was punishable by death.