i had the chance a couple of ago to meet naton sheranski. stick with me. it's like a seinfeld episode. it will come together. i met with him on a trip to jerusalem. of the jewish r refusniks. during the course of this breakfast, i wanted to ask him, is true.f this story here is what i heard. i heard that when he was a refusnik, he heard of ronald reagan's speech. gulag, and he heard ronald reagan's speech where he alls out the soviet union as the evil empire, and the story had a profound impact on him, and everything in the gulag, both prisoners and alike. why? because the notion that the was calling ident something what it was was basically for them a foreshadowing of the beginning end.he when there was clarity about what was being discussed, it had impact.nd he heard that story and goes, even ssman, the story is better than that. when i had a visit with president reagan in the oval and e, he described this told president reagan this, and at that point, reagan apparently called in his staff because he to hear this ff from sheranski, probably the staffers