During the failed Soviet coup he was hailed as a national hero.  
An outspoken defender of human rights, he hosted Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for four years.  With his wife, singer Galina Vishnevskaya, he left the Soviet Union in 1974 but returned without a visa in 1991.  During the failed Soviet coup he was hailed as a national hero.  Better known as a musician, he was soloist in the premieres of two Shostakovich concerti.  He has been music director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington since 1977.  For 10 points, name this legendary cellist.
An outspoken defender of human rights, he hosted Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for four years.  
Mstislav Rostropovich