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Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Soviet and Russian author and dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag prison system. He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature". His nonfiction work The Gulag Archipelago "amounted…
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culture · Soviet-Russian author and dissident (1918–2008) · writer · historian · novelist · screenwriter · playwright · poet · public figure · prose writer · opinion journalist · school teacher · also Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, Solzhenitsyn
Born 11 December 1918 · Died 3 August 2008 · Q34474
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“But members of the U.S. antiwar movement wound up being involved in the betrayal of Far Eastern nations, in a genocide and in the suffering today imposed on 30 million people there. Do those convinced pacifists hear the moans coming from there?”
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“the very concept of a people loses all meaning.”
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“Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia:”
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“There is nothing that so assists the awakening of omniscience within us as insistent thoughts about one”
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Died 2008-08-03.
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Awarded International Botev Prize (2008).
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Awarded honorary doctor of Syracuse University (2008).
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“Macbeth’s self-justifications were feeble – and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago was a little lamb too. The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespeare’s evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology.”
“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”
“Deixe que a mentira venha ao mundo, mas não através de mim.”
Solzhenitsyn praised Putin, saying Russia was rediscovering what it meant to be Russian
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“Zachód pielęgnował legendę, że pod rządami Borysa Jelcyna w Rosji nastała demokracja. Gdy Jelcyn ustąpił, prezydent USA Bill Clinton mianował go jeszcze ojcem rosyjskiej demokracji. W wielu krajach nawet aktualnie urzędujących prezydentów stawia się za przestępstwa przed sądem. Tymczasem u nas były prezydent jest nietykalny.”
“Opis: o Rosji z początku lat dziewięćdziesiątych.”
“System u nas panujący (…) żąda od nas pełnego oddania własnej duszy…”
“NATO otworzyło nową epokę – jak niegdyś Hitler, który opuścił Ligę Narodów, a następnie rozpoczął drugą wojnę światową.”
“NATO nieustannie wzmacnia swą wojskową maszynerię i okrąża Rosję. Chce pozbawić ją suwerenności.”
“In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.”
Awarded State Prize of the Russian Federation (2007).
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Solzhenitsyn accused NATO of trying to bring Russia under its control; he stated that this was visible because of its "ideological support for the 'colour revolutions' and the paradoxical forcing of North Atlantic intere
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“We are exiting from communism in a most unfortunate and awkward way. It would have been difficult to design a path out of communism worse than the one that has been followed.”
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Solzhenitsyn published a two-volume work on the history of Russian-Jewish relations (Two Hundred Years Together 2001, 2002)
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Won Lomonosov Gold Medal (1998).
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It was the country's low point, with people in misery;
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Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov made a four-part television documentary, Besedy s Solzhenitsynym (The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn)
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Solzhenitsyn spoke about his admiration for the local self-government he had witnessed first hand in Switzerland and New England
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In Komsomolskaya Pravda, Solzhenitsyn urged the Soviet Union to grant independence to all the non-Slav republics, which he claimed were sapping the Russian nation and he called for the creation of a new Slavic state brin
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His Soviet citizenship was restored, and, in 1994, he returned to Russia with his wife, Natalia, who had become a United States citizen
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Met Margaret Thatcher and told her "the German army could have liberated the Soviet Union from Communism but Hitler was stupid and did not use this weapon"
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Argued that the United States had declined in terms of its "spiritual life" and called for a "spiritual upsurge"
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And on 8 June 1978 he gave a commencement address, condemning, among other things, the press, the lack of spirituality and traditional values, and the anthropocentrism of Western culture
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To Vermont in the United States with his family
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Awarded The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism (1974).
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Was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and flown to West Germany
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Solzhenitsyn married his second wife, Natalia Dmitrievna Svetlova, a mathematician who had a son, Dmitri Turin, from a brief prior marriage
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Another manuscript written by Solzhenitsyn was confiscated by the KGB after his friend Elizaveta Voronyanskaya was questioned non-stop for five days until she revealed its location, according to a statement by Solzhenits
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Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature.
Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature (1970).
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Was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
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Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Union of Writers
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(an English translation of the full version was eventually published by Harper Perennial in October 2009)
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In the First Circle in 1968 and August 1914 in 1971
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The cultural climate again became more repressive
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The time for such raw, exposing works came to an end
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With the explicit approval of Nikita Khrushchev, who defended it at the presidium of the Politburo hearing on whether to allow its publication, and added: "There's a Stalinist in each of you; there's even a Stalinist in
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Published his first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich—an account of Stalinist repressions—with approval from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
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Aged 42, Solzhenitsyn approached Aleksandr Tvardovsky, a poet and the chief editor of the Novy Mir magazine, with the manuscript of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
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Career landmark: rehabilitation.
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Solzhenitsyn was freed from exile and exonerated
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Solzhenitsyn was permitted to be treated in a hospital in Tashkent, where his tumor went into remission
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A year before his release because the wives of Gulag prisoners faced the loss of work or residence permits
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Solzhenitsyn was sent to a "Special Camp" for political prisoners
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Awarded Order of the Red Star (1944).
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Studied at Rostov State University (1936–1941).
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Born 1918-12-11.
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Caused dozens of problems in the Soviet Union
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