Aleksandr solzhenitsyn nobel prize

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was born in in Kislovodsk, Russia. He studied mathematics at Rostov University, while at the same time taking correspondence courses from the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History.

During World War II, he served as the commander of a sound-ranging battery in the Soviet Army, was involved in major action at the front, and was thrice decorated for personal heroism.

In he was arrested for criticising Stalin in private correspondence and sentenced to an eight-year term in a labour camp, to be followed by permanent internal exile.

Aleksander solzhenitsyn biography S2CID This is a two-part series on Profiles in Faith: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. One consequence of this had been the triumph of communists in South-East Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Aleksandrovna, Vera —

The experience of the camps provided him with raw material for One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which he was permitted to publish in It would remain his only major work to appear in his motherland until

Solzhenitsyn’s exile was cut short by Khrushchev’s reforms, allowing him to return from Kazakhstan to central Russia in He taught mathematics, astronomy and physics at a high school while continuing to write.

In the early s he was allowed to publish, in addition to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, only four stories, and by he was expelled from the Writers’ Union. The publication in the West of the initial version of August (the first part of The Red Wheel) and of Gulag Archipelago soon brought retaliation from the Soviet authorities.

In February , Solzhenitsyn was arrested, stripped of his Soviet citizenship, and flown against his will to Frankfurt, West Germany.

After a sojourn in Zurich, Solzhenitsyn moved to Vermont in with his wife and sons. Over the next eighteen years, spent mostly in the quiet of rural seclusion, Solzhenitsyn would complete his epic historical cycle, The Red Wheel, as well as several shorter works.

In his essays and speeches throughout the free world, he decried the weak will displayed by Western governments in the face of continuing manifestations of Communist aggression. He also warned against the dangers of encroaching materialism for East and West alike.

In May , Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returned to his native Russia via the Pacific port of Vladivostok and traveled extensively, meeting with thousands of people throughout the country.

Lech walesa Solzhenitsyn's warnings about the dangers of Communist aggression and the weakening of the moral fiber of the West were generally well received in Western conservative circles e. As a result of his experience in prison and the camps, he gradually became a philosophically minded Eastern Orthodox Christian. In a interview with Der Spiegel , Solzhenitsyn expressed disappointment that the "conflation of 'Soviet' and 'Russian'", against which he spoke so often in the s, had not passed away in the West, in the ex-socialist countries , or in the former Soviet republics. Detente, Democracy and Dictatorship.

He continued to write prodigiously, publishing Between Two Millstones, a memoir of his years in the West; Russia in Collapse, which rounded out the quadrilogy of historical essays begun with Letter to the Soviet Leaders, Rebuilding Russia and The Russian Question; eight “two-part” stories, exploring a new genre; twelve essays of literary criticism on twentieth-century writers; and, in , a work on the mutual history of the Russian and Jewish peoples in Russia, Years Together: .

In the Russian Academy of Sciences elected Solzhenitsyn as a member, and in awarded him the Russian State Prize. Meanwhile, saw the beginning of the publication of a major new volume collected works. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died in Moscow in at age

Solzhenitsyn’s other works include the novels The First Circle and Cancer Ward; his literary memoirs, The Oak and the Calf, and their addendum, The Invisible Allies; collections of plays and early works; and numerous speeches and essays, including his Nobel Lecture and his Harvard address — "A World Split Apart".

Biographies & In-Depth Studies

IN ENGLISH

The Soul and Barbed Wire: An Introduction to Solzhenitsyn
by Edward E.

Ericson Jr., & Alexis Klimoff
The account of Solzhenitsyn’s life is completely reliable (it is an extension of the authors’ essay in the Dictionary of Literary Biography) and the discussion of Solzhenitsyn’s works is lucid, accurate,and comprehensive.

Aleksandr solzhenitsyn biography Back in , the U. Neither desire nor reason Has illumined its twists and turns, But the glow of a Higher Meaning Only later to be explained. I understand the fears of both those in the Orthodox and in the Catholic Church , the wariness, the hesitation, and the fear that this is lowering the Church to the modern condition, the modern surroundings. On 9 May , it was announced that Germany had surrendered and all of Moscow broke out in celebrations with fireworks and searchlights illuminating the sky to celebrate the victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Very good for students and the reading public, and anyone curious about the full range of Solzhenitsyn’s reflection. 

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology
by Daniel J. Mahoney
An examination of the moral framework of Solzhenitsyn’s political philosophy and a foundational text of Solzhenitsyn criticism.

Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile
by Joseph Pearce
A fine general biography, well-written, with a focus on the moral and spiritual dimensions of Solzhenitsyn’s life, thought, and writing.

Solzhenitsyn: The Historical-Spiritual Destinies of Russia and the West
by Lee Congdon
A sympathetic overview of Solzhenitsyn’s life and writing, with a strong grounding in philosophical content, though overstating “anti-Western” strains in Solzhenitsyn’s thought.

The Other Solzhenitsyn: Telling the Truth about a Misunderstood Writer and Thinker
by Daniel J.

Mahoney
An insightful exploration of the philosophical, political, and moral themes in The Gulag Archipelago, The Red Wheel, and In the First Circle.

Overwriting Chaos: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Fictive Worlds
by Richard Tempest
A fascinating study focusing on the experimental and modernist innovations in Solzhenitsyn’s fiction.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Writer Who Changed History
by Margo Caulfield
A brief biography of Solzhenitsyn intended for young readers, with a thoughtful graphic design, and helpful callouts, glossary, and timeline.

Solzhenitsyn: A Biography
by Michael Scammel
An impressively researched volume, full of useful detail, but deeply skeptical of Solzhenitsyn’s mature philosophical and moral convictions.

Written from the perspective of an anti-totalitarian secular liberal fully enamored of Enlightenment values. The book grows more hostile to Solzhenitsyn as it proceeds.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life 
by D.M. Thomas
This work is indebted to Scammell’s research but is much more appreciative of Solzhenitsyn’s political judgments and religious convictions.

Well-written if quite idiosyncratic and full of attempts at Freudian analysis. 

IN FRENCH

Alexandre Soljénitsyne
by Liudmila Saraskina
Translated from the Russian, this is to date the most thorough and comprehensive biography of Solzhenitsyn.

Soljénitsyne, un destin: Portrait littéraire
by Véronique Hallereau
Part biography, part literary and philosophical reflection, it is always thoughtful and equitable in its judgments.

Le phénomène Soljénitsyne
by Georges Nivat
An excellent account of Solzhenitsyn’s two “literary cathedrals” (Gulag Archipelago and Red Wheel) and the tensions between the writer and fighter (“lutteur”) in Solzhenitsyn’s life and soul.

Additional Resources

Editor's Introduction to The Solzhenitsyn Reader
by Edward E.

Ericson, Jr. & Daniel J. Mahoney

Dictionary of Literary Biography
by Edward E. Ericson, Jr. & Alexis Klimoff

Encyclopædia Brittanica Biography of Solzhenitsyn