Editing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early years ===

Solzhenitsyn was born in [[Kislovodsk]] (now in [[Stavropol Krai]], Russia). His father, Isaakiy Semyonovich Solzhenitsyn, was of Russian descent, and his mother, Taisiya Zakharovna (née Shcherbak), was of Ukrainian descent.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.segodnya.ua/world/alekcandr-colzhenitsyn-chelovek-i-arkhipelah-120568.html | script-title=ru:Александр Солженицын: человек и архипелаг | language = ru |trans-title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A man and Archipelago | place = [[Ukraine|UA]] | publisher = Segodnya | date = 4 August 2008 | access-date = 14 February 2010}}</ref> Taisiya's father had risen from humble beginnings to become a wealthy landowner, acquiring a large estate in the [[Kuban]] region in the northern foothills of the [[Caucasus]]<ref>[[#Scammell|Scammell]], p. 30</ref> and during [[World War I]], Taisiya had gone to Moscow to study. While there she met and married Isaakiy, a young officer in the [[Imperial Russian Army]] of [[Cossacks|Cossack]] origin and fellow native of the Caucasus region. The family background of his parents is vividly brought to life in the opening chapters of ''August 1914'', and in the later ''[[The Red Wheel|Red Wheel]]'' novels.<ref>[[#Scammell|Scammell]], pp. 26–30</ref>

In 1918, Taisiya became pregnant with Aleksandr. On 15 June, shortly after her pregnancy was confirmed, Isaakiy was killed in a hunting accident. Aleksandr was raised by his widowed mother and his aunt in lowly circumstances.  His earliest years coincided with the [[Russian Civil War]]. By 1930 the family property had been turned into a [[kolkhoz|collective farm]]. Later, Solzhenitsyn recalled that his mother had fought for survival and that they had to keep his father's background in the old Imperial Army a secret. His educated mother encouraged his literary and scientific learnings and raised him in the [[Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodox]] faith;<ref>O'Neil, Patrick M. (2004) ''Great world writers: 20th century'', p. 1400. Marshall Cavendish, {{ISBN|978-0-7614-7478-4}}</ref><ref>[[#Scammell|Scammell]], pp. 25–59</ref> she died in 1944 having never remarried.<ref>[[#Scammell|Scammell]], p. 129</ref>

As early as 1936, Solzhenitsyn began developing the characters and concepts for planned epic work on World War I and the [[Russian Revolution]]. This eventually led to the novel ''August 1914''; some of the chapters he wrote then still survive.{{citation needed| date= May 2011}} Solzhenitsyn studied mathematics and physics at [[Southern Federal University|Rostov State University]]. At the same time, he took correspondence courses from the {{interlanguage link|Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History|hy|Մոսկվայի փիլիսոփայության, գրականության և պատմության ինստիտուտ|pl|Moskiewski Instytut Filozofii, Literatury i Historii|ru|Московский институт философии, литературы и истории|uk|Московський інститут філософії, літератури та історії}}, which by this time were heavily ideological in scope.  As he himself makes clear, he did not question the state ideology or the superiority of the Soviet Union until he was sentenced to time in the camps.<ref>{{Citation| title = The Gulag Archipelago | chapter = Part II, Chapter 4}}</ref>

=== World War II ===

During the war, Solzhenitsyn served as the commander of a [[Artillery sound ranging|sound-ranging]] battery in the [[Red Army]],<ref>[[#Scammell|Scammell]], p. 119</ref> was involved in major action at the front, and was twice decorated.  He was awarded the [[Order of the Red Star]] on 8 July 1944 for sound-ranging two German [[Artillery battery|artillery batteries]] and adjusting [[Counter-battery fire|counterbattery fire]] onto them, resulting in their destruction.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-chelovek_nagrazhdenie19998084/|script-title=ru:Документ о награде :: Солженицын Александр Исаевич, Орден Красной Звезды|website=pamyat-naroda.ru|language=ru|trans-title=Award document : Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich, Order of the Red Star|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>

A series of writings published late in his life, including the early uncompleted novel ''Love the Revolution!'', chronicle his wartime experience and growing doubts about the moral foundations of the Soviet regime.<ref>{{Citation | last = Solzhenitsyn | first = Aleksandr Isaevich | title = Протеревши глаза: сборник (Proterevshi glaza: sbornik) | language = ru |trans-title=Proterevshi eyes: compilation | place = Moscow | publisher =  Nash dom; L'Age d'Homme | year = 1999}}</ref>

While serving as an artillery officer in [[East Prussia]], Solzhenitsyn witnessed [[Soviet war crimes#Germany|war crimes against local German civilians]] by Soviet military personnel. Of the atrocities, Solzhenitsyn wrote: "You know very well that we've come to Germany to take our revenge" for [[War crimes of the Wehrmacht|Nazi atrocities committed in the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hartmann |first1=Christian |title=Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany's War in the East, 1941–1945 |date=2013 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-163653-0 |pages=127–128}}</ref> The [[Non-combatant|noncombatants]] and the elderly were robbed of their meager possessions and [[Rape during the occupation of Germany|women and girls were gang-raped]]. A few years later, in the [[Labor camp|forced labor camp]], he memorized a poem titled "[[Prussian Nights]]" about a woman raped to death in [[East Prussia]]. In this poem, which describes the gang-rape of a Polish woman whom the [[Red Army]] soldiers mistakenly thought to be a German,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=De Zayas|first=Alfred M.|date=January 2017|title=Review: Prussian Nights|journal=The Review of Politics|volume=40|issue=1|pages=154–156|jstor=1407101}}</ref> the first-person narrator comments on the events with sarcasm and refers to the responsibility of official Soviet writers like [[Ilya Ehrenburg]].

In ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'', Solzhenitsyn wrote, "There is nothing that so assists the awakening of omniscience within us as insistent thoughts about one's own transgressions, errors, mistakes. After the difficult cycles of such ponderings over many years, whenever I mentioned the heartlessness of our highest-ranking bureaucrats, the cruelty of our executioners, I remember myself in my Captain's shoulder boards and the forward march of my battery through East Prussia, enshrouded in fire, and I say: 'So were ''we'' any better?'"<ref>Ericson, p. 266.</ref>

=== Imprisonment ===

In February 1945, while serving in East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn was arrested by [[SMERSH]] for writing derogatory comments in private letters to a friend, Nikolai Vitkevich,<ref name="isbn1-933859-57-1">[[#Ericon2008|Ericson (2008)]] p. 10</ref> about the conduct of the war by [[Joseph Stalin]], whom he called "Hozyain" ("the boss"), and "Balabos" (Yiddish rendering of Hebrew ''baal ha-bayit'' for "master of the house").<ref>[[#Moody|Moody]], p. 6</ref> He also had talks with the same friend about the need for a new organization to replace the Soviet regime.<ref>Solzhenitsyn in Confession – SFU's Summit http://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/8379/etd3261.pdf p. 26</ref>{{clarify|How did the exchange come to SMERSH attention?|date=February 2020}}

Solzhenitsyn was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda under [[Article 58]], paragraph 10 of the Soviet criminal code, and of "founding a hostile organization" under paragraph 11.<ref>[[#Scammell|Scammell]], pp. 152–154</ref><ref>{{Citation| last1 = Björkegren| first1 = Hans| last2 = Eneberg| first2 = Kaarina| year = 1973
| title = Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: A Biography| place = Henley-on-Thames| publisher = Aiden Ellis
| isbn = 978-0-85628-005-4| chapter = Introduction}}</ref> Solzhenitsyn was taken to the [[Lubyanka Building|Lubyanka]] prison in Moscow, where he was interrogated. On 9 May 1945, 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]]. From his cell in the Lubyanka, Solzhenitsyn remembered: "Above the muzzle of our window, and from all the other cells of the Lubyanka, and from all the windows of the Moscow prisons, we too, former prisoners of war and former front-line soldiers, watched the Moscow heavens, patterned with fireworks and crisscrossed with beams of searchlights. There was no rejoicing in our cells and no hugs and no kisses for us. That victory was not ours."<ref>Pearce (2011) p. 87</ref> On 7 July 1945, he was sentenced in his absence by [[Special Council of the NKVD]] to an eight-year term in a [[Labor camp|labour camp]]. This was the usual sentence for most crimes under Article 58 at the time.<ref>[[#Moody|Moody]], p. 7</ref>

The first part of Solzhenitsyn's sentence was served in several work camps; the "middle phase", as he later referred to it, was spent in a ''[[sharashka]]'' (a special scientific research facility run by Ministry of State Security), where he met [[Lev Kopelev]], upon whom he based the character of Lev Rubin in his book ''[[The First Circle]]'', published in a self-censored or "distorted" version in the West in 1968 (an English translation of the full version was eventually published by Harper Perennial in October 2009).<ref>{{Citation| last = Solzhenitsyn| first = Aleksandr I.| url = http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061479014/In_the_First_Circle/ | title = In the First Circle| publisher = Harper Collins
| isbn = 978-0-06-147901-4| date = 13 October 2009| access-date = 14 February 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140222125926/http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061479014/In_the_First_Circle/| archive-date=22 February 2014| url-status= live}}</ref> In 1950, Solzhenitsyn was sent to a "Special Camp" for political prisoners.  During his imprisonment at the camp in the town of [[Ekibastuz]] in [[Kazakhstan]], he worked as a miner, bricklayer, and foundry foreman. His experiences at Ekibastuz formed the basis for the book ''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]''.  One of his fellow political prisoners, [[Ion Moraru]], remembers that Solzhenitsyn spent some of his time at Ekibastuz writing.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.romanism.net/tag/sabia-dreptatii |title=Organizatia anti-sovietica 'Sabia Dreptatii' |language=ro |trans-title=Anti-Soviet organization 'Sword of Justice' |publisher=Romanism |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809121325/http://romanism.ro/tag/sabia-dreptatii |archive-date=9 August 2011}}</ref> While there, Solzhenitsyn had a tumor removed. His cancer was not diagnosed at the time.

In March 1953, after his sentence ended, Solzhenitsyn was sent to internal exile for life at [[Birlik, Kazakhstan|Birlik]],<ref>According to 9th MGB order of 27 December 1952 № 9 / 2-41731.</ref> a village in [[Baydibek District|Baidibek District]] of [[South Kazakhstan]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lgPwzq0M9lkC&q=solzhenitsyn+betpak+dala&pg=PT44|title=Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile|last=Pearce|first=Joseph|publisher=Ignatius Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-58617-496-5|quote=they were being exiled "in perpetuity" to the district of Kok-Terek}}</ref> His undiagnosed cancer spread until, by the end of the year, he was close to death. In 1954, Solzhenitsyn was permitted to be treated in a hospital in [[Tashkent]], where his tumor went into remission. His experiences there became the basis of his novel ''[[Cancer Ward]]'' and also found an echo in the short story "The Right Hand."

It was during this decade of imprisonment and exile that Solzhenitsyn developed the philosophical and religious positions of his later life, gradually becoming a philosophically minded Eastern Orthodox Christian as a result of his experience in prison and the camps.<ref>{{Citation| title = The Gulag Archipelago | chapter = Part IV}}</ref><ref>{{Citation| first = Daniel J.| last = Mahoney| title = Hero of a Dark Century| newspaper = National Review| date = 1 September 2008| pages = 47–50}}</ref><ref>"Beliefs" in [[#Ericon2008|Ericson (2008)]] pp. 177–205</ref> He repented for some of his actions as a Red Army captain, and in prison compared himself to the perpetrators of the Gulag. His transformation is described at some length in the fourth part of ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' ("The Soul and Barbed Wire"). The narrative poem ''The Trail'' (written without benefit of pen or paper in prison and camps between 1947 and 1952) and the 28 poems composed in prison, forced-labour camp, and exile also provide crucial material for understanding Solzhenitsyn's intellectual and spiritual odyssey during this period. These "early" works, largely unknown in the West, were published for the first time in Russian in 1999 and excerpted in English in 2006.<ref>{{Citation| last = Solzhenitsyn| year = 1999 | title = Протеревши глаза: сборник (Proterevshi glaza: sbornik) |trans-title=Proterevshi eyes compilation | place = Moscow| publisher = Nash dom – L'age d'Homme}}</ref><ref>[[#Ericson2009|Ericson (2009)]]</ref>

=== Marriages and children ===

On 7 April 1940, while at the university, Solzhenitsyn married Natalia Alekseevna Reshetovskaya.<ref>{{Citation | last = Terras | first = Victor | year = 1985 | title = Handbook of Russian Literature | page = 436 | publisher = Yale University Press | isbn = 978-0-300-04868-1}}</ref> They had just over a year of married life before he went into the army, then to the Gulag. They divorced in 1952, a year before his release because the wives of Gulag prisoners faced the loss of work or residence permits. After the end of his internal exile, they remarried in 1957,<ref>[[#Scammell|Scammell]], p. 366</ref> divorcing a second time in 1972. Reshetovskaya wrote negatively of Solzhenitsyn in her memoirs, accusing him of having affairs, and said of the relationship that "[Solzhenitsyn]'s despotism ... would crush my independence and would not permit my personality to develop."<ref>{{cite news|last=Rourke|first=Mary|date=6 June 2003|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-06-me-reshetovskaya6-story.html|title=Natalya Reshetovskaya, 84; Twice Married to Alexander Solzhenitsyn|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=13 August 2021}}</ref> In her 1974 memoir, ''Sanya: My Life with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn'', she wrote that she was "perplexed" that the West had accepted ''The Gulag Archipelago'' as "the solemn, ultimate truth", saying its significance had been "overestimated and wrongly appraised". Pointing out that the book's subtitle is "An Experiment in Literary Investigation", she said that her husband did not regard the work as "historical research, or scientific research". She contended that it was, rather, a collection of "camp folklore", containing "raw material" which her husband was planning to use in his future productions.

In 1973, Solzhenitsyn married his second wife, Natalia Dmitrievna Svetlova, a [[mathematician]] who had a son, Dmitri Turin, from a brief prior marriage.<ref>{{Citation | last = Cook | first = Bernard A | title = Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia | page = 1161 | publisher = Taylor & Francis | year = 2001 | isbn = 978-0-8153-4058-4}}</ref> He and Svetlova (born 1939) had three sons: Yermolai (1970), [[Ignat Solzhenitsyn|Ignat]] (1972), and Stepan (1973).<ref>Aikman, David. ''Great Souls: Six Who Changed a Century'', pp. 172–173. Lexington Books, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-7391-0438-5}}.</ref> Dmitri Turin died on 18 March 1994, aged 32, at his home in New York City.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://apnews.com/article/3410c0d3634abaa21e042cb3dc031fd9|title=Solzhenitsyn's Stepson Dmitri Turin Dies at Age 32|website=AP News|agency=Associated Press|date=23 March 1994|access-date=28 November 2021|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326234939/https://apnews.com/article/3410c0d3634abaa21e042cb3dc031fd9|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== After prison ===

After [[Khrushchev's Secret Speech]] in 1956, Solzhenitsyn was freed from exile and [[Rehabilitation (Soviet)|exonerated]]. Following his return from exile, Solzhenitsyn was, while teaching at a secondary school during the day, spending his nights secretly engaged in writing. In his [[Nobel Prize]] acceptance speech he wrote that "during all the years until 1961, not only was I convinced I should never see a single line of mine in print in my lifetime, but, also, I scarcely dared allow any of my close acquaintances to read anything I had written because I feared this would become known."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1970/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041204155242/http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1970/ |url-status=dead |archive-date= 4 December 2004 |year=1970 |title=Laureates |work=Literature |publisher=Nobel prize |access-date=14 February 2010 }}</ref>

In 1960, 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]]''. It was published in edited form in 1962, 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 [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] in each of you; there's even a Stalinist in me. We must root out this evil."<ref>{{Citation | last = Benno | first = Peter | year = 1965 | chapter = The Political Aspect | editor1-first = Max | editor1-last = Hayward | editor2-first = Edward L | editor2-last = Crowley | title = Soviet Literature in the 1960s | place = London | page = 191}}</ref> The book quickly sold out and became an instant hit.<ref name=Wachtel2013>{{cite journal|last=Wachtel|first=Andrew|year=2013|title=''One Day'' – Fifty years later|journal=Slavic Review|volume=72|issue=1|pages=102–117|doi=10.5612/slavicreview.72.1.0102|jstor=10.5612/slavicreview.72.1.0102|s2cid=164632244}}{{limited access}}</ref> In the 1960s, while Solzhenitsyn was publicly known to be writing ''Cancer Ward'', he was simultaneously writing ''The Gulag Archipelago''. During Khrushchev's tenure, ''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'' was studied in schools in the Soviet Union, as were three more short works of Solzhenitsyn's, including his short story "[[Matryona's Place|Matryona's Home]]", published in 1963. These would be the last of his works published in the Soviet Union until 1990.

''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]'' brought the Soviet system of prison labour to the attention of the West.  It caused as much of a sensation in the Soviet Union as it did in the West—not only by its striking realism and candour, but also because it was the first major piece of [[Russian literature|Soviet literature]] since the 1920s on a politically charged theme, written by a non-party member, indeed a man who had been to Siberia for "libelous speech" about the leaders, and yet its publication had been officially permitted. In this sense, the publication of Solzhenitsyn's story was an almost unheard of instance of free, unrestrained discussion of politics through literature. However, after Khrushchev had been ousted from power in 1964, the time for such raw, exposing works came to an end.<ref name=Wachtel2013 />

=== Later years in the Soviet Union ===
{{quote box | width = 22em | align = right
| quote = Every time when we speak about Solzhenitsyn as the enemy of the Soviet regime, this just happens to coincide with some important [international] events and we postpone the decision.
| source = — [[Andrei Kirilenko (politician)|Andrei Kirilenko]], a [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] member
}}
Solzhenitsyn made an unsuccessful attempt, with the help of Tvardovsky, to have his novel ''Cancer Ward'' legally published in the Soviet Union. This required the approval of the [[USSR Union of Writers|Union of Writers]]. Though some there appreciated it, the work was ultimately denied publication unless it was to be revised and cleaned of suspect statements and [[Anti-Sovietism|anti-Soviet]] insinuations.<ref>{{Citation | title = The Oak and the Calf| title-link = The Oak and the Calf}}</ref>

After Khrushchev's removal in 1964, the cultural climate again became more repressive. Publishing of Solzhenitsyn's work quickly stopped; as a writer, he became a non-person, and, by 1965, the [[KGB]] had seized some of his papers, including the manuscript of [[In the First Circle|''In The First Circle'']]. Meanwhile, Solzhenitsyn continued to secretly and feverishly work on the most well-known of his writings, ''The Gulag Archipelago''. The seizing of his novel manuscript first made him desperate and frightened, but gradually he realized that it had set him free from the pretenses and trappings of being an "officially acclaimed" writer, a status which had become familiar but which was becoming increasingly irrelevant.

After the KGB had confiscated Solzhenitsyn's materials in Moscow, in the years 1965 to 1967, the preparatory drafts of ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' were turned into finished typescript in hiding at his friends' homes in [[Soviet Estonia]]. Solzhenitsyn had befriended [[Arnold Susi]], a lawyer and former Minister of Education of [[Estonia]] in a [[Lubyanka Building]] prison cell. After completion, Solzhenitsyn's original handwritten script was kept hidden from the [[KGB]] in Estonia by Arnold Susi's daughter [[Heli Susi]] until the collapse of the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book|title=Art of the Baltics: The Struggle for Freedom of Artistic Expression Under the Soviets, 1945–1991|last1 =Rosenfeld|first1 =Alla| first2=Norton T | last2 = Dodge|year= 2001 | publisher = Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-3042-0|pages=55, 134 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=r73fmcC5itkC}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title = Invisible Allies| last = Solzhenitsyn| first = Aleksandr I| year = 1995| publisher = Basic Books| isbn = 978-1-887178-42-6| pages = 46–64| chapter = The Estonians| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5yYBZ35HPo4C}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1969, Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Union of Writers. In 1970, he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]. He could not receive the prize personally in [[Stockholm]] at that time, since he was afraid he would not be let back into the Soviet Union. Instead, it was suggested he should receive the prize in a special ceremony at the Swedish embassy in Moscow.  The Swedish government refused to accept this solution because such a ceremony and the ensuing media coverage might upset the Soviet Union and damage Swedish-Soviet relations. Instead, Solzhenitsyn received his prize at the 1974 ceremony after he had been expelled from the Soviet Union. In 1973, 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 Solzhenitsyn to Western reporters on September 6, 1973. According to Solzhenitsyn, "When she returned home, she hanged herself."<ref>"Woman Kills Self After Telling Police of Solzhenitsyn's Script", ''Los Angeles Times'', by Murray Seeger, September 6, 1973, p. I-1</ref>

''The Gulag Archipelago'' was composed from 1958 to 1967, and has sold over thirty million copies in thirty-five languages. It was a three-volume, seven-part work on the Soviet prison camp system, which drew from Solzhenitsyn's experiences and the testimony of 256<ref>{{citation | title = The Gulag Archipelago | chapter = Ekaterinburg: U-Faktoriia}}</ref> former prisoners and Solzhenitsyn's own research into the history of the Russian penal system.  It discusses the system's origins from the founding of the Communist regime, with [[Vladimir Lenin]] having responsibility, detailing interrogation procedures, prisoner transports, prison camp culture, prisoner uprisings and revolts such as the [[Kengir uprising]], and the practice of internal [[exile]]. [[Soviet and Communist studies]] historian and archival researcher [[Stephen G. Wheatcroft]] wrote that the book was essentially a "literary and political work", and "never claimed to place the camps in a historical or social-scientific quantitative perspective" but that in the case of qualitative estimates, Solzhenitsyn gave his high estimate as he wanted to challenge the Soviet authorities to show that "the scale of the camps was less than this."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wheatcroft|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen G. Wheatcroft|year=1996|title=The Scale and Nature of German and Soviet Repression and Mass Killings, 1930–45|url=http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/WCR-German_Soviet.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/WCR-German_Soviet.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|journal=Europe-Asia Studies|volume=48|issue=8|pages=1330|doi=10.1080/09668139608412415|jstor=152781|quote=When Solzhenitsyn wrote and distributed his Gulag Archipelago it had enormous political significance and greatly increased popular understanding of part of the repression system. But this was a literary and political work; it never claimed to place the camps in a historical or social-scientific quantitative perspective, Solzhenitsyn cited a figure of 12–15 million in the camps. But this was a figure that he hurled at the authorities as a challenge for them to show that the scale of the camps was less than this.}}</ref> Historian [[J. Arch Getty]] wrote of Solzhenitsyn's methodology that "such documentation is methodically unacceptable in other fields of history",<ref>Getty, A. ''Origins of the Great Purges''. Cambridge, N.Y.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985, p. 211 {{ISBN?}}</ref> which gives priority to vague hearsay and leads towards selective bias.<ref>Getty, J. Arch (1981). ''Origins of the Great Purges''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 211.</ref> According to journalist [[Anne Applebaum]], who has made extensive research on the Gulag, ''The Gulag Archipelago'''s rich and varied authorial voice, its unique weaving together of personal testimony, philosophical analysis, and historical investigation, and its unrelenting indictment of Communist ideology made it one of the most influential books of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book | first = Anne | last = Applebaum | year = 2007 | contribution = Foreword | publisher = Harper | series = Perennial Modern Classics | title = The Gulag Archipelago}}</ref>

[[File:RIAN archive 6624 Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Mstislav Rostropovich.jpg|thumb|Solzhenitsyn (right) and his long-time friend [[Mstislav Rostropovich]] (left) at the celebration of Solzhenitsyn's 80th birthday]]
On 8 August 1971, the KGB allegedly attempted to assassinate Solzhenitsyn using an unknown chemical agent (most likely [[ricin]]) with an experimental gel-based delivery method.<ref>{{cite book |title = The First Directorate |last = Kalugin |first = Oleg |year = 1994 |publisher = Diane |page = [https://archive.org/details/firstdirectorate00kalu/page/180 180] |isbn = 978-0-312-11426-8 |url = https://archive.org/details/firstdirectorate00kalu/page/180 }}</ref><ref>{{cite tech report | last = Carus | first = Seth | year = 1998 | title= Bioterrorism and Biocrimes | url = https://fas.org/irp/threat/cbw/carus.pdf | publisher = Federation of American Scientists |page=84 | format = PDF}}</ref> The attempt left him seriously ill, but he survived.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Toxic Politics: The Secret History of the Kremlin's Poison Laboratory – from the Special Cabinet to the Death of Litvinenko |last=Vaksberg |first=Arkadiĭ|date=2011|publisher=Praeger|isbn=978-0-313-38747-0|location=Santa Barbara, Calif|pages=130–131}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book| edition = Rev. and updated| publisher = Ignatius Press| isbn = 978-1-58617-496-5| last = Pearce| first = Joseph| title = Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile| location = San Francisco| date = 2011|page=57}}</ref>

Although ''The Gulag Archipelago'' was not published in the Soviet Union, it was extensively criticized by the Party-controlled Soviet press. An editorial in ''[[Pravda]]'' on 14 January 1974 accused Solzhenitsyn of supporting "Hitlerites" and making "excuses for the crimes of the [[Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia|Vlasovites]] and [[Banderite|Bandera gangs]]." According to the editorial, Solzhenitsyn was "choking with pathological hatred for the country where he was born and grew up, for the socialist system, and for Soviet people."<ref>{{Citation | title = Current Digest of the Soviet Press | volume = 26 | number = 2 | year = 1974 | page = 2}}</ref>

During this period, he was sheltered by the cellist [[Mstislav Rostropovich]], who suffered considerably for his support of Solzhenitsyn and was eventually forced into exile himself.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morrison|first=S.|date=1 February 2010|title=Rostropovich's Recollections|journal=Music and Letters|language=en|volume=91|issue=1|pages=83–90|doi=10.1093/ml/gcp066|s2cid=191621525|issn=0027-4224}}</ref>

=== Expulsion from the Soviet Union ===

In a discussion of its options in dealing with Solzhenitsyn, the members of the Politburo considered his arrest and imprisonment and his expulsion to a capitalist country willing to take him.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/7-january-1974-pb/ |title=The Bukovsky Archives, 7 January 1974. |access-date=6 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004224648/https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/7-january-1974-pb/ |archive-date=4 October 2016 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> Guided by KGB chief [[Yuri Andropov]], and following a statement from West German Chancellor [[Willy Brandt]] that Solzhenitsyn could live and work freely in [[West Germany]], it was decided to deport the writer directly to that country.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/7-february-1974-350-a-ov/ |title=The Bukovsky Archives, 7 February 1974, 350 A/ov. |access-date=6 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004224816/https://bukovskyarchive.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/7-february-1974-350-a-ov/ |archive-date=4 October 2016 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

=== In the West ===

[[File:De schrijver staat de pers te woord, rechts naast hem Heinrich Böll, Bestanddeelnr 927-0020.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Solzhenitsyn with [[Heinrich Böll]] in [[Kreuzau|Langenbroich]], West Germany, 1974]]

On 12 February 1974, Solzhenitsyn was arrested and deported the next day from the Soviet Union to [[Frankfurt]], West Germany and stripped of his Soviet citizenship.<ref name="NYT20080804" /> The KGB had found the manuscript for the first part of ''The Gulag Archipelago''. U.S. military attaché [[William Odom]] managed to smuggle out a large portion of Solzhenitsyn's archive, including the author's membership card for the [[Writers' Union]] and his [[World War II|Second World War]] military citations. Solzhenitsyn paid tribute to Odom's role in his memoir ''Invisible Allies'' (1995).{{cn|date=October 2024}}

In West Germany, Solzhenitsyn lived in [[Heinrich Böll]]'s house in [[Kreuzau|Langenbroich]]. He then moved to [[Zürich]], Switzerland before [[Stanford University]] invited him to stay in the United States to "facilitate your work, and to accommodate you and your family". He stayed at the [[Hoover Tower]], part of the [[Hoover Institution]], before moving to [[Cavendish, Vermont|Cavendish]], Vermont, in 1976. He was given an honorary literary degree from [[Harvard University]] in 1978 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.<ref name=harvard>{{Citation|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document060603.asp |title=A World Split Apart |series=Harvard Class Day Exercises |date=8 June 1978 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030608093915/http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document060603.asp |archive-date=8 June 2003 }}</ref>  Solzhenitsyn also received an honorary degree from the [[College of the Holy Cross]] in 1984.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Clendinen |first1=Dudley |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=1985-06-25 |title=SOLZHENITSYN SECLUDED AS WIFE BECOMES A CITIZEN |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/25/us/solzhenitsyn-secluded-as-wife-becomes-a-citizen.html |access-date=2025-01-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

On 19 September 1974, [[Yuri Andropov]] approved a large-scale operation to discredit Solzhenitsyn and his family and cut his communications with [[Soviet dissidents]]. The plan was jointly approved by [[Vladimir Kryuchkov]], [[Philipp Bobkov]], and Grigorenko (heads of First, Second and Fifth KGB Directorates).<ref name="Andrew">{{Citation | author1-link = Christopher Andrew (historian)| last1 = Andrew | first1 = Christopher | author2-link = Vasili Mitrokhin| last2 = Mitrokhin | first2 = Vasili | year = 2000 | title = The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West | publisher = Gardners Books | isbn = 978-0-14-028487-4 | pages = 416–419}}</ref> The [[Ambassadorial residence|residencies]] in [[Geneva]], [[London]], [[Paris]], [[Rome]] and other European cities participated in the operation. Among other active measures, at least three [[StB]] agents became translators and secretaries of Solzhenitsyn (one of them translated the poem ''[[Prussian Nights]]''), keeping the KGB informed regarding all contacts by Solzhenitsyn.<ref name="Andrew" />

The KGB also sponsored a series of hostile books about Solzhenitsyn, most notably a "memoir published under the name of his first wife, Natalia Reshetovskaya, but probably mostly composed by Service A", according to historian [[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]].<ref name= Andrew /> Andropov also gave an order to create "an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion between Pauk{{Efn | KGB gave Solzhenitsyn the code name ''Pauk'', which means "spider" in Russian.}} and the people around him" by feeding him rumors that the people around him were KGB agents, and deceiving him at every opportunity.  Among other things, he continually received envelopes with photographs of car crashes, brain surgery and other disturbing imagery. After the KGB harassment in [[Zürich]], Solzhenitsyn settled in [[Cavendish, Vermont]], and reduced communications with others.  His influence and [[moral authority]] for the West diminished as he became increasingly isolated and critical of Western individualism. KGB and [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] experts finally concluded that he alienated American listeners by his "reactionary views and intransigent criticism of the US way of life", so no further [[active measures]] would be required.<ref name = Andrew />

Over the next 17 years, Solzhenitsyn worked on his dramatized history of the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]], ''[[The Red Wheel]]''. By 1992, four sections had been completed and he had also written several shorter works.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

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.g. Ford administration staffers [[Dick Cheney]] and [[Donald Rumsfeld]] advocated on Solzhenitsyn's behalf for him to speak directly to President [[Gerald Ford]] about the Soviet threat),<ref>{{cite book| last1 =Mann | first1 = James | last2 = Mann | first2 = Jim | title= Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet|url=https://archive.org/details/riseofvulcanshis00mann| url-access =registration |year=2004|publisher=Penguin |isbn = 978-0-14-303489-6 | pages= [https://archive.org/details/riseofvulcanshis00mann/page/64 64]–66}}</ref> prior to and alongside the tougher foreign policy pursued by US President [[Ronald Reagan]]. At the same time, [[Liberalism|liberals]] and [[secularism|secularists]] became increasingly critical of what they perceived as his reactionary preference for [[Russian nationalism]] and the [[Russian Orthodox religion]].{{cn|date=October 2024}}

Solzhenitsyn also harshly criticised what he saw as the ugliness and spiritual vapidity of the dominant [[popular culture|pop culture]] of the modern West, including television and much of popular music: "...the human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits... by TV stupor and by intolerable music." Despite his criticism of the "weakness" of the West, Solzhenitsyn always made clear that he admired the political liberty which was one of the enduring strengths of Western democratic societies. In a major speech delivered to the International Academy of Philosophy in [[Liechtenstein]] on 14 September 1993, Solzhenitsyn implored the West not to "lose sight of its own values, its historically unique stability of civic life under the rule of law—a hard-won stability which grants independence and space to every private citizen."<ref>[[#Ericson2009|Ericson (2009)]] p. 599</ref>

In a series of writings, speeches, and interviews after his return to his native Russia in 1994, Solzhenitsyn spoke about his admiration for the local [[Self-governance|self-government]] he had witnessed first hand in [[Switzerland]] and [[New England]].<ref>"Russia in Collapse" in [[#Ericson2009|Ericson (2009)]] pp. 480–481</ref><ref>"The Cavendish Farewell" in [[#Ericson2009|Ericson (2009)]] pp. 606–607</ref> He "praised 'the sensible and sure process of [[grassroots democracy]], in which the local population solves most of its problems on its own, not waiting for the decisions of higher authorities.'"<ref>{{Citation | author-link = Bill Kauffman | last = Kauffman | first = William 'Bill' | date = 19 December 2005 | url = http://www.amconmag.com/article/2005/dec/19/00016/ | title = Free Vermont | newspaper = [[The American Conservative]] | access-date = 26 January 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101026132450/http://www.amconmag.com/article/2005/dec/19/00016/ | archive-date = 26 October 2010 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Solzhenitsyn's patriotism was inward-looking. He called for Russia to "renounce all mad fantasies of foreign conquest and begin the peaceful long, long long period of recuperation," as he put it in a 1979 BBC interview with Latvian-born BBC journalist Janis Sapiets.<ref>{{Citation | last = Solzhenitsyn | first = Aleksandr I | title = East and West | place = New York | publisher = Harper | series = Perennial Library | year = 1980 | page = 182}}</ref>

=== Return to Russia ===

[[File:A solzhenitsin.JPG|thumb|Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn looks out from a train, in [[Vladivostok]], summer 1994, before departing on a journey across Russia. Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after nearly 20 years in exile.]]

In 1990, his Soviet citizenship was restored, and, in 1994, he returned to Russia with his wife, Natalia, who had become a United States citizen. Their sons stayed behind in the United States (later, his eldest son Yermolai returned to Russia). From then until his death, he lived with his wife in a [[dacha]] in Troitse-Lykovo in west Moscow between the dachas once occupied by Soviet leaders [[Mikhail Suslov]] and [[Konstantin Chernenko]]. A staunch believer in traditional [[Culture of Russia|Russian culture]], Solzhenitsyn expressed his disillusionment with post-Soviet Russia in works such as ''{{ill|Rebuilding Russia|ru|Как нам обустроить Россию?}}'', and called for the establishment of a strong [[presidential republic]] balanced by vigorous institutions of local self-government. The latter would remain his major political theme.<ref>{{Citation | last = Solzhenitsyn | first = Aleksandr Isaevich | title = Rebuilding Russia | place = New York | publisher = Farrar, Straus & Giroux | year = 1991}}</ref> Solzhenitsyn also published eight two-part short stories, a series of contemplative "miniatures" or prose poems, and a literary memoir on his years in the West ''The Grain Between the Millstones'', translated and released as two works by the [[University of Notre Dame]] as part of the [[Kennan Institute]]'s Solzhenitsyn Initiative.<ref>{{cite web |title=Large Works & Novels > Between Two Millstones |url=https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/his-writings/large-works-and-novels/between-two-millstones |website=SolzhenitsynCenter.org/ |publisher=The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center |access-date=3 October 2020}}</ref> The first, ''Between Two Millstones, Book 1: Sketches of Exile (1974–1978)'', was translated by Peter Constantine and published in October 2018, the second, ''Book 2: Exile in America (1978–1994)'' translated by Clare Kitson and Melanie Moore and published in October 2020.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Solzhenitsyn |first1=Aleksandr |title=Solzhenitsyn's Journey from Oppression to Independence |work=The Wall Street Journal |issue=3 October 2020 }}</ref>

Once back in Russia, Solzhenitsyn hosted a television [[talk show]] program.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/14/world/now-on-moscow-tv-heeere-s-aleksandr.html|title=Now on Moscow TV, Heeere's Aleksandr!|date=14 April 1995|work=The New York Times}}</ref> Its eventual format was Solzhenitsyn delivering a 15-minute [[monologue]] twice a month; it was discontinued in 1995.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-09-26-mn-50166-story.html|title=Russian TV Pulls the Plug on Solzhenitsyn's Biting Talk Show|work=Los Angeles Times|date=26 September 1995 }}</ref> Solzhenitsyn became a supporter of [[Vladimir Putin]], who said he shared Solzhenitsyn's critical view towards the [[Russian Revolution]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1H_BgAAQBAJ&q=solzhenitsyn,+nationalist,+putin&pg=PA254|title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Cold War Icon, Gulag Author, Russian Nationalist?: A Study of His Western Reception|last=Kriza|first=Elisa|year= 2014|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-3-8382-6689-3|pages=205–210|language=en}}</ref>

All of Solzhenitsyn's sons became U.S. citizens.<ref>Jin, Ha (2008) ''The Writer as Migrant'', University of Chicago Press, p. 10, {{ISBN|978-0-226-39988-1}}.</ref> One, [[Ignat Solzhenitsyn|Ignat]], is a [[pianist]] and conductor.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.princeton.edu/music/news/archive/index.xml?id=4041 |title= Ignat Solzhenitsyn to Appear With Princeton University Orchestra |publisher= The Trustees of Princeton University |date= 8 May 2013 |access-date= 8 May 2013 |archive-date= 17 September 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170917004827/http://www.princeton.edu/music/news/archive/index.xml?id=4041 |url-status= dead }}</ref> Another Solzhenitsyn son, Yermolai, works for the Moscow office of [[McKinsey & Company]], a management consultancy firm, where he is a senior partner.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yermolai Solzhenitzin|url=https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/yermolai-solzhenitsyn|website=mckinsey.com|access-date=11 April 2018}}</ref>

=== Death ===

[[File:Funeral of Alexander Solzhenitsyn-3.jpg|thumb|Russian President [[Dmitry Medvedev]] and many Russian public figures attended Solzhenitsyn's funeral ceremony, 6 August 2008.]]

Solzhenitsyn died of [[heart failure]] near Moscow on 3 August 2008, at the age of 89.<ref name="NYT20080804">{{cite news| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/books/04solzhenitsyn.html | title= Solzhenitsyn, Literary Giant Who Defied Soviets, Dies at 89|last1 =Kaufman|first1 =Michael T | last2= Barnard | first2 = Anne|date= 4 August 2008 | work=The New York Times|page=1|access-date=11 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7540038.stm |title= Alexander Solzhenitsyn dies at 89|publisher= BBC | work = News |date=3 August 2008 |access-date=3 August 2008}}</ref> A burial service was held at [[Donskoy Monastery]], Moscow, on 6 August 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Feifer |first=Gregory |date=8 August 2008 |title=Solzhenitsyn laid to rest in Moscow |url=https://www.npr.org/2008/08/06/93351109/solzhenitsyn-laid-to-rest-in-moscow |access-date=20 March 2024 |website=NPR}}</ref> He was buried the same day in the monastery, in a spot he had chosen.<ref>{{cite news|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7544265.stm| title = Solzhenitsyn is buried in Moscow| work = News | publisher=BBC|date=6 August 2008|access-date=6 August 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090115143356/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7544265.stm| archive-date=15 January 2009| url-status = live}}</ref> Russian and world leaders paid tribute to Solzhenitsyn following his death.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Womack |first=Helen |date=August 4, 2008 |title=Russians pay tribute to Solzhenitsyn |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/05/solzhenitsyn.nobelprize |access-date=March 24, 2024 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>