Editing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (section)

=== 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>