Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn. Biography
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn is a Russian writer, publicist, public and political figure, Nobel Prize winner, one of the first writers of Khrushchev’s “thaw”, whose courageous critical attitude towards the Soviet regime led first to dissidence, and then to long-term emigration. In addition to works of art touching on acute social and political issues, Solzhenitsyn was the author of historical and journalistic texts on the history of Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries. World fame he brought the artistic and documentary book “The Gulag Archipelago”.
The life of A. Solzhenitsyn in dates and facts
December 11, 1918 – was born in Kislovodsk, in the family of a peasant who received a university education, who shortly after his return from the front of World War I, in absurd accidents, died six months before the birth of his son.
1924 – Together with his mother moved to Rostov-on-Don. Because of her “kulak” mother’s
1926 -1936 gg. – I went to school, where I was first persecuted for visiting the church and unwilling to join the pioneers, and then joined the Komsomol under the influence of communist ideology. In the senior classes I was carried away by literary creativity.
1936 -1941 – Solzhenitsyn studied at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Rostov State University, where his achievements were marked by a Stalin scholarship. In his student years, he also developed his writing abilities, composed and collected materials for future books about the First World War and the revolution.
1939 – entered the correspondence department of the Literature Department of the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History in Moscow, but the training there was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War that had begun.
1941 – was mobilized and after the course of training in the Kostroma Artillery
February 9, 1945 – was arrested on the “signal” of military censorship, who found in his correspondence with a friend negative assessments of Stalin, the totalitarian regime and fake Soviet literature. On the verdict, Solzhenitsyn received 8 years of camps and an eternal exile.
1945-1953 – served time first in New Jerusalem near Moscow, then on the construction of a new house in Moscow, then in the “sharashka” in the village of Marfino near Moscow; spent the last three years in a camp in Kazakhstan. This period includes the first surviving works of the writer – a series of poems and a play “Feast of the winners.”
1953 -1956 – was in exile in Kazakhstan, where he earned his living by teaching mathematics.
1956 – by decision of the Supreme Court was relieved from exile and moved to a small village of the Ryazan region. A year later the writer was rehabilitated.
1959 – the novel “One day of Ivan Denisovich” was written, the appearance of which in the 11th issue of the magazine “New World” for 1962 stirred the whole country. Seeking publication of this work, the editor-in-chief of the journal, AT Tvardovsky, enlisted the support of the country’s leader, Khrushchev.
1963 – in the magazine “New World” the story “Matrenin yard” was published.
1964 – the editors of Novyi mir took Solzhenitsyn’s novel “In the First Circle” for publication, but the official publication did not take place, and the manuscript was transferred to samizdat by the author.
1963 -1966 – worked on the story “Cancer Corps”, which on completion was forced to distribute through “samizdat.” In 1968 the story was published in the West.
Since 1966, the writer’s writings have ceased to print in the Soviet Union, and already published his works were seized from libraries. Outraged by a new wave of persecution, Solzhenitsyn addressed the Fourth Congress of Soviet Writers with a letter in which he openly declared the pernicious impact of censorship and demanded that the issue of the publication of his Cancer Corps be resolved. The letter remained unanswered. Then he again used the possibilities of “samizdat” to distribute his articles and letters in which he protested against the policy pursued by the country’s leadership to eradicate dissent and human rights violations.
1969 – was expelled from the Writers’ Union.
1970 – The Nobel Committee awarded Solzhenitsyn a prize.
1968 – completed the “Gulag Archipelago”, the first volume of which was published abroad in 1973.
1974 – was arrested, stripped of his citizenship and deported to West Germany. So began the 20-year period of emigration of the writer. After his arrest, Solzhenitsyn’s wife, through “samizdat”, multiplied his article “To live not according to lies”. From West Germany, the writer and his family soon moved to Switzerland, where in 1976 he moved to the United States. On the royalties received from the publication of the Gulag Archipelago, he created the Russian Public Fund for Assistance to the Persecuted and Their Families to support political prisoners in the USSR. In emigration, the writer worked on a huge work called “The Red Wheel”, actively appeared with publicistic articles, speeches and interviews about political life in the USSR and in the West.
1990 – Solzhenitsyn restored in Soviet citizenship, and his “Gulag Archipelago” was published in his homeland and was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR. In the same year, the Literary Gazette and Komsomolskaya Pravda published Solzhenitsyn’s article “How should we equip Russia?”, Which aroused wide public resonance.
1994 – returned to Russia, where he was awarded several prestigious awards and was awarded the title of full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the last period of his creative work, Solzhenitsyn wrote a book of memoirs “A corn was punctured between two millstones.” In interviews and numerous speeches, he sharply criticized the social, political and moral life of post-Soviet Russia, causing irritation to the authorities.
1998 – published the book “Russia in a landslide,” in which he gave a sharp negative assessment of the ongoing economic reforms in the country.
August 3, 2008 – the writer died.
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