ALEKSANDR SOLZHENICYN

Academician DS Likhachev wrote: "Solzhenitsyn - a real Russian writer, the martyr and hero. It was typical for Russian writers have always - not only for Habakkuk, but also for all subsequent Russian writers in the walk to some degree. His heroism and martyrdom at the same time adjust to the fact on an optimistic mood: I believe that the heroic effort that makes the Russian literature, to our country to escape from the clutches of crime, apathy, and idle talk will lead to success. "

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born Dec. 11, 1918 in Kislovodsk. In the same year his father, Isaac, S. , Second Lieutenant, was killed by a hunting accident. Mother Taisiya nee Scherbak, a war ended higher Golitsyn courses in Moscow after the revolution became stenographer and moved with her son in Rostov-on-Don. There Solzhenitsyn graduated from high school, then Fizmatgiz, Moscow University, still having time to go to war in absentia two courses in Philology MIFLI. There's also met with Natasha Reshetovskaya. April 27, 1940 Natalia and Alexander draw up their marriage.

In 1941, Solzhenitsyn graduated from the University of Rostov, and came to Moscow for examination in MIFLI.

War begins. In September, Alexander taught astronomy and mathematics at the campus Morozovsk, north of Rostov. His wife was assigned to the same school.

October 18, 1941 Solzhenitsyn mobilized and sent to officers' school in Kostroma. Autumn of the same in 1942 Solzhenitsyn graduated from the accelerated rate of military and attained the rank of lieutenant. Then he was sent to Saransk, where the group formed an artillery reconnaissance. In the free evening he took his pen and wrote several short stories. In late 1942, Alexander came to the front. With its mix Solzhenitsyn went from Eagle to East Prussia. He commanded the "zvukobatareey", whose mission - to detect enemy artillery. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War ", 2 nd degree after taking the Eagle and the Red Star for the capture of Bobruisk.

His correspondence with a friend Witkiewicz came under supervision of military counterintelligence. In the letters they wrote about their "political indignation," denoting a diminutive of Lenin "Vovk", and Stalin - the nickname "plow". Consequence took place in Moscow, Lubyanka prison, described later in "The First Circle. " Solzhenitsyn then transferred to Butyrka. 27 July 1945 he was sentenced to eight years in labor camps.

His first camp was in the New Jerusalem, near Moscow, the second - in Moscow itself (building in Kaluga Gate). This first GULAG experience is reflected in the play "The Deer and Shalashovka.

In June 1947, Solzhenitsyn moved to Marfinskuyu sharashka "or" special prison ¹ 16 ", in the northern suburbs of Moscow. He works in an acoustic laboratory tests new "model of articulation. "

In May 1950, Solzhenitsyn was sent to camp on common work "- in Ekibastuz, north of Karaganda.

Photo — «Aleksandr Solzhenicyn»

He worked as a smelter, a bricklayer, then became a foreman. Solzhenitsyn began writing a great poem, "Dorozhenka. Meanwhile, his wife was assigned to the Ryazan and soon divorced him.

At the end of January 1952 Solzhenitsyn took part in the Ekibastuz "sedition. " Immediately after this revolt, which spread to the camps in Dzhezkazgan and Kengir, February 12, the camp surgeon in the camp hospital operates with Solzhenitsyn on the malignant tumor in the groin. The patient quickly recovered and was discharged from the hospital. A year later, Solzhenitsyn was released from the camp and determined to "eternal ssylnoposelenie" in the village of Kok-Terek (Green Poplar) Zhambyl region, on the border of the desert.

He took the corner in a mud hut, and then bought their own little house. Deep heartfelt friendship bound him with their spouses Zubov, doctors, exiles, the same as himself. Under the name Kadmina they displayed in the "Cancer Ward" and the authenticity of their story is told in "Archipelago". He wrote and hid finely packed pages in a bottle of champagne. Fall, unfortunately, the disease resumed - pains in the stomach.

In 1955, he was allowed to leave for treatment in Tashkent, and spend several months in hospital. His doctor had treated Dunayev cancer and retreated. Subsequently, Solzhenitsyn confessed to friends that until today he is sure: while he wrote - his deferment, and he plunged into the literary work.

In June 1956, after the rehabilitation of the Supreme Court of the USSR Solzhenitsyn moved to Rostov, where he was assigned to a rural school teacher of physics. Solzhenitsyn returned to the ex-wife. In February 1957, they decided to get married again. Solzhenitsyn, his wife and mother-in-migrated to Ryazan. Here, Solzhenitsyn worked in complete secrecy over the "First Circle" and continued to teach.

In 1959, he was just three weeks wrote the story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", which played a big role in his fate. In October 1962, after lengthy negotiations with the authorities of the chief editor of "New World" Twardowski received permission to Khrushchev, and published in his journal the story, provided brief preface. "Ivan Denisovich" quickly earned him notoriety.

Solzhenitsyn, based on their own experiences, described a day in the life of a prisoner work camp. Action, of course, is still in the Stalin era, and the story is simple and accessible language. But fame brought the author not so much the product of literary merits, but the fact that Solzhenitsyn wrote, finally, something authentic, described the life of a real, not ideologized. It was the truth, which until this moment to say it was simply not accepted. And he spoke! The book became a sensation in political circles, and, moreover, also gave rise to a desire for truth. Solzhenitsyn, they say, "opened the floodgates. "

The news of this publication flies all over the world.

Photo — «Aleksandr Solzhenicyn»

Solzhenitsyn immediately became a celebrity. He is represented by Khrushchev at a Kremlin reception. In December, Pravda published an excerpt from the story "The Case of the station Kochetovka. The following year, in the "New World" printed "Matrenin yard" and "Incident at the station Kochetovka.

Encouraged by the attention a gigantic audience, Solzhenitsyn lived through an unprecedented artistic growth - began to 'unreasonably much at once: "The Gulag Archipelago, Cancer Ward," a novel about the revolution of 1917. However, it soon ceased to publish his work and new books have appeared only in samizdat.

At the Fourth Congress of Soviet Writers' Union Solzhenitsyn addressed the delegates with an open letter in which he denounces the harm of censorship and persecution directed against him personally. "I propose that Congress adopt the requirement and to achieve the abolition of all - overt or covert - censorship of artistic works, publishing houses release from obligations to obtain permission for each printed page. "

It can be argued that it was from then on, since May 1967, began open and relentless struggle of the writer Solzhenitsyn against the Soviets. He wrote the main episodes of the struggle in the essays of literary life, which was called the Oak and the Calf. "

In 1968 his book "Cancer Ward" and "The First Circle" came out overseas. The invasion of Czechoslovakia, Solzhenitsyn wrote a leaflet Herzen spirit: "I am ashamed to be a Soviet," but abandoned the idea to publish it, not to substitute in jeopardy "Archipelago". "We need to keep throat for a main cry. For a short time left. " In December, Solzhenitsyn learned that he was awarded the Paris Prize for the best foreign novel. "

That same year, Solzhenitsyn met Natalya Svetlova, Moscow mathematician, a very active woman, quite famous in the circle of dissidents. Summer of 1969 they traveled together to northern Russia. Solzhenitsyn lived with her in the actual marriage (trying to get a divorce from his first wife). Soon the first son - Yermolai. 1972 marked the birth of her second son - Ignat. A third of their son - Stepan was born in September 1973.

Registration in Ryazan, where she lived Reshetovskaya was lost, but Moscow has not received a residence permit writer. Solzhenitsyn found shelter with the famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich's dacha near Moscow Zhukovka.

In 1970 Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but he refused to take on a very prosaic reason. If he had left the country with such a "mercantilist" objective, it would simply not allowed back.

In 1971 in Paris came out in Russian the first part of the historical epic - "August fourteenth. " And finally, in 1973 there was published the first part of the famous "Gulag Archipelago".

A huge archive of Solzhenitsyn, his personal memories, records and diaries form the basis of artistic research, "The Gulag Archipelago.

Photo — «Aleksandr Solzhenicyn»

"

"Genre product is unique - the book says," Great writers of the XX century. "- In this semi-documentary, poluhudozhestvennom narration of the history, ideology, philosophy, psychology, life Soviet secret police, picked up good arguments, shaking the foundations of the Soviet system. The mechanism of destruction of human bodies NKVD described from the outset (the night of arrest) to the end (the burial in the prison cemetery). The artistic world of this major work of Solzhenitsyn - vast camp, like a monstrous octopus has spread its tentacles throughout the superpower Soviet Union, metaphorically called the "archipelago".

Works devoted to the theme of the camp, were created long before Solzhenitsyn. For example, a Belarusian writer Frantisek Alekhnovich published his memories of staying at Solovki ("In the clutches of the GPU) in 1937, and the book has been translated into seven languages. However, Solzhenitsyn's story stands out exhaustive and may be considered a real encyclopedia of camp life. It should be noted and the total sarcasm of the author, denying the Soviet system, everything, even the widely recognized its achievement. "

"The Gulag Archipelago" is an attempt to piece together what is known about the system of prisons and camps established after the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917. Could it please the authorities, even if we consider that the main "user" of these camps, Stalin, has long rested with the world. Immediately after the publication of Solzhenitsyn's snatched on, piling the Soviet press. In the West the same interest as to the identity of Solzhenitsyn and his works erupted with renewed force.

In January 1974 campaign harassment of Solzhenitsyn in the Soviet press has reached unprecedented intensity. February 13, he was arrested and imprisoned in Lefortovo prison. Solzhenitsyn was deprived of his Soviet citizenship and a special plane was taken to West Germany.

Solzhenitsyn lived in Zurich. His loneliness was over quickly - Natalya Svetlova, Solzhenitsyn was allowed to join her husband, and with it - four children (eldest - from his first marriage) and mother.

In October 1976, Solzhenitsyn was left Zurich and permanently settled in the United States, in Vermont, near the town of Cavendish. He bought about twenty acres of land on this site except a dwelling house equipped library for storing manuscripts and printed materials.

"He wrote - at least ten, and often, and sixteen hours. Written covers the entire surface of the myriad leaves and leaves: he carefully avoids any kind was extravagance. Often Solzhenitsyn until absorbed in his work that they forget to eat. His wife , methodically and resolutely taking care of daily needs of her husband, never interrupts his writings. When he stopped to quench their hunger, it is not, of course, no regularity, like ordinary mortals. Time cast food, he considers wasted absurd and in vain "- wrote journalist William Knaus.

Photo — «Aleksandr Solzhenicyn»

In May 1978, breaking his long silence, Solzhenitsyn spoke at Harvard University. He made a solemn and stern warning to the western world, guilty of that for the higher benefit received "happiness" and was blind to the other independent cultures (including - in Russian). Root of all evil, he declared Western humanism. "The commercial market in the West are no better than the" party bazaar "in the East. The only solution Solzhenitsyn sees the personal courage whose example serves Russia.

The main work for many years was the historical epic "Red Wheel," on which he worked intermittently since the seventies. It reflected Solzhenitsyn's views on Russian history and modernity. In "The Red Wheel," the historical chapters detail Drawing specific events and participating in those chapters are interspersed with romantic, devoted to the fate of the characters 'fictional', but as a rule, have prototypes.

In 1982 came "The story in measured terms," ??(revised version of the "Augusta of the Fourteenth") and "October Sixteenth. In 1986-1987 the writer concluded, "the seventeenth of March, and in 1991 -" April seventeenth.

However, the author was not satisfied with their work. The initial plan of 20 "nodes", whereby the narrative was to get to the suppression of the Tambov uprising (spring 1922) and close five epilogue (1928, 1931, 1937, 1941, 1945), has not been executed.

May 10, 1983 Solzhenitsyn was in England Templtonovskuyu prize for contribution to the development of religious consciousness. " (At London's Guildhall, he has defined secularism as "a loop of mankind. ")

In 1989 - the date in its own landmark - the magazine "New World" is finally published in Russia, "The Gulag Archipelago. " A year later, Solzhenitsyn has officially returned to the Russian citizenship.

In 1994, Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia and delivered in the State Duma. However, hopes the new rulers of Russia that Solzhenitsyn had returned to their homeland would be praising their achievement did not materialize. Quickly changed their attitude to Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the new bureaucracy.

"The clock of communism its repulsed. But its concrete construction has not yet collapsed. And how should we, instead of liberation, not flatten under its ruins," - Solzhenitsyn wrote in 1990 in "How can we improve Russia?". Happened is exactly what he had so feared.

December 11, 1998 Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree awarding of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, celebrating this day his eightieth birthday, the Order of St. Andrew "for Outstanding Merit for outstanding contribution to world literature.

The writer refused the order, stating the following: "From the supreme power, dovedshey Russia prior to the current disastrous state, I can not accept the award. - And he added: - Perhaps, after a considerable time, this award will be my sons. "