Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was born December 11, 1918 in Kislovodsk, Russia and died August 3, 2008 in Troitse-Lykovo, near Moscow (Aleksandr Isayevich). In the 1930s, Solzhenitsyn attended the University of Rostov, where he studied mathematics (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn). Through correspondence, Solzhenitsyn also studied at the “Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature in Moscow” (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn). The years he spent studying as a mathematician would later help him survive the eight years he spent in camps and exile where he was able to teach mathematics and physics, which helped to ease his existence and made it possible for him to write (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn). In 1941, shortly after graduating university, Solzhenitsyn was “detailed to serve as a driver of horsedrawn vehicles” (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) for a year. Due to his extensive mathematical knowledge, he was later put in command of an artillery position, serving in the front line until he was arrested in February of 1945 (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn). Solzhenitsyn was arrested on “the grounds of what the censorship had found during the years 1944-1945 in [a] correspondence with a school friend, mainly because of certain disrespectful remarks about Stalin” (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn). In 1970, Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novels, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” “The First Circle” and “The Cancer Ward” (Solzhenitsyn Is). He was given the award, “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature” (Solzhenitsyn Is). Solzhenitsyn’s novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, published in 1962, takes place in a camp run by “the Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Settlements, better known by the Russian acronym: GULAG” (About One). These camps were created in collaboration with Siberia, under the administration of the secret police (About One). “It is estimated that by 1929, there were already more than 1 million prisoners in these camps, mainly for political reasons” (About One). The publication of this novel inspired many others to “produce accounts of their imprisonment under Stalin’s regime” (Aleksandr Isayevich). While incarcerated in camps, Solzhenitsyn was operated on for a tumor and received radiotherapy and recovered (Coulehan). The Cancer Ward, published in 1966, tells a tale about Soviet society after Stalin’s death. “Cancer is a metaphor for the totalitarian state” (Coulehan). The novel recounts the various responses of “scientists at work on research for the secret police as they must decide whether to cooperate with the authorities and thus remain within the research prison” (Aleksandr Isayevich) or refuse and be put back into the labor camps. The First Circle, published in 1968, “the prisoners are not particularly ill-treated, but are working on state projects designed to elongate the life of the Communist system that they know to be utterly morally and intellectually bankrupt” (Roberts). Despite the consequences of speaking the truth about the Soviet Union and Stalin, Solzhenitsyn continuously chose to share his story, as well as others, through his various novels, in an attempt to shed light to what they were doing to their citizens.
Natalie Schalo
Works Cited
“About One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” Cliff Notes, www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/one-day-in-the-life-of-ivan-denisovich
/about-one-day-in-the-life-of-ivan-denisovich.
“Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc., 19 Apr. 2017.
“Alexandr Solzhenitsyn – Biographical.” Nobelprize.org, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-bio.html.
Coulehan, Jack . “The Cancer Ward.” NYU School of Medicine, 5 Feb. 1998, medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/401.
Roberts, Andrew. “Book Of A Lifetime: The First Circle, By Alexander Solzhenitsyn.” Independent , 30 July 2009, www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books
/reviews/book-of-a-lifetime-the-first-circle-by-alexander-
solzhenitsyn-1764866.html.
“ Solzhenitsyn Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature.” The New York Times, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-prize.html.
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