Literary Giant Solzhenitsyn Dies
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, one of the true literary giants of the 20th century, has died. He died yesterday, in a hospital in Moscow. He was 89 years old; a long life, for a true literary hero. According to his son Yermolai the cause was a heart ailment.
Solzhenitsyn became famous in the West and in the rest of the world for his public opposition to the Soviet Union. Westerners first heard of him in 1962, when his book “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” about a prison camp inmate, was published. He was quickly compared to Russian literary giants such as Chekhov, Tolstoy and Dostoyevski.
After this book he wrote several other books, all of which increased respect for him, his defiance to the Soviet system and for his literary skills. Especially “The Gulag Archipelago” became a classic Russian novel, immediately after it was published.
The book tells the story life in the Soviet Labor camp system in which many Russians died. His description of the Gulag was so devastating that he was expelled from his homeland. Famous American diplomat George F. Kennan called it “the greatest and most powerful single indictment of a political regime ever to be leveled in modern times,” which is quite possibly an accurate description of “The Gulag.”
His books have been translated into 40 languages, and sold 30 million copies worldwide.
Considerably more can be read here, at the New York Times. It’s a long, but interesting article. Another good take on Solzhentsyn life and career can be read here at National Review Online.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
