Ever heard of Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn? We're not sure how many have. Well if you have not, we humbly request you do learn a little about the man. A Nobel Laureate, he is one of our most favourite authors. One of the legends in Russia's vast and wonderful literary history. He has written many books regarding Soviet communist regime. But for us mainly, two books stand out. Gulag Archipelago and One day in life of Ivan Denisovitch. Latter being the best book we have ever read. We read this book online today. We had left the book in Bangalore and it had been sometime since we had read it. That’s right. We re-read the books. In fact, we love this book so much; we have identified it as one of the greatest we have read, if not the greatest. We will tell you about the man. We would suggest you to read Wikipedia but being the lazy ones that you are we will give a gist.
Born in 1918, his father was an imperial Army soldier who died while Solzhenitsyn was still in the womb. This fact had to be hidden since Lenin and his 'people', Well.. Hunted and killed any royal loyals. They killed their family and they killed anyone who ever knew the person. Solzhenitsyn grew up under the influence of his mother. It’s pretty obvious that the man was a genius. Why do we say so? He studied Mathematics at a Russian university and at the same time did correspondence courses in history, philosophy and literature. Maths and philosophy together? That ideally won't end well. You usually would spend your nights wondering why geometry cannot actually spend the life happily with algebra, or have nightmares about how god will destroy the world with dangerous weapons like probability or calculus. In short, cuckoo... But anyway, the man was not a cuckoo.. He was influenced by communist thoughts at that time. Yes. But not cuckoo.
He fought in World War II, and even became captain of artillery. But in 1945, he was arrested for insulting Joseph Stalin and sent to the Soviet labour camp for eight years. It was here that he realized that Marxism isn't actually helping. We had read somewhere that communism is mass distribution of poverty rather than property. We tend to agree with that thought. Anyway, back our hero of the story. He was diagnosed with cancer and was treated in Tashkent. He was released eventually. After the release he spent his days as a teacher and nights as a writer.
In '62, his book Odin den iz zhizni Ivana Denisovicha or Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) was published with the approval of then president Khruschev. It was a instant hit and was marked as classic. This short novel describes how one day in the labor camp is spent and we get to see it through the eyes of a prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. This was one of those rare books that touched us (No. No pun here. Move on). We were moved by the accounts given in that book. How people fight for pieces of bread and one puff of a cigarette. It is a heartbreaking story but does end with hope that all this will end one day. The west suddenly woke up to see what is happening in Soviet. This was one of the first instances where someone openly distributed the ills of the Stalin rule. It even became a part of then curriculum. You cannot but root for the 'prisoners' as they lead their monotonous and strenuous life.
But once liberal Khruschev was removed, the ideological freedom also died slowly. KGB had heard that he will be writing about the Gulag and they damn sure wanted to make sure that this doesn't materialize. Washing dirty Lenin (see what we did there?) was not OK with them. The manuscripts and drafts had to be hidden at his friends' houses. It launched a massive action plan to discredit Solzhenitsyn. The government sources in many countries were included in this. Some secret agents joined as translators to work with him and kept KGB informed about all his activity. The plan bore fruit and finally he was expelled from then USSR in '74. KGB even published a biography of Solzhenitsyn maligning him.
In 1970 he got the much deserved Nobel. While the most people were happy about it, the Soviet Government was the party pooper again. They did not let him go out. And it was pretty clear that he would not be let back in if he steps out. He had his speech delivered to the Nobel ceremony. He finally received his award after he was expelled. There is an online article about how he got his Nobel. Interesting one. You should check it sometime. He eventually moved to USA and spent two decades. His Soviet citizenship was restored once the country fell. Upon his return he was honoured by, irony of ironies, an ex-senior officer of KGB, Vladimir Putin.
The Gulag Archipelago is considered to be his second best work. It tells the story of his experience in the labor camp and stories of other witnesses. He wrote it in secret as KGB wanted to destroy the script. It describes the arrest, interrogation, conviction, transportation, and imprisonment of the Gulag's victims as done by Soviet authorities. The first part was release in '73 and the Government and its loyals criticized him and branded him as a traitor. This lead to his exile. The second and third volumes were released when he was in US. The book changed west's perspective about Lenin who till then had a legacy. Solzhenitsyn argued that Stalin merely improved the idea of labor camps which was in fact created by Lenin. It is now included as a Mandatory read in Russia's school system.
You would be surprised to know that the man, who was against the communist regime, did not prefer democracy either. He in fact supported authoritarian regime. He hated the way Boris Yeltsin's brand of democracy and that delayed his return to Russia after its collapse. Solzhenitsyn's books after he returned, which included essays on Russia's future, stirred quite a bit of controversy. He passed away in 2008 at his home near Moscow. OK we really do not know how to end a biography kinda article. We are not that good a writer to give some nice senti ending. So we will just recommend the two books mentioned and leave it at that. You don’t read it, it’s your loss.
P.S : We would like to thank Jimmy Wales, Larry Page and Sergey Brin for indirectly helping us with the details to write this blog.
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