Solzhenitsyn Alexander Isaevich

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was born on December 11, 1918 in Kislovodsk. In 1941 he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University. In 1939-1941. In parallel with physics, he studied at the correspondence department of the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature. In the winter of 1941-42. - in the army, sled driver. He graduated from the artillery school course. From November 1942 to February 1945 - at the front, commander of a reconnaissance artillery battery. In 1945, he was arrested on the basis of censored extracts from correspondence with a school friend, mainly for disrespectful statements about Stalin, as well as for sketches of stories and arguments. Sentenced by the decision of the Special Meeting of the NKVD to 8 years in the camps. He first served his term in mixed-type forced labor camps; in 1946, as a mathematician, he was transferred to the “sharashki” - a system of research institutes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, where prisoners worked.
In 1950 he was transferred to special camps for political prisoners. In such a camp in the city of Ekibastuz in Kazakhstan, he worked as a laborer, mason, and foundry worker. At the end of the camp term he was not released and was sent to “eternal exile” in Kok-Terek in Kazakhstan. During his years of exile, he taught mathematics and physics at a rural school and secretly began to write. In April 1956, exile for those convicted under Art. 58 was cancelled, leaving for Moscow in June. Since August 1956 - rural teacher in the Vladimir region. Rehabilitated.
Since June 1957 he has lived in Ryazan, working as a physics and astronomy teacher at school N2. Continues to write secretly. In 1961 he emerged from the literary underground. In November 1962, his story about the camps “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was published in the magazine “New World”; the publication was a real sensation. He continues to work on works about the era of mass terror in the USSR, creates an entire network for the secret storage of his manuscripts and archives, to collect information about prisons, camps, exiles, and deportations. Sends some of the manuscripts to the West. Published in Samizdat and abroad. In 1969, he was expelled from the Writers' Union. In October 1970, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The persecution of the writer by the KGB and party bodies is unfolding. In December 1973, the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago was published in Paris. Threats, open surveillance, harassment in the Soviet press. In February 1974, Solzhenitsyn was arrested and a criminal case was opened under Art. 64 (“Treason to the Motherland”). On February 13, the KGB deported him to Germany. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR announces the deprivation of the writer of Soviet citizenship.
In exile, Solzhenitsyn wrote a number of new works. During the era of “perestroika”, in 1988, Solzhenitsyn’s publications began again in the USSR. In August 1989, Novy Mir in Moscow began publishing The Gulag Archipelago.
In October 1990, Solzhenitsyn was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the city of Ryazan. In September 1991, the Prosecutor General's Office announced the termination of the 1974 case against Solzhenitsyn. In 1994, Solzhenitsyn made his triumphant return to Russia. He was awarded several Russian orders and a State Prize. In Russia he continues to work a lot on a series of works about the Russian revolution. On August 3, 2008, Alexander Solzhenitsyn died in his home near Moscow. He was buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.