8/11/2019 Solzhenitsyn Later years
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Solzhenitsyn Later years in the USSR
Solzhenitsyn made an unsuccessful attempt, with the help of
Tvardovsky, to get his novel, Cancer Ward, legally published in the
Soviet Union. Thishad to get the approval of the Union of Writers.
Though some there appreciated it, the work ultimately was denied
publication unless it was to berevised and cleaned of suspect
statements and anti-Soviet insinuations. [32]
After Krushchev's removal in 1964, the cultural climate again
became more repressive. Publishing of Solzhenitsyn's work quickly
stopped; as a writer,he became a non-person, and, by 1965, the KGB
had seized some of his papers, including the manuscript of The
First Circle. Meanwhile Solzhenitsyncontinued to secretly and
feverishly work upon the most subversive of all his writings, The
Gulag Archipelago. The seizing of his novel manuscript firstmade
him desperate and frightened, but gradually he realized that it had
set him free from the pretenses and trappings of being an
"officiallyacclaimed" writer, something which had come close to
second nature, but which was becoming increasingly irrelevant.
After the KGB had confiscated Solzhenitsyn's materials in
Moscow, during 196567 the preparatorydrafts of The Gulag
Archipelago were turned intofinished typescript in hiding at his
friends' homes in Estonia. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had befriended
Arnold Susi, a lawyer and former EstonianMinister of Education in a
Lubyanka Prison cell. After completion, Solzhenitsyn's original
handwritten script was kept hidden from the KGB in Estoniaby Arnold
Susi's daughter Heli Susi until the collapse of the Soviet
Union.[33][34]
In 1969 Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Union of Writers. In
1970, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He could not
receive the prizepersonally in Stockholm at that time, since he was
afraid he would not be let back into the Soviet Union. Instead, it
was suggested he should receivethe prize in a special ceremony at
the Swedish embassy in Moscow. The Swedish government refused to
accept this solution, however, since such aceremony and the ensuing
media coverage might upset the Soviet Union and damage Sweden's
relations with the superpower. Instead, Solzhenitsynreceived his
prize at the 1974 ceremony after he had been deported from the
Soviet Union.
The Gulag Archipelago was composed during 195867. This work was
a three-volume, seven part work on the Soviet prison camp
system(Solzhenitsyn never had all seven parts of the work in front
of him at any one time). The Gulag Archipelago has sold over thirty
million copies inthirty-five languages. It was based upon
Solzhenitsyn's own experience as well as the testimony of 256 [35]
former prisoners and Solzhenitsyn's ownresearch into the history of
the penal system. It discussed the system's origins from the
founding of the Communist regime, with Vladimir Leninhaving
responsibility, detailing interrogation procedures, prisoner
transports, prison camp culture, prisoner uprisings and revolts
, and the practice ofinternal exile.
According to fellow gulag historian Anne Applebaum
, The Gulag Archipelago's rich and varied authorial voice, its
unique weaving together of personal
testimony, philosophical analysis, and historical investigation,
and its unrelenting indictment of communist ideology, made The
Gulag Archipelagoone of the most impactful books of the 20th
century. [36]
The Gulag Archipelago was met with extensive criticism by
Party-controlled Soviet press, even though the book was not
published in the USSR. Aneditorialin Pravda on 14 January 1974
accused Solzhenitsyn of supporting "Hitlerites" and making "excuses
for the crimes of the Vlasovites andBandera gangs." According to
the editorial, Solzhenitsyn was "choking with pathological hatred
for the country where he was born and grew up, forthe socialist
system, and for Soviet people."[37]
During this period, he was shelteredby the cellist Mstislav
Rostropovich, who suffered considerably for his support of
Solzhenitsyn and waseventually forced into exile himself.[citation
needed]
In August 1971 the KGB allegedly made an attempt to assassinate
Solzhenitsyn using an unknown biological agent (most likely ricin)
with anexperimental gel-based delivery method. The attempt left him
seriously ill but ultimately was not successful
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