Работа с текстом: Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn is a famous Russian novelist, short-story writer and historian.

A leksandr Solzhenitsyn

Task 1: Read the text. Translate the first paragraph in written form.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn is a Russian novelist, short-story writer and historian. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his pursuit of the traditions of Russian literature. He was a Captain of artillery in World War II. Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned for eight years after he wrote a letter in which he criticized Joseph Stalin. He began his writing career after a period of enforced exile. His writings reflected his ideas about a benevolent totalitarian regime based on Russian’s time-honored values. His frank views against the contemporary repressive government policies infuriated the Soviet Press. Even though critics charged him with anti-Semitism, Solzhenitsyn’s works reveal an intelligent approach toward the revolutionary Jews. After he was denied publication in Russia, he started circulating his works privately in the form of ‘Samizdat’ literature. He was accused of treason and exiled from the Soviet Union after he published ‘The Gulag Archipelago’, a literary-historical record of the prisons and labor camps in Russia during Stalin’s rule. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he returned to Russia. His philosophy plays a major role in the film ‘Cloud Atlas’ and his reflections on Russian history and literature are documented in Alexander Sokurov’s ‘The Dialogues with Solzhenitsyn’.

Literary Career

• In 1962, Solzhenitsyn’s first major novel ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ was published in the ‘Novyi Mir’ magazine.

• In 1964, Nikita Krushchev fell from power and Solzhenitsyn’s works were intensely criticized. By 1965, he became a non-person and his manuscripts were seized.

• However, his international reputation was unflagging and foreign publications released his ‘The First Circle’ (1968) and ‘Cancer Ward’ (1968).

• His first historical novel, ‘August, 1914’ was also published outside the Soviet Union in the year 1971.

• In December 1973, the first parts of ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ were published in installments in Paris.

• On 12 February 1974, Solzhenitsyn’s Soviet citizenship was taken away and he was banished to Frankfurt, West Germany. The KGB had found the manuscript for the first part of ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ and declared it to be an anti-government piece.

• Solzhenitsyn settled in Vermont during his second exile and in 1975, his ‘Lenin in Zurich: Chapters’, a documentary novel and ‘The Oak and the Calf’, an autobiographical account of his writing career, were published.

• In 1974–75, the second and third volumes of ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ came out.

• In 1983, an expanded version of ‘August 1914’ was published as the first in ‘The Red Wheel’ series. Other volumes in the series were ‘October 1914’, ‘March 1914’ and ‘April 1914’.

• In 1989, ‘Novy Mir’ published excerpts from ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ in the Soviet Union after seeking approval from the new government.

• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia in 1994 following the restoration of his Soviet citizenship. The same year he published ‘The Grain between the Milestones’, a literary memoir of his years spent in exile.

• From 1998 to 2003, installments of his autobiography, ‘The Little Grain Managed to Land between Two Millstones: Sketches of Exile’ came out.

• ‘Two Hundred Years Together’, a historical novel on the Russian Jews, was published from 2001 to 2002.

Awards & Achievements

• Solzhenitsyn was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature but he refused to go to Stockholm to receive the prize as he feared that the government would not let him re-enter the Soviet Union, upon his return. He received it in the 1974 ceremony after his expulsion from Soviet Union.

• In 1978, he was awarded an honorary Literary Degree from Harvard University.

• In 1997 he arranged for the funding of an annual prize for writers who contribute to the Russian literary tradition.

On 12 June 2007, President Vladimir Putin awarded him the prestigious State Prize of the Russian Federation for his humanitarian activities.

Task 2: Match the dates and the events.