Alexander Solzhenitsyn: biography, creativity and interesting facts. Brief biography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was born on December 11, 1918 in the city of Kislovodsk into a family of a peasant and a Cossack woman. The impoverished Alexander family moved to Rostov-on-Don in 1924. Since 1926 future writer studied at the local school. At this time, he creates his first essays and poems.

In 1936, Solzhenitsyn entered the Rostov University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, while continuing to study literary activity. In 1941, the writer graduated from Rostov University with honors. In 1939, Solzhenitsyn entered the correspondence department of the Faculty of Literature at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History, but due to the outbreak of war, he could not graduate from it.

The Second World War

Despite poor health, Solzhenitsyn strove for the front. Since 1941, the writer served in the 74th transport and horse-drawn battalion. In 1942, Alexander Isaevich was sent to the Kostroma Military School, after which he received the rank of lieutenant. Since 1943, Solzhenitsyn has served as the commander of a sound reconnaissance battery. For military merits, Alexander Isaevich was awarded two honorary orders, received the rank of senior lieutenant, and then captain. During this period, Solzhenitsyn did not stop writing, kept a diary.

Conclusion and link

Alexander Isaevich was critical of Stalin's policies, in his letters to his friend Vitkevich he condemned the distorted interpretation of Leninism. In 1945, the writer was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in camps and eternal exile (under Article 58). In the winter of 1952, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose biography was already quite difficult, was diagnosed with cancer.

The years of imprisonment were reflected in the literary work of Solzhenitsyn: in the works “Love the Revolution”, “In the First Circle”, “One Day in Ivan Denisovich”, “Tanks Know the Truth”, etc.

Conflicts with the authorities

Having settled in Ryazan, the writer works as a teacher at a local school and continues to write. In 1965, the KGB seized Solzhenitsyn's archive, and he was forbidden to publish his works. In 1967, Alexander Isaevich writes open letter The Congress of Soviet Writers, after which the authorities begin to perceive him as a serious opponent.

In 1968, Solzhenitsyn finished work on the work "The Gulag Archipelago" abroad, "In the First Circle" and " cancer corps».

In 1969, Alexander Isaevich was expelled from the Writers' Union. After the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago was published abroad in 1974, Solzhenitsyn was arrested and deported to the FRG.

Life abroad. Last years

In 1975 - 1994 the writer visited Germany, Switzerland, USA, Canada, France, Great Britain, Spain. In 1989, The Gulag Archipelago was first published in Russia in the journal New world”, Soon the story “Matryona Dvor” is also published in the magazine.

In 1994, Alexander Isaevich returned to Russia. The writer continues to actively engage in literary activity. In 2006-2007, the first books of the 30-volume collected works of Solzhenitsyn were published.

The date when the difficult fate of the great writer ended was August 3, 2008. Solzhenitsyn died at his home in Troitse-Lykovo from heart failure. The writer was buried in the necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery.

Chronological table

Other biography options

• Alexander Isaevich was married twice - to Natalya Reshetovskaya and Natalya Svetlova. From the second marriage, the writer has three talented sons- Yermolai, Ignat and Stepan Solzhenitsyn.
• In a brief biography of Solzhenitsyn, it is impossible not to mention that he was awarded more than twenty honorary awards, including the Nobel Prize for the work The Gulag Archipelago.
• Literary critics often call Solzhenitsyn the Dostoevsky or Tolstoy of our era.
• On the grave of the writer stands a stone cross, designed by the sculptor D. M. Shakhovsky.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is an outstanding Russian writer whose books are known and read all over the world. At home, he was recognized as a dissident, as a result of which he spent 8 years in camps.

His main work The Gulag Archipelago, which became a real sensation, is still of interest to readers today. In 1970, the writer was awarded Nobel Prize on literature.

Today you will learn various interesting facts from him, and what you may never have known about.

So, before you is a biography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Brief biography of Solzhenitsyn

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was born on December 11, 1918 in Kislovodsk. His father, Isaakiy Semenovich, was a simple peasant. He tragically died hunting before the birth of his son.

As a result, little Sasha was raised only by his mother, Taisiya Zakharovna. Due to complete ruin, during the October Revolution, they lived in extreme poverty.

Childhood and youth

conflicts with the new Soviet power began with Solzhenitsyn as soon as he went to school. Since a love of religion was instilled in him from childhood, the boy wore a cross on his chest and flatly refused to become a pioneer.

Naturally, such “antics” entailed serious consequences. However, childish piety soon disappeared somewhere. Serious changes have taken place in Solzhenitsyn's biography.

Communist propaganda successfully influenced Alexander's worldview. He changed his beliefs and adopted the party's policies.

Later on he own will joined the ranks of the Komsomol. As a teenager, Solzhenitsyn became seriously interested in reading world classics. Even then, he dreamed of writing a book about the revolutionary events.

However, when the time came, he decided to enter the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Rostov State University.

For some reason, it seemed to the young man that it was mathematicians who were really intelligent people, among whom he himself wanted to be.

Solzhenitsyn's studies were easy, so he graduated from the university with honors. While still a student, he was very fond of theatrical art. An interesting fact in Solzhenitsyn's biography is that at one time he seriously wanted to connect his life with the theater.

Suddenly the second World War and young man I had to go to defend my homeland. But due to health problems, they refused to accept him for service as an ordinary soldier.

Then Alexander decided to complete the officer courses in order to go to the front without fail. He succeeded, as a result of which he ended up in an artillery regiment with the rank of lieutenant.

Solzhenitsyn showed himself to be a good warrior and was awarded the Orders of the Red Star and.

Arrest and imprisonment

Having risen to the rank of captain, Alexander Isaevich continued to fight successfully, but his antipathy towards. Solzhenitsyn criticized the leader and was dissatisfied with his actions.

He shared his thoughts with front-line comrade with whom he corresponded. Once one of these letters hit the table of the military leadership in charge of censorship.

The authorities considered that if Solzhenitsyn was dissatisfied with the leader, then the communist system as a whole was hostile to him.

He was immediately detained, stripped of his rank and sent to the Lubyanka. There he was subjected to daily interrogations, often accompanied by sophisticated bullying.

As a result, he was sentenced to 8 years in labor camps and eternal exile at the end of his term. From that moment in the biography of Solzhenitsyn began a continuous game with death.

First former officer assigned to work in construction. When did management find out about it? higher education, he was transferred to a special prison controlled by a closed design bureau.

However, due to a conflict with his superiors, Solzhenitsyn was redirected to a camp in northern Kazakhstan, where he stayed for about 3 years. While there, he worked on general works ah and participated in one and prisoner strikes.

Once at large, the writer was forbidden to visit. He was given a job in Kazakhstan as a school teacher of mathematics and astronomy.

Dissident Solzhenitsyn

In 1956, 3 years after his death, Solzhenitsyn's case was reviewed. New power did not see the corpus delicti in his case, so he could return to . Arriving home, Alexander Isaevich began to teach in Ryazan.

Since anti-Stalinist motives were traced in the work of the writer, he had support from the outside, to whom this was only at hand.

Later, however, Solzhenitsyn fell into disgrace from the incumbent general secretary. When he came to power, Solzhenitsyn's writings were generally banned.

The situation was aggravated by the fantastic popularity of the writer's works, which began to be printed without his permission in the United States of America and France. For the Soviet leadership, Alexander Isaevich began to pose a serious threat.

Interestingly, he had the opportunity to emigrate abroad, but he chose to stay in Russia. Soon a KGB officer tried to kill Solzhenitsyn.

He injected him with poison, but the writer still managed to survive. After this poisoning, Alexander Solzhenitsyn remained seriously ill for a long time.

In 1974, he was accused of treason, stripped of his citizenship and expelled. The dissident had to change many places of residence, as his life was under constant threat.

Fortunately, he lived in relative prosperity, thanks to decent fees for his labors. He even managed to create a "Fund to help the persecuted and their families."

Traveling around the countries, Solzhenitsyn gave lectures in which he harshly criticized the communist system. But soon, he became disillusioned with American democracy, and began to criticize it too.

In other words, in Solzhenitsyn's biography there was no place for "downtime" or creative inactivity.

With the coming to power, in the USSR they revised their attitude towards the writer, and already during his time they cordially asked him to return to Russia, and even gave him a dacha in Trinity-Lykovo.

Personal life

Alexander first married at the age of 22 to Natalia Reshetkovskaya. However, their marriage fell apart due to the outbreak of war and the arrest of Solzhenitsyn.

In 1948, the NKVD "convinced" Natalya to divorce her husband. But as soon as the writer was rehabilitated, the couple began to live together again, officially legalizing their relationship.

In the summer of 1968 Alexander Solzhenitsyn met Natalya Svetlova, who worked in the laboratory of mathematical statistics. Over time, they developed romantic relationship quickly developed into a whirlwind romance.

When the legal wife found out about this, she tried to commit suicide. Only thanks to timely intervention, she managed to save her life.

A few years later, Solzhenitsyn was still able to file a divorce from Reshetovskaya and marry Svetlova. This marriage turned out to be a happy one.

The second wife became for Alexander Isaevich not only his beloved wife, but also reliable support in life. They jointly raised 4 sons - Ignat, Stepan, Dmitry and Yermolai. Ignat managed to become an outstanding pianist and conductor.

Creativity Solzhenitsyn

During his life, Alexander Isaevich wrote many novels, short stories, poems and poems. At dawn writing activity he was interested in revolutionary military theme. The Red Wheel is considered one of the best novels this direction.

He also has many autobiographical works. These include the poem "Dorozhenka", the story "Zakhar Kalita", as well as famous novel"Cancer Ward", which tells about the fate of cancer patients.

However, his most famous and iconic work, of course, is the Gulag Archipelago.

At the same time, it should be noted that Solzhenitsyn also had other, no less famous works of the camp direction: “In the First Circle” and “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”.

Thanks to this, the reader can give his own assessment of a particular action taking place in the plot. Most of Solzhenitsyn's books contain historical figures.

His work was highly appreciated by such artists as Valentin Rasputin, Andrei Tarkovsky.

It is interesting that, having repeatedly communicated with Solzhenitsyn and knowing his biography well, he argued that the state for the writer has always remained an indestructible constant, despite the constant criticism of the current government.

Death

Solzhenitsyn spent the last years of his biography at his dacha. He had serious health problems. This is not surprising, since the poisoning and the years spent in the camps could not pass without a trace.

In addition, Solzhenitsyn survived a serious hypertensive crisis and suffered difficult operation, after which only his right hand remained working.

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn died on August 3, 2008, having lived to be 89 years old. Death was due to acute heart failure. His grave is on Donskoy cemetery in Moscow.

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One of whose work today is of particular interest to researchers is Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The works of this author are considered primarily in the socio-political aspect. Solzhenitsyn is the topic of this article.

Book themes

Solzhenitsyn's work is the history of the Gulag Archipelago. The peculiarity of his books is the depiction of man's opposition to the forces of evil. Alexander Solzhenitsyn is a man who went through the war, and at the end of it was arrested for "treason." He dreamed of literary creativity and sought to study as deeply as possible the history of the revolution, because it was here that he sought inspiration. But life threw him other stories. Prisons, camps, exile and an incurable disease. Then miraculous healing, worldwide fame. And finally - the expulsion from the Soviet Union.

So, what did Solzhenitsyn write about? The works of this writer are a long way of self-improvement. And it is given only in the presence of a huge life experience and high cultural level. Real Writer always a little above life. He seems to see himself and those around him from the outside, somewhat detached.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn has come a long way. He saw the world, getting into which, a person has little chance of surviving both physically and spiritually. He survived. Moreover, he was able to reflect this in his work. Thanks to a rich and rare literary gift, the books created by Solzhenitsyn became the property of the Russian people.

Artworks

The list includes the following novels, novellas and short stories:

• "One day of Ivan Denisovich".
• "Mother's Yard".
• "The case at the station Kochetkov".
• "Zakhar Kalita".
• "Youth".
• "Does not matter".
• The Gulag Archipelago.
• "In the first circle."

Before the first publication of his creations, he worked for more than twelve years literary creativity Solzhenitsyn. The works listed above are only a part of it. creative heritage. But these books should be read by every person for whom Russian is native. Themes are not focused on horror camp life. This writer, like no other in the 20th century, was able to portray a real one striking in his stamina, based on some natural and deep ideas about life.

A day in the life of a prisoner

The camp theme became close to the Soviet people. The most monstrous thing about it is that it was forbidden to discuss it. Moreover, even after 1953, fear did not allow talking about the tragedy that occurred in every third family. Solzhenitsyn's work One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich brought into society a kind of ethics forged in the camps. In whatever situation a person finds himself, he should not forget about his dignity. Shukhov - the hero of Solzhenitsyn's story - does not live every camp day, but tries to survive. But the words of the old prisoner, which he heard back in forty-three, sunk into his soul: "The one who licks bowls dies."

Solzhenitsyn in this story combines two points of view: the author and the hero. They are not opposite. They have a certain common ideology. The differences in them are the level of generalization and the breadth of the material. Solzhenitsyn manages to achieve a distinction between the thoughts of the hero and the reasoning of the author with the help of stylistic means.

Readers did not remain indifferent to Ivan Denisovich literary magazine"New world". The publication of the story resonated in society. But before getting on the pages of the periodical, it was necessary to go through a difficult path. And here, too, the simple Russian character won. The author himself autobiographical work claimed that "Ivan Denisovich" got into print, because the editor-in-chief of "New World" was none other than a peasant from the people - Alexander Tvardovsky. Yes, and the main critic of the country - Nikita Khrushchev - was interested in "camp life through the eyes of a simple peasant."

Righteous Matryona

Preserve humanity in conditions that are less conducive to understanding, love, disinterestedness... Such is the problem to which Solzhenitsyn's work Matrenin Dvor is devoted. The heroine of the story is a lonely woman, misunderstood by her husband, adopted daughter, neighbors with whom she has lived side by side for half a century. Matrena has not accumulated property, but at the same time she works for free for others. She does not harbor anger at anyone and does not seem to see all those vices that overwhelm the souls of her neighbors. It is on people like Matrena, in the author's opinion, that the village, the city, and all our land rest.

History of writing

After exile, Solzhenitsyn lived for almost a year in a remote village. Worked as a teacher. He rented a room from a local resident, who became the prototype of the heroine of the story "Matryona Dvor". The story was published in 1963. The work was highly appreciated by both readers and critics. Chief Editor"New World" A. Tvardovsky noted that the illiterate and simple woman named Matrena earned the interest of readers due to her rich spiritual world.

Solzhenitsyn was able to publish only two stories in the Soviet Union. The works "In the First Circle", "The Gulag Archipelago" were published for the first time in the West.

Artistic research

In his work, Solzhenitsyn combined the study of reality and a writer's approach. While working on The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn used the testimonies of more than two hundred people. The works about camp life and the inhabitants of the sharashka are based not only on their own experience. When reading the novel The Gulag Archipelago, sometimes you don’t understand what it is - or treatise? But the result of the study can only be statistical data. Solzhenitsyn's own experience and the stories of acquaintances allowed him to summarize all the material he had collected.

The originality of the novel

The Gulag Archipelago consists of three volumes. In each of them, the author presents different periods in the history of the camps. On the example of special cases, the technology of arrest, investigation is given. The sophistication with which the employees of the Lubyanka institution worked is amazing. To accuse a person of what he did not do, the special services performed a number of complex manipulations.

The author makes the reader feel like a camp dweller. The novel "The Gulag Archipelago" is a mystery that attracts and attracts. Acquaintance with the psychology of man, mutilated by constant fear and terror, forms in readers a persistent hatred of totalitarian regime in all its manifestations.

A person who turns into a prisoner forgets about moral, political and aesthetic principles. The only goal- survive. Especially terrible is the change in the psyche of a prisoner brought up in idealistic, lofty ideas about his own place in society. In a world of cruelty and unscrupulousness, it is almost impossible to be a person, and not to be one means to break oneself forever.

In the literary underground

For many years Solzhenitsyn created his works and then burned them. The content of the destroyed manuscripts was kept only in his memory. Positive points underground activity for the writer, according to Solzhenitsyn, lies in the fact that the author is freed from the influence of censors and editors. But after twelve years of continuous writing of stories and novels that remained unknown, his lonely work began to stifle him. Leo Tolstoy once said that a writer should not publish his books during his lifetime. Because it's immoral. Solzhenitsyn argued that one can agree with the words of the great classic, but still every author needs criticism.

The long life of Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), his selfless service to Russian literature, his enormous talent and rare diligence, his consistent upholding of humanistic ideals and ardent love for Russia and its people made the work of this writer one of the most distinctive, large and noticeable phenomena of Russian and world literature of the second half of the 20th century, and this recognition resulted for the writer in awarding him the Nobel Prize in Literature (1970), depriving him of Soviet citizenship and expelling him from the country (1974), triumphant return to a renewed Russia twenty years later ... Here are the main milestones of literary and life path a man who is quite rightly considered a classic of Russian literature.

Solzhenitsyn graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University in 1941, in October he was already in the army, after graduating from the officer school he becomes an artillery officer, travels the path from Orel to East Prussia during the war years, receives military awards and the rank of captain. And on February 9, 1945, he was arrested: his "seditious" statements about Stalin were found in Solzhenitsyn's personal correspondence. Despite the brilliant characterization given to him by his boss, General Travkin, he was convicted, and until 1953 he was in various correctional institutions. In 1953, he was released - he was sent into exile in Kazakhstan, where he lived until rehabilitation, after which (1956) he settled in the village of Torfoprodukt near Ryazan. Here he worked as a teacher, rented a room in the house of Matryona Zakharova, who became the prototype of the heroine of the story "Matryonin Dvor" (1959). In the same year, in three weeks, he wrote the story "Sch-854 (One Day of a Prisoner)", which, when published in the journal Novy Mir (1962), received the title "One Day of Ivan Denisovich". By the time of the publication of this work, which was nominated for the Lenin Prize (although Solzhenitsyn did not receive the prize), the writer worked a lot and fruitfully in literature: he began the novels In the First Circle (1955-68), The Gulag Archipelago (1958-68 ), wrote several stories. By the time of his debut in literature, Solzhenitsyn, who by that time had gone through a long and difficult school of life, was a fully formed original writer, whose work continued the traditions of Russian classical literature.

In the 60s, Solzhenitsyn created the novel "Cancer Ward" (1963-67) and began work on a large historical novel"R - 17" (1964), which turned into the historical epic "Red Wheel" in the process of work. However, the attitude of the authorities to the writer in the 60s was already sharply negative, so Solzhenitsyn's major works were published abroad: in 1968, the novels Cancer Ward and In the First Circle were published, and in 1971 (after exclusion author from the Writers' Union in November 1969 and awarded him the Nobel Prize the following year), the book "August the Fourteenth" was published in Paris - the first part ("knot", as the writer calls them) of the epic "Red Wheel".

After the publication in 1973 in Paris of the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago, the leaders of the USSR tried to "solve the problem" of Solzhenitsyn by the usual means: in February of the following year, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Lefortovo prison, from which, probably, he would not have been released very soon if not the worldwide fame and influence that Solzhenitsyn enjoyed by this time. Therefore, he is deprived of Soviet citizenship and expelled from the country. First, Solzhenitsyn and his family settled in Zurich, in 1975 he published an autobiographical book of memoirs "A Calf Butted an Oak", in which he tells the story of his literary life, gives a picture of the literary life in the USSR in the 60s - 70s. Since 1976, the writer's family settled in the United States, in the state of Vermont, where he continues to actively creative activity, engaged in historical research, the results of which in art form are embodied in the "knots" of the epic "Red Wheel".

In his numerous interviews abroad, from the very first days of his stay there, Solzhenitsyn repeatedly emphasized that he would definitely return to Russia. This return began in the late 80s, in 1988 the citizenship of the USSR was returned to the writer, and in 1990 the novels In the First Circle and Cancer Ward were published in the Novy Mir magazine. The following year, the Novy Mir Publishing Center, together with the author, prepared the Small Collected Works of the writer in 7 volumes, which was published in a circulation of one million copies. It includes the novels mentioned above, a volume of short stories, and The Gulag Archipelago. Thus, the writer's works returned to their homeland, and he himself returned to Russia in 1994.

Researchers of the writer's work, defining his contribution to the development of Russian literature, identify three central motives of his work, in the development of which he reached the greatest heights. These motives are conventionally named by them as follows: "Russian national character; history of Russia of the XX century; politics in the life of a person and a nation in our century. "A feature of the disclosure of these motives in the work of the writer is the extreme subjectivity of Solzhenitsyn, he does not correlate his point of view with the generally accepted ones, being in this regard self-sufficient creative personality, which has its own right to see the world as he sees it. Another thing is that his view of history, his worldly wisdom, his writing talent make his work a very significant literary and literary phenomenon. cultural life, which cannot be unambiguously perceived by everyone, but in its own artistic creativity(unlike journalism and speeches of a socio-political nature), he remains a writer open to the dialogical perception of the works he created.