Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) was considered to be a man who never been afraid for critical truth under pressing might of the Communist super power. In his speech at the Noble prize for literature he quoted a Russian proverb and said, "One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world." He was marked as a man who fearlessly pursue truth and critiqued the political regimes of Soviet Union. He outlived the Soviet Union for more than 17 years, which imprisoned, ostracized and exiled him for many years. His death on August 3, 2008 marks the last of Soviet Union great literary giants.
His first publication called “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” (1962) brought the life of a prison camp inmate and it made his mark with the literary giants like Tolstoy, Dostoyevski and Chekov. He wrote critical novels of the totalitarian duress in “The First Circle” (1968) to which he got the Nobel Prize and “The Cancer Ward”(1968). He wrote historical novels like “The Gulag Archipelago” (1973-1978) describing the first hand experiences of horror and life of Soviet labor camp.
His literary tradition was considered as “Prophetic Russian literary tradition,” who saw his role to be an Old Testament prophet to expose and denounce the Kremlin and the West . The key feature in Solzhenitsyn’s literature is the Orthodox Christian frame of reference and traditional Christian values and beliefs.
He defined the role of the author or artist as that of truth-teller against lies in the prevailing culture. Note his words in the Noble lecture: "One artist sees himself as the creator of an independent spiritual world; he hoists onto his shoulders the task of creating this world, of peopling it and of bearing the all-embracing responsibility for it; but he crumples beneath it, for a mortal genius is not capable of bearing such a burden. Just as man in general, having declared himself the centre of existence, has not succeeded in creating a balanced spiritual system. And if misfortune overtakes him, he casts the blame upon the age-long disharmony of the world, upon the complexity of today's ruptured soul, or upon the stupidity of the public.
Another artist, recognizing a higher power above, gladly works as a humble apprentice beneath God's heaven; then, however, his responsbility for everything that is written or drawn, for the souls which perceive his work, is more exacting than ever. But, in return, it is not he who has created this world, not he who directs it, there is no doubt as to its foundations; the artist has merely to be more keenly aware than others of the harmony of the world, of the beauty and ugliness of the human contribution to it, and to communicate this acutely to his fellow-men. And in misfortune, and even at the depths of existence - in destitution, in prison, in sickness - his sense of stable harmony never deserts him."[1]
He was a firm believer of authors or artists should not partake in falsehood and not to support and propagate false conduct:
". . . the simple step of a simple courageous man is not to partake in falsehood, not to support false actions! Let THAT enter the world, let it even reign in the world - but not with my help. But writers and artists can achieve more: they can CONQUER FALSEHOOD! In the struggle with falsehood art always did win and it always does win! " [2]
That was the his important contribution to the 20th century literature.
After 1964, his works were band and soon after the publishing of “Gulag” 1974, he was expelled from Soviet Union. Later he was allowed to return back to Russia. However soon after his return he did wham criticisms on the Mikhail Gorbachyov to Vladimir Putin regimes. Some argue that west has used Solzhenitsyn in the cold war times to embrace the Soviets by giving a Noble prize, just after his 7 years of literary success. Yet his contribution and effort towards the 20th century literary world is unfathomable.
The New York Times states his extreme measures to published “Gulag”:
“Publishers in Paris and New York had secretly received the manuscript on microfilm. But wanting the book to appear first in the Soviet Union, Mr. Solzhenitsyn asked them to put off publishing it. Then, in September 1973, he changed his mind. He had learned that the Soviet spy agency, the KBG, had unearthed a buried copy of the book after interrogating his typist, Elizaveta Voronyanskaya, and that she had hung herself soon afterward.
He went on the offensive. With his approval, the book was speedily published in Paris, in Russian, just after Christmas. The Soviet government counterattacked with a spate of articles, including one in Pravda, the state-run newspaper, headlined “The Path of a Traitor.” He and his family were followed, and he received death threats.
On Feb. 12, 1974, he was arrested. The next day, he was told that he was being deprived of his citizenship and deported.”
“He was a man of massive courage and literary ability -- a central character of the twentieth century. He was a moralist to the core, affirming human dignity against Communist oppression and Stalin's murder of millions. Even so, he carried on an affair with the woman who became his second wife and the mother of his sons. He seemed ungrateful to America, but he also saw what many Americans, blinded by historical optimism, could not or would not see in the weakness of the West.
He returned to Russia a prophet, but also a man who seemed strangely out of his times. In his case, a great life of the twentieth century lingered awkwardly into the twenty-first. Nevertheless, his great courage and his literary achievement remain a tribute to the human spirit. Even more, Solzhenitsyn's moral vision serves as a reminder that Christianity alone provides an adequate grounding for human dignity.
When asked once about the force of his writings, Solzhenitsyn explained: 'The secret is that when you've been pitched head first into hell you just write about it.' The world was changed because he did just that.”
[1] http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-lecture.html
[2] Ibid.
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