Alexander Solzhenitsyn Dead
Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn died of heart failure on August 3, 2008. He was 89 years old.1
Fast Facts
- Born: December 11, 19181
- Died: August 3, 20081
- Lived in Soviet Union until 19741
- Exiled as a result of book The Gulag Archipelago1
- Returned to Russia in 19941
- Won 1970 Nobel Prize for Literature1
Major Works
Life
Born just over a year after the creation of the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn served in the Red Army during the Second World War. After writing a letter to a friend in which he criticized Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Solzhenitsyn was sent to a labor camp, or gulag. His experience in the Soviet forced labor system formed the basis for his novels The Cancer Ward, The First Circle and The Gulag Archipelago. Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. In 1974, after the publication of The Gulag Archipelago, he was forced to leave the Soviet Union and settled in the United States. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he returned to Russia in 1994.1
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