Municipal educational establishment "High school with a profound study of the English language № 27"

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Plan.

Plan. 1
Introduction. 2
Main part. 3
1. Biography. 3
2. Master's works. 8
3. The Cancer Ward. 9
Conclusion. 11
Literature. 12

Introduction.

"Who else, if not writers, can censure not only their faulty rulers but society at large?"

Solzhenitsyn (From Nobel lecture )

"We lived next door but did not understand that she was the uprightperson no settlement can do without. Nor can a city. Nor the entireland ..."

This excerpt from the famous short story "Matriona's Home" about apeasant woman who gave shelter to the writer in the 1950s perfectly appliesto the writer himself. A teacher in the broadest sense of the word, a humanrights activist and a righteous man, whose principle has always been tolive without lies.

Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 "for theethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of
Russian literature. "Active member of Russian Academy of Sciences (1997).

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is now 84." A legend of the 20th century,martyr and hero, "thus the outstanding Russian scholar Dmitry Likhachyovdescribed Solzhenitsyn once. For us Solzhenitsyn is not simply a greatwriter but rather the nation's conscience whose word strikes you not onlyby its artistic value but by its message of truth. This truth is all themore impressing since the writer's word and life are never at varience.
They complement each other. Today we came to realize that the writer's mostoutstanding "work" is his own life.

"Longevity was given to me. 80 years is a longevity. At this age youhave new opportunities. You can look back at your life and open somethingin it that you could not notice and understand while you were on the run.
For a larger part of our lives we act, and action interferes with ourability to take a quiet look at things. An old age gives some scope to yoursoul, a chance to evaluate your deeds. "

Main part.

1. Biography.

One of the leading Russian writers of the 20th century, Alexander
Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, was born in Kislovodsk, on the 11th of December
1918 in a family of Cossack intellectuals and brought up primarily by hismother. His father had studied philological subjects at Moscow University,but did not complete his studies, as he enlisted as a volunteer when warbroke out in 1914. He became an artillery officer on the German front,fought throughout the war and died in the summer of 1918, six months beforehis son was born. Alexander was brought up by his mother, who worked as ashorthand typist, in the town of Rostov-on-Don, where he spent the whole ofhis childhood and youth, leaving the grammar school there in 1936. Even asa child, without any prompting from others, he wanted to be a writer and,indeed, he turned out a good deal of the usual juvenilia. In the 1930s, hetried to get his writings published but he could not find anyone willing toaccept his manuscripts. He wanted to acquire a literary education, but in
Rostov such an education that would suit his wishes was not to be obtained.
To move to Moscow was not possible, partly because his mother was alone andin poor health, and partly because of their modest circumstances.

Solzhenitsyn therefore began to study at the Department of Mathematicsat Rostov University, where it proved that he had considerable aptitude formathematics. But although he found it easy to learn this subject, he didnot feel that he wished to devote his whole life to it. Nevertheless, itwas to play a beneficial role in his destiny later on, and on at least twooccasions, it rescued him from death. For he would probably not havesurvived the eight years in camps if he had not, as a mathematician, beentransferred to a so-called sharashia, where he spent four years; and later,during his exile, he was allowed to teach mathematics and physics, whichhelped to ease his existence and made it possible for him to write. If hehad had a literary education it is quite likely that he should not havesurvived these ordeals but would instead have been subjected to evengreater pressures. Later on, it is true, Alexander Isayevich began to getsome literary education as well; this was from 1939 to 1941, during whichtime, along with university studies in physics and mathematics, he alsostudied by correspondence at the Institute of History, Philosophy and
Literature in Moscow.

In 1941, a few days before the outbreak of the war, Solzhenitsyngraduated from the Department of Physics and Mathematics at Rostov
University. At the beginning of the war, owing to weak health, he wasdetailed to serve as a driver of horsedrawn vehicles during the winter of
1941-1942. Later, because of his mathematical knowledge, he was transferredto an artillery school, from which, after a crash course, he passed out in
November 1942. Immediately after this he was put in command of an artillery -position-finding company, and in this capacity, served, without a break,right in the front line until he was arrested in February 1945. Thishappened in East Prussia, a region which is linked with his destiny in aremarkable way. As early as 1937, as a first-year student, he chose towrite a descriptive essay on "The Samsonov Disaster" of 1914 in East
Prussia and studied material on this; and in 1945 he himself went to thisarea (at the time of writing, autumn 1970, the book August 1914 has justbeen completed).

Solzhenitsyn was arrested on the grounds of what the censorship hadfound during the years 1944-1945 in his correspondence with a schoolfriend, mainly because of certain disrespectful remarks about Stalin,although they referred to him in disguised terms. As a further basis forthe "charge", there were used the drafts of stories and reflections whichhad been found in his map case. These, however, were not sufficient for a
"prosecution", and in July 1945 he was "sentenced" in his absence, inaccordance with a procedure then frequently applied, after a resolution bythe OSO (the Special Committee of the NKVD), to eight years in a detentioncamp (at that time this was considered a mild sentence).

Solzhenitsyn served the first part of my sentence in severalcorrectional work camps of mixed types (this kind of camp is described inthe play, The Tenderfoot and the Tramp). In 1946, as a mathematician, hewas transferred to the group of scientific research institutes of the MVD-
MOB (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of State Security). He spentthe middle period of his sentence in such "SPECIAL PRISONS" (The First
Circle). In 1950 he was sent to the newly established "Special Camps" whichwere intended only for political prisoners. In such a camp in the town of
Ekibastuz in Kazakhstan (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich), he workedas a miner, a bricklayer, and a foundryman. There he contracted a tumour,which was operated on, but the condition was not cured (its character wasnot established until later on).

One month after he had served the full term of his eight-yearsentence, there came, without any new judgement and even without a
"resolution from the OSO", an administrative decision to the effect that hewas not to be released but EXILED FOR LIFE to Kok-Terek (southern
Kazakhstan). This measure was not directed specially against him, but was avery usual procedure at that time. He served this exile from March 1953 (on
March 5th, when Stalin's death was made public, he was allowed for thefirst time to go out without an escort) until June 1956. Here his cancerhad developed rapidly, and at the end of 1953, he was very near death. Hewas unable to eat; he could not sleep and was severely affected by thepoisons from the tumour. However, he was able to go to a cancer clinic at
Tashkent, where, during 1954, he was cured (The Cancer Ward, Right Hand).

During all the years of exile, Solzhenitsyn taught mathematics andphysics in a primary school and during his hard and lonely existence hewrote prose in secret (in the camp he could only write down poetry frommemory). He managed, however, to keep what he had written, and to take itwith him to the European part of the country, where, in the same way, hecontinued, as far as the outer world was concerned, to occupy himself withteaching and, in secret, to devote himself to writing, at first in the
Vladimir district (Matryona's Farm) and afterwards in Ryazan.

During all the years until 1961, not only was he convinced that heshould never see a single line of him in print in his lifetime, but, also,he scarcely dared allow any of his close acquaintances to read anything hehad written because he feared that this would become known. Finally, at theage of 42, this secret authorship began to wear him down. The mostdifficult thing of all to bear was that he could not get his works judgedby people with literary training. In 1961, after the 22nd Congress of the
U.S.S.R. Communist Party and Tvardovsky's speech at this, he decided toemerge and to offer One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Such an emergence seemed, then, to Solzhenitsyn, and not withoutreason, to be very risky because it might lead to the loss of hismanuscripts, and to his own destruction. But, on that occasion, thingsturned out successfully, and after protracted efforts, AT Tvardovsky wasable to print his novel one year later. The printing of his work was,however, stopped almost immediately and the authorities stopped both hisplays and (in 1964) the novel, The First Circle, which, in 1965, was seizedtogether with his papers from the past years. During these months it seemedto him that he had committed an unpardonable mistake by revealing his workprematurely and that because of this he should not be able to carry it to aconclusion. After 1966, his work was not published in the Soviet Union formany years.

The open conflict between communist regime and Solzhenitsyn eruptedwith his Letter to the Fourth National Congress of Soviet Writers (May
1967), in which he demanded the abolition of censorship, the rehabilitationof many writers victimized during the repression, and the restoration ofhis archives, confiscated by the KGB in 1965. After the publication abroadof The First Circle (1968) and The Cancer Ward (1968-69) abroad and winningthe Nobel Prize (1970, "for the ethical force with which he has pursued theindispensable traditions of Russian literature ") the confrontationincreased. Further public statements by Solzhenitsyn (A Lenten Letter to
Pimen, Patriarch of all Russia, Letter to the Soviet Leaders, etc.) As wellas the publication of the first variant of August 1914 (1971) and the firstvolume of The Gulag Archipelago (1973), led the Soviet authorities to exilehim to Germany (February 1974).

Having settled first in Switzerland, Solzhenitsyn, his wife Natalia
Dmitrievna, three sons: Ermolai, Ignat and Stepan, in 1976 moved to the
United States. They lived in Cavendish, Vermont. While in the West,
Solzhenitsyn completed The Oak and the Calf (1975) and Three Plays (1981).
In 1982 an enlarged version of August 1914 was published as the first in aseries of novels about the Russian Revolution to be called collectively The
Red Wheel. Excerpts from this work had been published in 1975 as Lenin in
Zurich. There were many public addresses and speeches also: A World Split
Apart, Misconceptions About Russia Are a Threat to America, etc. Theintellectual and moral influence of Solzhenitsyn played an important rolein the fall of communist power in East Europe and Russia.

In 1989 Gulag Archipelago was published as a serial in the literarymagazine Novy Mir. In 1990 Solzhenitsyn was again admitted the Sovietcitizenship. Then he published How to Reconstruct Russia: Reflections and
Tentative Proposals. He came back to Russia in May 1994. Among his newworks was Russian Question at the End of XX Century, Russia in the
Abuss and other publicist writing, short stories. Now the magazine Novy Mirhas began to publish his Sketches on Exile (a sequel of The Oak and the
Calf). There is a new his historical book now: 200 Years Together.

After return he tried to influence the modern Russian politics and met
President Yeltsin (1994) and President Putin (2000).

2. Master's works.

Literature, however, was not Solzhenitsyn's first profession. Hegraduated from Rostov University (and with honors) and in the 50s taughtmathematics, physics and astronomy. Perhaps, this explains the logic alwayspresent in his literary work. The idea of every short story or epic novelis always crystal clear. The author's stand is never ambiguous. Thecelebrated One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which made the writerfamous overnight, is a wild protest against Stalin's concentration campsand, in a broader sense, against suppression of any personality. But thisprotest is expressed in amazing artistic form, where every word is richlycolored.

One Day and Matriona's Home have been read by millions of people inthis country, while the large-scale novels In Circle One, Cancer Ward, The
GULAG Archipelago and The Red Wheel are a hard nut to crack and on thewhole have not become national bestsellers. Certainly, many readers werediscouraged by the size of these books; The Red Wheel alone consists of 10volumes. Besides, after all the revelations of the perestroika period,after scandals and masses of compromising material daily supplied by themedia, many people simply don't have the energy to go deep into the eventsof the past, which were even more frightening that those of the present.
The writer himself has an approximately similar opinion on the issue. Asfor the Russian literature of the Soviet period on the whole, he believesthat "After 1917 life and people changed greatly. But literature produced avery poor reflection of these changes. The truth was suppressed and liesencouraged. Thus we arrived in the 1990s, knowing next to nothing aboutthis country. This explains the great number of surprises. "

There is still another reason why many people remain strangers to
Solzhenitsyn's work. His major books are not entertaining reading. In fact,they are political and philosophical essays. The writer believes hismission is to keep things under constant scrutiny.

3. The Cancer Ward.

I would life to tell you about one of my favorite novels by Alexander
Solzhenitsyn. It is The Cancer Ward.

The story takes place in the men's cancer ward of a hospital in a cityin Soviet Central Asia. The patients in Ward 13 all suffer from cancer, butdiffer in age, personality, nationality, and social class (as if such athing could be possible in the Soviet "classless" society!). We are firstintroduced to Pavel Rusanov, a Communist Party functionary, who enters thehospital because of a rapidly growing neck tumor.

We soon learn, however, that the book's central character is Oleg
Kostoglotov, a young man who has recently been discharged from a penal campand is now "eternally" exiled to this particular province. Only two weeksearlier, he was admitted to the ward in grave condition from an unspecifiedtumor, but he has responded rapidly to radiation therapy. Among the doctorsare Zoya, a medical student; Vera Gangart, a young radiologist; and
Lyudmila Dontsova, the chief of radiation therapy.

Rusanov and Kostoglotov respond to therapy and are eventuallydischarged; other patients remain in the ward, get worse, or are sent hometo die. In the end Kostoglotov boards a train to the site of his "eternal"exile: "The long awaited happy life had come, it had come! But Oleg somehowdid not recognize it. "

Solzhenitzyn himself was released from a labor camp in early 1953,just before Stalin's death, and was exiled to a village in Kazakhstan.
While incarcerated, he had been operated on for a tumor, but was not toldthe diagnosis. He subsequently developed a recurrence, receivedradiotherapy in Tashkent, and recovered.

In The Cancer Ward Solzhenitzyn transforms these experiences into amultifaceted tale about Soviet society during the period of hope andliberalization after Stalin's death. Cancer, of course, is an obviousmetaphor for the totalitarian state. The novel also provides an interestinglook at mid-century Soviet medicine and medical ethics.

The novel also explores the personal qualities and motivation ofphysicians, and the issue of intimate relationships between doctors andpatients. Probably the book's strongest points are its insight into humannature and the believability of its characters.

Conclusion.

Solzhenitsyn is disappointed with Russian literature: "On the onehand, our Russian literature is very high because it has not lost its ethicstandard. On the other hand, partly under the influence of Gogol, with hismerciless attitude toward public vices, Russian literature lost itscreative message. We have Oblomov, Onegin, Pechorin, all the so-called
"useless people", but where are the builders, the creators? Russia wascreated as a mighty power stretching east to Siberia, where back in the
18th century we had educational institutions, talented people and culture.
Then under Gogol's influence there appeared a succession of satirists andironists. Saltytkov-Shchedrin, for example, with his scathing look at thenegative is simply mustard. "

Today Solzhenitsyn continues working, preparing his diaries forpublication, writing letters to the former fellow-inmates and helpingthousands of people. The Solzhenitsyn foundation is based on the royaltiesof The GULAG Archipelago, published in 30 countries. It supports thousandsof former political prisoners across Russia.

"Giving is far more important than taking," says the writer's wife,
Natalia. "As for him, he has popular love. He receives wonderful lettersand knows there are many people who are grateful to him. But he works notfor this gratitude. We are happy to be back home. We never feel lonely, nordo we bear any grudge. We feel as if we had never left the country. "

Literature.

1. Нива Ж. Солженіцин. - М., 1992.
2. The New York Times , May 15,1997.
3. The New York Times, March 1, 1998.
4. Encyclopedia Britannica.
5. Профіль, 12 січня 1998, № 1.
-----------------------< br>Student: Marina Telegina.
Form: 11 "B"
Teacher: Solodkov VV

Angarsk, 2002