Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a renowned Russian novelist, historian, and dissident. He was born on December 11, 1918, in Kislovodsk, RFSR, which is now Stavropol Krai, Russia. Solzhenitsyn was raised by his aunt and widowed mother in poverty, after his father died in a hunting accident before he was born.

Solzhenitsyn is best known for his works that exposed the brutality of the Soviet Union's labor camp system. His writing, including "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (1962) and "The Gulag Archipelago" (1973-1975), helped to raise global awareness of the forced Gulag. These works, along with others such as "Cancer Ward" (1968) and "August 1914" (1971), earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 for their ethical force and their pursuit of Russian literary traditions. Solzhenitsyn's outspoken criticism of the Soviet Union's totalitarian regime made it difficult for him to publish his work within the country, and he was eventually expelled in 1974. He returned to Russia in 1994, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Solzhenitsyn was not only a writer but also a historian and a dramatist, who raised awareness of the political repression that took place in the USSR in his time. In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature. His works have been translated into many languages, and he is considered one of the most important Soviet dissidents of all time.