About the life and work of Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn Alexander: short biography

Introduction

Chapter 1 A. I. Solzhenitsyn. Creative path

1.1 Analysis literary works…………………………...6

1.2 “In the first circle”……………………………………………..31

1.3 Solzhenitsyn’s system of creative coordinates – “The Gulag Archipelago” ………………………………………………………54

1.4 One day of a prisoner and the history of the country……………………………75

Chapter 2 Solzhenitsyn's Vladimir page

2.1 “A village is not worthwhile without a righteous man”……………………………….93

2.2 Cancer building……………………...………………………….93

2.3 Solzhenitsyn and I…………………………………………….109

Conclusion…………………………………………………………….114

References………………………………………………………120

Introduction

Solzhenitsyn's creativity lately took his rightful place in history Russian literature 20th century. Modern followers of Solzhenitsyn’s work pay more attention, in my opinion, to political, philosophical, historical aspects. Just touching artistic features works, much remains beyond the attention of criticism.

But the books of A.I. Solzhenitsyn are the history of the emergence, growth and existence of the Gulag Archipelago, which became the personification of the tragedy of Russia in the 20th century. Inseparable from the depiction of the tragedy of the country and people is the theme of human suffering, which runs through all the works. The peculiarity of Solzhenitsyn’s book is that the author shows “man’s resistance to the power of evil...”

Every word is both precise and true. The heroes of the works are so wise. Solzhenitsyn returned to literature a hero who combined patience, rationality, prudent dexterity, and the ability to adapt to inhuman conditions, without losing face, a wise understanding of both the right and the wrong, the habit of thinking intensely “about time and about yourself.”

Since 1914, a “terrible choice” begins for “our whole land.” “... And one revolution. And another revolution. And the whole world turned upside down." This is where the beginning of the collapse in all of Russia lies. From here came unrequited meekness, wild embitterment, greed, and strong and happy kindness. “There are two mysteries in the world: how I was born, I don’t remember; how I will die, I don’t know.” And between this there is a whole life. Solzhenitsyn's heroes are examples of a heart of gold. Type popular celebration, which Solzhenitsyn poetizes, is the basis and support of our entire land. Solzhenitsyn stood up for the true rabble, fighters who are not inclined to come to terms with injustice and evil: “Without them, the village would not stand. Neither the people. Neither the whole land is ours.”

My goal thesis– identify features artistic research the writer’s life, the range of Solzhenitsyn’s ideological and artistic quests. This is the most difficult and important question to understand the tasks that the author has set for himself.

A great writer is always a controversial figure. So in Solzhenitsyn’s work it is difficult to understand and realize, to accept everything unconditionally, at once.

Solzhenitsyn. A man who fought along the fronts of the Great Patriotic War and was arrested at the end as a traitor to the Motherland. Prisons, camps, exile and the first rehabilitation in 1957. Deadly disease– cancer – and miraculous healing. Widely known during the “thaw” years and kept quiet during the period of stagnation. Nobel Prize in Literature and exclusion from the Writers' Union, world fame and expulsion from the USSR... What does Solzhenitsyn mean for our literature, for society? I ask myself this question and think about the answer... I believe that the number one writer in the world now is Solzhenitsyn, and the pinnacle of Russian short fiction is, in my opinion, “ Matrenin Dvor" Although its entry into literature is usually associated with “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” This story was featured on Lenin Prize. “Ivan Denisovich” became a revelation for everyone. This was the opening of the camp theme.

"Matrenin's Dvor" became a revelation for me. No, before that Ovechkin, Abramov, Soloukhin worked...

Nosov’s stories and Belov’s “The Village of Berdyayka” had already been written earlier. There was a foundation for village prose. But the starting point is “Matrenin’s Dvor”. Our village prose left Matrenina Dvor. The matter finally touched upon, as in Belov’s “Business as Usual,” a simple and tragic fate. I consider “Business as Usual,” with all the gloss that the critic’s short story on this story is, to be a tragedy of the Russian family and the Russian woman. The tragedy of the rural Russian woman described by Solzhenitsyn is the most concentrated, the most expressive, the most blatant.

And on what an artistic level! And the language?! Solzhenitsyn is a phenomenon of Russian literature, an artist of global scale.

Remaining in love for his Motherland, land, people, Solzhenitsyn at the same time rises to the tragic, terrible moments of our history.

All creative process a writer, in my opinion, is primarily a process of internal struggle and self-improvement. Internal improvement is given, firstly, by enormous knowledge of life, contact great culture, continuous reading of good literature. A writer, if he is a real writer, has always been above life. Always a little ahead, higher. And you should always be able to look back and reflect on time.

How difficult it is for a true artist to create. You must have great courage, nobility and culture - internal culture, - to rise above your grievances.

The presence of Alexander Isaevich in the world, his work, his honor - guiding star. So that we are not completely in a dark corner - we poke around, we don’t bump into logs - he lights our way.

Asceticism, the highest self-denial, when a person is so absorbed in his creative work that everything earthly disappears.

A conscientious artist, simply good writer Solzhenitsyn simply wrote a Russian man with dignity. You can bring him to his knees, but it’s difficult to humiliate him. And by humiliating the common people, any system humiliates itself first of all.

Matryona, Ivan Denisovich are truly Russian people. How stationmaster Pushkin, Maxim Maksimova in “Hero of Our Time”, men and women from “Notes of the Hunter Turgenev”, Tolstoy’s peasants, Dostoevsky’s poor people, Leskov’s devotees of the spirit

.Chapter 1 A. I. Solzhenitsyn. Creative path

1.1Analysis of literary works

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn said in one of his interviews: “I gave almost my entire life to the Russian revolution.”

The task of testifying to the hidden tragic turns of Russian history led to the need to search for and understand their origins. They are seen precisely in the Russian revolution. “As a writer, I am really put in the position of speaking for the dead, but not only in the camps, but for those who died in Russian revolution“, - this is how Solzhenitsyn outlined the task of his life in an interview in 1983. “I have been working on a book about the revolution for 47 years, but in the course of working on it I discovered that the Russian year of 1917 was a rapid, as if compressed, outline of the world history of the 20th century. That is, literally: the eight months that passed from February to October 1917 in Russia, then furiously scrolled, are then slowly repeated by the whole world throughout the entire century. IN recent years“When I have already finished several volumes, I am surprised to see that in some indirect way I was also writing the history of the Twentieth Century” (Publicism, vol. 3, p. 142).

A witness and participant in Russian history of the 20th century. Solzhenitsyn himself was there. Graduation from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University and entry into adult life happened in 1941. On June 22, having received his diploma, he comes for exams at the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy, Literature (MIFLI), where he had studied correspondence courses since 1939. The next session falls at the beginning of the war. In October he was mobilized into the army, and soon entered the officer school in Kostroma. In the summer of 1942 - the rank of lieutenant, and at the end - the front: Solzhenitsyn commanded a sound battery in artillery reconnaissance. Solzhenitsyn's military experience and the work of his sound battery are reflected in his military prose late 90s (two-part story “Zhelyabug settlements” and story “Adlig Schvenkitten” - “ New world" 1999. No. 3). As an artillery officer, he travels from Orel to East Prussia and is awarded orders. Miraculously, he finds himself in the very places of East Prussia where the army of General Samsonov passed. Tragic episode 1914 - the Samson disaster - becomes the subject of the image in the first “Knot” of the “Earth Wheel” - in “August the Fourteenth”. On February 9, 1945, Captain Solzhenitsyn was arrested at the command post of his superior, General Travkin, who, a year after his arrest, gave his former officer characterization, where he will remember, without fear, all his achievements - including the night withdrawal from the encirclement of the battery in January 1945, when the fighting was already going on in Prussia. After the arrest - camps: in New Jerusalem, in Moscow at the Kaluga outpost, in special prison No. 16 in the northern suburbs of Moscow (the same famous Marfinsk sharashka described in the novel “In the First Circle”, 1955-1968). Since 1949 - camp in Ekibastuz (Kazakhstan). Since 1953, Solzhenitsyn has been an “eternal exiled settler” in a remote village in the Dzhambul region, on the edge of the desert. In 1957 - rehabilitation and rural school in the village of Torfo-product not far from Ryazan, where he teaches and rents a room from Matryona Zakharova, who became the prototype of the famous hostess of “Matryona’s Yard” (1959). In 1959, Solzhenitsyn “in one gulp”, over the course of three weeks, created a revised, “lightened” version of the story “Shch-854”, which, after much trouble, A.T. Tvardovsky and with the blessing of N.S. himself. Khrushchev was published in “New World” (1962. No. 11) under the title “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.”

By the time of his first publication, Solzhenitsyn had serious writing experience behind him - about a decade and a half: “For twelve years I calmly wrote and wrote. Only on the thirteenth did he falter. It was the summer of 1960. From writing many things - both with their complete hopelessness and complete obscurity - I began to feel overwhelmed, I lost the lightness of concept and movement. In the literary underground, I began to run out of air,” Solzhenitsyn wrote in his autobiographical book “A Calf Butted an Oak Tree.” It was in the literary underground that the novels “In the First Circle,” several plays, and the film script “Tanks Know the Truth!” were created. about the suppression of the Ekibastuz prisoner uprising, work began on “The Gulag Archipelago”, Evmyslen wrote a novel about the Russian revolution, codenamed “R-17”, which was embodied decades later in the epic “The Red Wheel”.

The work of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, whose biography will be presented to your attention in the article, can be treated in completely different ways, but it is worth unambiguously recognizing his significant contribution to Russian literature. In addition, Solzhenitsyn was also a fairly popular public figure. For his handwritten work “The Gulag Archipelago” the writer became Nobel laureate, which is a direct confirmation of how fundamental this work of his has become. Briefly, read on for the most important things from Solzhenitsyn’s biography.

Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk into a relatively poor family. This happened significant event December 11, 1918. His father was a peasant, and his mother was a Cossack. Due to the extremely difficult financial situation future writer together with his parents in 1924 he was forced to move to Rostov-on-Don. And since 1926, he began studying at one of the local schools.

Having successfully completed his studies at high school, Solzhenitsyn entered Rostov University in 1936. Here he is studying at the Faculty of Physics and Metallurgy, but at the same time he does not forget to actively engage in literature - the main calling of his whole life.

Solzhenitsyn graduated from University in 1941 and received a diploma of higher education with honors. But before that, in 1939, he also entered the Faculty of Literature at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy. Solzhenitsyn was supposed to study here by correspondence, but his plans were interrupted by the Great Patriotic War, in which Soviet Union joined in 1941.

And in Solzhenitsyn’s personal life, changes took place during this period: in 1940, the writer married N.A. Reshetovskaya.

Difficult war years

Even taking into account his poor health, Solzhenitsyn strove with all his might to go to the front to protect his country from fascist takeover. Once at the front, he serves in the 74th transport and horse-drawn battalion. In 1942 he was sent to study at military school, after which he received the rank of lieutenant.

Already in 1943, thanks to his military rank, Solzhenitsyn was appointed commander of a specialized battery engaged in sound reconnaissance. Conducting his service conscientiously, the writer earned honorable awards for him - the Order of the Red Star and the Order Patriotic War 2nd degree. During the same period, he was assigned the next military rank- senior lieutenant.

Political position and difficulties associated with it

Solzhenitsyn was not afraid to criticize openly without hiding his own political position. And this is even despite the fact that totalitarianism at that time flourished so fiercely throughout the entire USSR. This could be read, for example, in letters that the writer addressed to Vitkevich, his friend. In them, he zealously condemned the entire ideology of Leninism, which he considered distorted. And for these actions he paid with his own freedom, ending up in camps for 8 years. But he didn’t waste any time in prison. Here he wrote such famous literary works as “The Tanks Know the Truth”, “In the First Circle”, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “Love the Revolution”.

Health situation

In 1952, shortly before his release from the camps, Solzhenitsyn experienced health difficulties - he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. In this regard, the question arose about the operation, which doctors successfully performed on February 12, 1952.

Life after prison

Brief biography Alexander Solzhenitsyn contains information that on February 13, 1953, he left the camp, having served a prison sentence for criticizing the authorities. It was then that he was sent to Kazakhstan, to the Dzhambul region. The village where the writer settled was called Berlik. Here he got a job as a teacher and taught mathematics and physics at a high school.

In January 1954, he came to Tashkent for treatment in a special cancer ward. Here, doctors carried out radiation therapy, which gave the writer faith in the success of the fight against a terrible fatal disease. And indeed, a miracle happened - in March 1954, Solzhenitsyn felt much better and was discharged from the clinic.

But the situation with the disease remained in his memory for the rest of his life. In the story “Cancer Ward,” the writer describes in detail the situation with his unusual healing. Here he makes it clear to the reader that he was helped in difficult life situation faith in God, the dedication of doctors, as well as the inexhaustible desire to desperately fight for own life.

Ultimate rehabilitation

Solzhenitsyn was finally rehabilitated by the communist state regime only in 1957. In July of the same year he becomes completely a free man and no longer fears various persecutions and oppressions. For his criticism, he received full hardships from the USSR authorities, but this did not completely break his spirit and did not in any way affect his subsequent work.

It was during this period that the writer moved to Ryazan. There he successfully gets a job at a school and teaches astronomy to children. School teacher- this is a profession for Solzhenitsyn that did not limit his ability to do what he loved - literature.

New conflict with the authorities

While working at the Ryazan school, Solzhenitsyn actively expressed his thoughts and views on life in numerous literary works. However, in 1965, new trials await him - the KGB seizes the entire archive of the writer’s manuscripts. Now he is already prohibited from creating further literary masterpieces, which is a disastrous punishment for any writer.

But Solzhenitsyn does not give up and is trying with all his might to correct the current situation during this period. For example, in 1967 he sets out in an open letter addressed to the Congress Soviet writers, own position on what is presented in the works.

But this action produced a negative effect that turned against the famous writer and historian. The fact is that in 1969 Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR. A year earlier, in 1968, he finished writing the book “The Gulag Archipelago”, which made him popular throughout the world. It was published in mass circulation only in 1974. It was then that the public was able to familiarize themselves with the work, since for wide range Until now, it remained inaccessible to readers. And this fact only happened when the writer lived outside his country. The book was first published not in the author’s homeland, but in the capital of France - Paris.

Main stages and features of life abroad

Solzhenitsyn did not return to live in his homeland for quite a long time, since, probably, deep down in his soul he was very offended by it for all the repressions and hardships that he had to experience in the USSR. In the period from 1975 to 1994, the writer managed to visit many countries of the world. In particular, he successfully visited Spain, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada and the USA. The very wide geography of his travels greatly contributed to the popularization of the writer among the broad masses of readers in these countries.

Even the shortest biography of Solzhenitsyn contains information that in Russia “The Gulag Archipelago” was published only in 1989, shortly before the final collapse of the USSR empire. This happened in the magazine “New World”. It is also published there famous story"Matrenin's yard"

Return to homeland and a new creative impulse

Only after the USSR collapsed did Solzhenitsyn decide to return to his homeland. This happened in 1994. In Russia, the writer is working on his new works, completely devoting himself to his beloved work. And in 2006 and 2007, entire volumes of all Solzhenitsyn’s collections were published in modern binding. In total, this literary collection contains 30 volumes.

Death of a writer

Solzhenitsyn died already in old age, having lived quite difficult life, filled with many different difficulties and hardships. This sad event happened on May 3, 2008. The cause of death was heart failure.

Literally until his last breath, Solzhenitsyn remained true to himself and constantly created new literary masterpieces, which are highly valued in many countries around the world. Probably, our descendants will also appreciate everything that is bright and righteous that the writer wanted to convey to them.

Little known facts

Now you know a short biography of Solzhenitsyn. It's time to highlight some little-known, but no less interesting facts. Of course, the entire life of such a world-famous writer can hardly go unnoticed by his admirers. After all, Solzhenitsyn’s fate is very diverse and unusual in its essence, perhaps even tragic in some places. And during his illness with cancer, for a certain period of time he was only a hair's breadth away from premature death.

By mistake in world literature entered with the erroneous patronymic “Isaevich”. The real middle name sounds a little different - Isaakievich. An error occurred when filling out Solzhenitsyn's passport page.
IN junior classes Solzhenitsyn was ridiculed by his peers simply because he wore a cross around his neck and attended church services.
In the camp the writer developed unique method memorizing texts using rosary beads. Thanks to the fact that he fingered this object in his hands, Solzhenitsyn was able to preserve in his own memory the most important points, which he then fully reflected in his own literary works.
In 1998, he was awarded the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, but unexpectedly for everyone, he nobly refused this sign of recognition, motivating his action by the fact that he could not accept the order from the Russian authorities, which had led the country to its current sad state of development.
The writer called Stalin a “godfather” while distorting “Leninist norms.” Joseph Vissarionovich clearly did not like this term, which contributed to the inevitable further arrest of Solzhenitsyn.
At the university, the writer wrote many poems. They were included in a special “Poetry Collection”, which was published in 1974. The publication of this book was undertaken by the publishing organization "Imka-Press", which actively worked in exile.
Beloved literary form Alexander Isaevich's story "Polyphonic Novel" should be considered.
There is a street that was renamed in honor of Solzhenitsyn.

The long life of Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), his selfless service to Russian literature, huge talent and his rare diligence, his consistent defense of humanistic ideals and his ardent love for Russia and its people made the work of this writer one of the most original, large and noticeable phenomena of Russian and world literature of the second half of the 20th century, and this recognition resulted in the award of the Nobel Prize to the writer in literature (1970), deprivation of Soviet citizenship and expulsion 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 officer school he became an artillery officer, during the war years he traveled from Orel to East Prussia, receiving military awards and the rank of captain. And on February 9, 1945, he was arrested: his “seditious” statements about Stalin were discovered 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 for the heroine of the story “Matryona’s Dvor” (1959). In the same year, in three weeks he wrote the story “Shch-854 (One Day of One Prisoner),” which, when published in the magazine “New World” (1962), was called “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 was working a lot and fruitfully in literature: he began the novels “In the First Circle” (1955-68), “The Gulag Archipelago” (1958-68 ), several stories have been written. By the time of his debut in literature, Solzhenitsyn, who by this time had gone through a large and difficult school of life, was a mature, 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 larger historical novel"R - 17" (1964), which in the process of work turned into the historical epic "The Red Wheel". However, the attitude of the authorities towards the writer in the 60s was already sharply negative, therefore large works Solzhenitsyn was published abroad: in 1968 the novels “Cancer Ward” and “In the First Circle” were published, and in 1971 (after the author was expelled from the Writers’ Union in November 1969 and awarded 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 "The Red Wheel".

After the publication of the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago in Paris in 1973, the leaders of the USSR tried to “solve the problem” of Solzhenitsyn using the usual means: in February of the following year he was arrested and imprisoned in Lefortovo prison, from where he probably 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. At first Solzhenitsyn and his family settled in Zurich; in 1975 he published autobiographical book memoirs "A calf butted with an oak tree", in which he tells the story of his literary life, gives a picture of literary life in the USSR in the 60s and 70s. Since 1976, the writer’s family settled in the USA, in the state of Vermont, where he continues to be very active creative activity, is engaged historical research, the results of which are artistic form are embodied in the “nodes” of the epic “The 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 writer was returned to USSR citizenship, and in 1990, the novels “In the First Circle” and “Cancer Ward” were published in the New World magazine. The following year, the New World Publishing Center, together with the author, prepared a Small Collected Works of the writer in 7 volumes, published in a circulation of one million copies. It included the above-mentioned novels, a volume of short stories, and “The Gulag Archipelago.” Thus, the writer’s works were returned to his homeland, and he himself returned to Russia in 1994.

Researchers of the writer’s work, determining his contribution to the development of Russian literature, identify three central motives of his work, in the development of which he achieved highest altitudes. These motives are conventionally named by them as follows: “Russian national character; history of Russia of the 20th century; politics in the life of a person and a nation in our century." The peculiarity of the disclosure of these motives in the writer’s work is Solzhenitsyn’s extreme subjectivity; he does not correlate his point of view with generally accepted ones, being in this regard self-sufficient creative personality who has his right to see the world as he sees it. Another thing is that his view of history, his worldly wisdom, his talent as a writer make his work a very significant phenomenon of literary and cultural life, which cannot be unambiguously perceived by everyone, but in its own artistic creativity(in contrast to journalism and speeches of a socio-political nature), he remains a writer open to a dialogical perception of the works he created.

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was born on December 11, 1918 in the city of Kislovodsk in the family of a peasant and a Cossack woman. Alexander's poor family moved to Rostov-on-Don in 1924. Since 1926, the future writer studied at a local school. At this time he created 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 the war he was unable to graduate.

World War II

Despite his poor health, Solzhenitsyn strove to go to 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 commander of a sound reconnaissance battery. For military services, Alexander Isaevich was awarded two honorary orders, received the rank of senior lieutenant, and then captain. During this period, Solzhenitsyn did not stop writing and kept a diary.

Conclusion and link

Alexander Isaevich was critical of Stalin's policies, and in his letters to his friend Vitkevich 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 are reflected in literary creativity Solzhenitsyn: in the works “Love the Revolution”, “In the First Circle”, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, “Tanks Know the Truth”, etc.

Conflicts with 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 prohibited from publishing his works. In 1967, Alexander Isaevich writes open letter Congress of Soviet Writers, after which the authorities begin to perceive him as a serious opponent.

In 1968, Solzhenitsyn completed work on the work “The Gulag Archipelago”; “In the First Circle” and “Cancer Ward” were published abroad.

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

Life abroad. Recent years

From 1975 to 1994, the writer visited Germany, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, France, Great Britain, and Spain. In 1989, “The Gulag Archipelago” was first published in Russia in the magazine “New World”, and soon the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” was also published in the magazine.

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

Date when it broke off difficult fate great writer, became 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. The writer has three from his second marriage talented sons- Ermolai, Ignat and Stepan Solzhenitsyn.
In a brief biography of Solzhenitsyn, one cannot fail to mention that he was awarded more than twenty honorary awards, including the Nobel Prize for his work “The Gulag Archipelago.”
Literary critics often call Solzhenitsyn the Dostoevsky or Tolstoy of our era.
At the writer’s grave there is a stone cross created according to the design of the sculptor D. M. Shakhovsky.

Developed by:

Literature teacher

Zubritskaya T.A.

TOPIC: ALEXANDER ISAEVICH SOLZHENITSYN

1918 – 2008

Essay on life and work

TARGET: To arouse interest in the personality and work of A.I. Solzhenitsyn, who has become a symbol of openness, will and Russian directness; show the significance of Solzhenitsyn’s figure in literature, give a brief overview of his works; bring students to understanding tragic fate person in a totalitarian state.

EQUIPMENT: d/f “A. Solzhenitsyn. Lightning strikes a tall tree"; d/f “Perhaps my goal is incomprehensible. A. Solzhenitsyn"; photographs of the writer and his family; exhibition of Solzhenitsyn's books; photographs of the Solovetsky camp; on the table there is a piece of barbed wire.

EPIGRAPH: “Solzhenitsyn became the oxygen of our breathless time. And if our society, literature, above all, still breathe, it is because Solzhenitsyn’s bellows are working, pumping air into a suffocating, godless Russia that has almost lost itself.”

V. Astafiev

PROGRESS OF THE LESSON

Teacher :

Over the course of several lessons, we have been studying the so-called “camp prose.” We have already met one representative of this phenomenon in literature - we have studied the work of Varlaam Tikhonovich Shalamov.

The topic of our lesson today is “Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn. Essay on life and creativity."

Purpose of the lesson: get acquainted with the life of A.I. Solzhenitsyn, with his rich biography; give a brief overview of his work.

And at the beginning I want to show you one item. I think you will understand well why I chose this particular object as the symbol of our lesson.

* Demonstration of barbed wire

There are pieces of paper with a table on your tables. During the lesson, you carefully monitor everything that will happen here and gradually fill out this table. Sign the leaves. At the end of the lesson you submit these works for assessment.

*Epigraph

Who is he, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn?Mentor, prophet or intercessor? Why was he seen either as the savior of the Fatherland, or as an enemy of the people, or as a preservative of the “dead?” literary traditions”, either a destroyer of the foundations of artistry, or a teacher of life?..

None of these “roles” suit him. Alexander Solzhenitsyn is an outstanding Russian writer, publicist and public figure. His name became known in literature in the 60s of the twentieth century, during the “ Khrushchev's thaw", then disappeared for many years.

He, Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, dared to tell the truth about the terrible Stalinist time, to create works about camp life, works that made the author wildly popular.

The stories “Matrenin’s Dvor”, “For the Good of the Cause”, the novel “In the First Circle”, the story “Cancer Ward” aroused the anger of “domestic literary officials” and ... brought to the author world fame. And in 1970, A.I. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. It seemed that justice had prevailed.

... But on one of the February days of 1974 (in connection with the release of the 1st volume of the book “The Gulag Archipelago”) Solzhenitsyn was forcibly expelled from Russia. A plane carrying a single passenger landed in the German city of Frankfurt am Main.

Solzhenitsyn was 55 years old.

What is known about him?

Student (message 1):

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was born in 1918 in Kislovodsk.

On his father's side, Solzhenitsyn came from an old peasant family in the North Caucasus. Father Isaac Semenovich studied in Kharkov, then in Moscow, fought in the first world war, was awarded the St. George Cross. His life ended tragically a few months before the birth of his son.

Mother Taisiya Zakharovna Shcherbak, the daughter of a wealthy farmer in the Kuban, received an excellent upbringing and education: she studied in Moscow at the agricultural courses of Princess Golitsyna, knew European languages.

In 1924, Taisiya Zakharovna and her six-year-old son moved to Rostov-on-Don. At school young Alexander Solzhenitsyn is the head of the class, a desperate football player, a theater fan and a member of the school drama club.

Teacher :

According to Alexander Isaevich himself, his mother worked during the day and also worked part-time in the evening. She worked exhaustingly hard because she had to feed her family. There was no father. Father died while hunting strange circumstances(they hardly talked about this in the family). There was terrible poverty. Solzhenitsyn did not know male education at all. He received a male education later: on campaigns, at the front, in the camp.

Student (message 2):

Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn is a most educated person. He graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Rostov University. He studied in absentia at the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy and Literature, taught astronomy and mathematics in one of the schools in the city of Morozovsk (not far from Rostov).

In 1941, Solzhenitsyn became a soldier, then a cadet at an officer school in the city of Kostroma.

He traveled along front-line roads from Orel to East Prussia.

This is the “combat characteristic” that General Travkin gave to the commander of the “sound battery” Solzhenitsyn: “... Solzhenitsyn was personally disciplined, demanding... Carrying out combat missions, he repeatedly showed personal heroism, carrying his personnel along with him, and always emerged victorious from mortal dangers.”

For his courage (after the capture of Orel), Solzhenitsyn received the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree. The Order of the Red Star (after the capture of Bobruisk) is the second front-line award.

And suddenly... arrest, eight years in cordoned off barbed wire camps of the sinister “GULAG archipelago”. (Solzhenitsyn came under the supervision of military counterintelligence for corresponding with his youth friend Nikolai Vitkevich). Fate decreed that the future writer went through all the “circles of prison hell” and witnessed the uprising of prisoners in Ekibastuz. Exiled to Kazakhstan “forever”, having composed several works (in his head), and planning a huge novel about Russia, Solzhenitsyn suddenly learned that he was terminally ill.

Teacher :

All his writings in Ekibastuz are small balls of paper, these are tiny squares on which something is written. These are flattened phrases, without surnames, without names, with dashes - these are abbreviated phrases. Only he can decipher them; no one else can understand what these records are. For the first time in the history of literature, there is such a phenomenal case when literature is created in the following sequence: compose in the mind - remember - in some short moments, when there is a stub of a pencil and there is a piece of paper - write it down on a piece of paper - learn it - and burn it. It's impossible to imagine. This is beyond comprehension.

In the winter of 1952, Solzhenitsyn felt that the tumor with which he went through the entire war was growing by leaps and bounds. It is already the size of a large man's fist. Solzhenitsyn understands that something needs to be done. He goes to the medical unit, where they recommend urgent surgery. And then events occur that are now simply shocking. A prisoner like him is preparing Solzhenitsyn for the operation. On the eve of the operation, this prisoner is sent to a prison camp. Another doctor is sent from another camp - a German. As a result, this camp doctor operated on Solzhenitsyn for a malignant tumor in the groin. A week has passed since the operation. Solzhenitsyn gets up for the first time after this operation, walks very hard to the window, overcoming severe pain. He comes to the window and sees new stage, and his doctor stands with a backpack on the stage. This was in March. The struggle for life did not end there. By autumn he begins to feel bad again. Soon a cancerous tumor was discovered in the stomach.“That winter I arrived in Tashkent almost dead. That's why I came here - to die. And they brought me back to live some more.”, Solzhenitsyn wrote in the story “ Right hand" And the disease subsided.

Subsequently, Solzhenitsyn admitted that he was sure:“While I’m writing, I’m on a reprieve.”ABOUT literary debut will tell...

Student (message 3):

When the writer was well over forty, the magazine “New World” (1962) published the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” which immediately became a classic of “camp” prose. Original title story “Shch-854 (One Day of One Prisoner)”.

A.T. Tvardovsky (at that time editor-in-chief magazine “New World”) wrote: “The life material underlying A. Solzhenitsyn’s story is unusual... It carries an echo of those painful phenomena in our development associated with the period of the debunked cult of personality...”

A. Tvardovsky highly appreciated the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”: “This is not a document in the memoir sense, not notes or memories of the author’s personal experiences... This is a work of art, and because of this artistic lighting of this vital material, it is evidence of “special value, a document of art.”

This “document of art” was written in just over a month.

“The image of Ivan Denisovich was formed from the soldier Shukhov, who fought with the author in the Soviet-German war (and never went to prison), the general experience of prisoners and personal experience author in the Special Camp. The remaining persons are all from camp life, with their authentic biographies” (P. Palamarchuk).

Teacher : A short period of recognition and publication follows. Gradually, the so-called writing world begins to be irritated by Solzhenitsyn’s works. It is writers, it is Moscow writers who initiate the persecution of Solzhenitsyn. If he can do what he does, if he can say what he says, if he can write what he writes, then what position does he put us in - writers who are silent about it.

It comes to the point that in 1967 Sholokhov demanded that the Writers' Union prohibit Solzhenitsyn from writing, prohibit him from touching the pen. As a result, in 1967, Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Writers' Union.

His opposition, his courage, his resilience, his unbridled desire to defend his right to write brings him Nobel Prize. It is interesting that he learned about the existence of this prize while he was a prisoner in Ekibastuz. One of the prisoners simply told Solzhenitsyn that there was such a prize that Bunin received it. And Solzhenitsyn thought completely abstractly in 1951: “If only I could get it!” And in 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. I had to go after her. This means we won’t be able to return to Russia after this. And Solzhenitsyn makes the choice not to go for this award.

And when in 1974, after the publication of the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago, the writer was forcibly expelled from the country while in Switzerland, Solzhenitsyn still received the Nobel Prize.

* Excerpt from the documentary “A. Solzhenitsyn. Lightning strikes a tall tree" (1 minute - about the Nobel Prize)

Teacher : Period of exile. Solzhenitsyn lived in Switzerland for six years and then moved to the USA. There he settled in a quiet place called Vermont. Intense work was underway on the epic “The Red Wheel”. Solzhenitsyn decided to write this work in his youth, as a first-year student. He wanted to write the same grandiose work as Leo Tolstoy, only not about the War of 1812, but about an event that happened recently - a novel about the 1917 revolution. While working on this work, Solzhenitsyn studied a lot of different things. additional material. For each day of the revolution, he read 15 newspapers, Moscow and St. Petersburg, in order to have a complete picture.

Solzhenitsyn lived abroad for 20 years. His wife was always by his side, who was not just a wife, but also a reliable friend and ally. And now we will give the floor... He will talk about the writer’s family.

Student (message 4):

The Solzhenitsyn family is an exception to the unspoken rule that great success a person needs to pay by sacrificing personal life. Alexander Isaevich was happy in his family. Together with his wife, despite all the difficulties and adversities, he managed to build a prosperous family nest, raise children in such a way that each of them is proud of the legendary surname and cares about its prestige. Solzhenitsyn has three sons, who were given primordially Russian old names: Ermolai, Ignat and Stepan.

The leader in the writer’s family was always Alexander Isaevich’s wife Natalya Dmitrievna, who supported the house. The head of the family worked a lot - 15 hours a day, but tried to find time to communicate with the children.

IN family tradition There were evening readings aloud. Moreover, dad read to his sons not fairy tales, but “The Gulag Archipelago” and other works. He did not believe that his boys needed to be coddled and coddled, but from an early age he taught them to be independent, so that they would grow up self-confident and have their own point of view. Moreover, according to the writer’s wife, “Archipelago” does not cause despair when read, on the contrary, it teaches masculinity.

By the age of five, the writer’s sons all knew how to read. And the average Ignat learned to read at the age of three and a half, at the age of eight he “swallowed” 12 volumes of Dumas plus all the commentaries, which occupied almost a quarter of the collected works...

Three brothers grew up in emigration conditions - their parents were forced to leave for Vermont, where the children studied native language according to... poems! Natalya Dmitrievna noticed that the boys easily memorized quatrains, and gave them daily tasks to learn poetry. My sons have excellent memory now.

Each of the sons does not want to bask in the glory of the great father and does not consider himself a genius. Everyone is not lost in this life, but has chosen their own path.

The elder Ermolai and the younger Stepan returned to Russia; both brothers are engaged in business in Moscow. Middle Ignat remained to live in America, he is a man art, is the chief conductor Chamber orchestra Philadelphia is still considered one of the most sought-after musicians today.

Photos of the writer’s wife, sons and grandchildren from the family archive

Teacher : In 1994, Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after 20 years of emigration. Moreover, he decided to do this from the East. He flew to Magadan, and from there went to Moscow, passing through all of Russia.

Excerpt from the documentary “Alexander Solzhenitsyn” NTV (4, 54 min)

Teacher : Life in new Russia turned out to be similar to being a recluse in Vermont. He exchanged the silence of the American forest for the silence of the Moscow region - in Trinity-Lykovo. In recent years, the writer has avoided public life.

I would like to reveal another side of the life of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. We have a message about charitable activities writer.

Student (message 5):

In recent years, the writer led a rather closed life, but at the same time took an active part in social activities. He was primarily interested not in the well-fed capital, but in the “pulse of life” common people from the periphery. Here's what he spent money on from his own pocket:

Awarded annually Literary Prize Alexander Solzhenitsyn, which, unlike other non-state prizes in Russia, is financed from family budget writer at the expense of his worldwide royalties for The Gulag Archipelago. The material amount of the award is $25,000. Two or three people a year are awarded it.
Every year he financially helped thousands of prisoners.
He donated $150 thousand a year to buy books for provincial libraries.
He allocated funds for anniversaries of victims of political repression and other events.

Teacher : Alexander Solzhenitsyn died in August 2008, just a few months shy of his 90th birthday.

Now you will work independently with literature anthologies. Read short article about Solzhenitsyn's life and fill in the remaining columns in your table. Time is limited.

* Reader on literature. Part 2.

Teacher :

In an interview while still in exile, Solzhenitsyn admitted that he would like to finish The Red Wheel in time, that he would like to return to Russia alive, and not just in the form of books. He succeeded... He returned. Finished his life's work. He published a 30-volume collected works.

His personality will most likely not be perceived unambiguously in our country for a long time. For everyone, and especially for the authorities, he was a difficult and discordant interlocutor. Such a person could not live a life other than one of trials... together with the country, whose chronicle of misfortunes he had to write.

I would like to end our lesson with the words of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn himself (this is the motto of his entire life):“Do not participate in lies, do not support false actions! Let this come into the world and even reign in the world, but not through me!”

Homework:

Submit completed tables for verification (Dates: 1918, 1924, 1952,1962. 1965, 1970, 1974, 1994, 2008)